Singapore-based Mercantile & Maritime Group has appointed a former investment banker as its new chief financial officer.
Sergey Geller is stepping into the role after joining the company in the autumn of last year as head of Russia and central and Eastern Europe.
Geller is said to have over 15 years of corporate and investment banking experience starting out at Dutch bank ABN Amro before moving to Bank of America Merrill Lynch in London and New York.
He has also had a stint as chief financial officer at DTEK, the largest private Ukrainian energy company, where he was responsible for corporate finance, group and operating-level corporate strategy, capital raising and international partnerships.
He takes over the CFO role at Mercantile & Maritime Group from Vincent Lecadre, who remains with the group as a board member and head of banking relationships.
Commenting on the appointment, group chief executive Murtaza Lakhani said Geller's deep knowledge and experience would be a “valuable asset to our operations”.
In December last year, the company unveiled a new senior shipping team following the departure of two executives earlier in 2020.
Industry veteran Toby Forrest was named as the new managing director of shipping, while Brian Robbins joined as chartering manager and Irfaan Hashmi as shipping manager.
Prior to joining Mercantile & Maritime, Forrest served as director LNG for Maersk Broker Asia and as general manager marine for Rio Tinto Shipping (Asia).
The company said he has also worked for Citi, Reliance Industries, Koch Industries and Vitol after beginning his career with BP.
Robbins joined the company after 20 years with Shell Trading and Shipping, where he most recently served as charterer and freight trader.
Mercantile & Maritime trades clean and dirty cargoes in the Mediterranean, Black Sea and UK markets. It trades with oil majors such as BP, ExxonMobil, Total and Chevron, as well as with other traders.
In September 2020, TradeWinds reported that Mercantile & Maritime had entered four chartered-in product tankers into the Scorpio Tankers' Handymax Pool.
