John Carroll has been named vice-president, trading and risk management, effective June 1, and Kyle Egbert has been appointed vice-president of finance, effective July 10.

Carroll joins Ceres from Guardian Energy Management, a privately-held, mid-sized ethanol processing company, where he was the director of commodity risk management. Previously, he spent more than 20 years at Cargill and Black River, where he held many different roles within the grain and oilseeds, natural gas, and thermal energy supply chain business units.  Carroll is a graduate of Yale University and the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management.

“I’m very pleased to welcome John to our company,” said Robert Day, chief executive officer of Ceres Global Ag. “His extensive trading and merchandizing experience across agriculture and energy sectors ensures that we have the skill set needed to successfully execute on our growth strategy. John’s maturity and leadership are exactly what the company needs to develop our team of young and talented traders and merchandizers.”

Egbert joins from Royal Dutch Shell where he was the global derivative technical account manager.  Supervising a team in the United States and London, his work entailed analyzing creative and innovative ways to generate value for the trading organization. He also has an extensive working knowledge with compliance and controls.  Egbert has an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin and a master’s degree in accounting from the University of Utah.

“We are very excited about Kyle’s decision to accept this position with Ceres,” Day said. “Kyle’s large company experience and formal training will be extremely valuable as we continue to grow our business.”

Carroll and Egbert will be based at the company’s headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.