NETHERLANDS – The global agricultural and food merchant company, Louis Dreyfus has appointed Kristen Eshak Weldon as head of Food Innovation and Downstream strategy, effective January 1, 2019 and reports to Chief Executive Officer, Ian McIntosh.
Before her appointment to the executive role, Kristen Eshak had spent 13 years in positions of increasing responsibility at Blackstone.
She most recently was as senior managing director (partner) and co-head of the London office for Hedge Fund Solutions.
Weldon was head of commodity strategy and was involved in portfolio management as well as hedge fund manager evaluation, selection and monitoring.
Prior to Blackstone, she worked in commodity and interest rate derivatives at JPMorgan for several years, in London, England, and New York, New York, U.S and also served as founding board member of 100 Women in Finance London Ltd. between 2007 and 2017.
She is a holder of a degree in finance and international business from Georgetown University (U.S.), U.K. and U.S. securities regulatory FCA qualifications.
In addition to pursuing a Sloan Fellowship master’s degree in leadership and strategy at London Business School, Weldon received several awards over the years recognizing leading women in finance.
“I’m very pleased to welcome Kristen to LDC, as the most recent member of our executive group,” McIntosh said.
“She brings a wealth of experience in global asset management and as a strategic adviser, and I am confident that her appointment will contribute to LDC’s successful implementation of our strategic plans and projects to innovate in food and move further downstream, as we strive to meet global demand for food and sustain a growing population.”
The appointment is part of the global merchant firm’s plans to meet the growing global demand for food.
To that end, it is moving further downstream and spreading out its expertise across the supply chain.
Louis Dreyfus, together with ADM, Bunge, Cargill joined hands to put grain trade on blockchain.
