Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has announced the appointment of four new managing directors to the recently created commodities, trade, and carbon (CTC) business of its institutional banking and markets (IB&M) division.
The new additions to the CTC leadership team will report to Alex Toone, EGM CTC as CBA looks to expand its capabilities across commodities finance and trading, trade finance, and carbon markets.
“Our new CTC business enhances our specialisation in these areas and helps us deliver even greater value to our clients by driving our capabilities to the next level,” said Andrew Hinchliff, group executive of IB&M at CBA. “We are delighted to have secured an exceptional range of talent and expertise for the CTC leadership team.”
Martyn Whitehead, former global co-head of commodities sales at Standard Chartered Bank in London, has joined CBA as managing director of commodities. In that role, Whitehead will lead the bank’s strategy for its commodities business with a focus on Australia and New Zealand.
Joe Arena, who was most recently country head of global trade and receivables finance for Australia at HSBC, has been appointed managing director of trade finance, to lead the strategy across CBA’s trade finance, working capital, and supply chain finance business.
Bradley Campbell, former head of commodities trading in Europe at Standard Chartered, has been named managing director of commodities trading. Campbell will join CBA from the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), where he was acting co-head group executive of markets and general manager of equities and commodities.
Yasmina Elshafei, who was most recently an executive director at climate change advisory and investment firm Pollination Group, will join CBA as managing director of global carbon, to oversee the bank’s carbon markets business. Elshafei also served as a senior vice president at Macquarie Capital supporting large-scale infrastructure and renewable energy projects internationally.
“Our clients are navigating a volatile commodity price environment, challenging supply chains and the global transition to a low carbon economy – it’s more important than ever that we have the right skills, capabilities, and people in place to provide the best level of support,” said Alex Toone, CBA’s EGM of CTC. “These appointments reflect the significant growth agenda we have in CTC and the prioritisation of our key focus areas under our revised strategy.”
CTC launched in February this year as part of a focus on embedding climate and digital capabilities in IB&M, ensuring CBA is the domestic partner of choice for risk management and financing in commodities, trade, and carbon markets.
