Our Team

Carlos Paz joined Ceres in January of 2020 as Vice President and Commercial Director and was promoted to President and CEO in August of 2022.  He has over 25 years of experience in a wide variety of leadership, trading, and merchandising roles across North America, Latin America, and Europe, working for companies such as Continental Grain, Cargill, and most recently Freepoint Commodities.  Mr. Paz holds bachelor’s degrees in General Business Management and Agricultural Economics from Kansas State University.

Mr. James Vanasek is a Principal at VN Capital Management, LLC. Prior to forming VN Capital, Mr. Vanasek spent the previous three and a half years working at JPMorgan Chase & Co. Initially, Mr. Vanasek provided restructuring advice during the Asian economic crisis and his work with the Indonesian car company, PT Astra International, helped JPMorgan win Finance Asia’s Restructuring Deal of the Year Award. Upon returning to New York in 1999, he focused on providing leveraged finance to U.S. and Latin American companies in JPMorgan’s Financial Sponsor Coverage and Global Syndicated Finance groups. He is a Director of American Locker Group Inc.and a member of the New York State Bar Association. Mr. Vanasek earned a B.A. degree from Yale University, a J.D. degree from Columbia Law School, and an M.B.A. degree from Columbia Business School.

Mr. Coyle has over 40 years of both domestic and international experience in the industry.  He began his grain industry career with Continental Grain Co., where he eventually became Vice President of Origination responsible for 51 grain facilities for its North American Grain Division in Chicago. During his career with Continental Grain, he also worked as a Facility Manager, Regional Merchandiser, Soybean Trading Manager, Regional Manager, Assistant General Manager, and as Vice President of Marketing and Business Development. Following Continental Grain’s sale to Cargill, he established Nidera’s grain handling business in the US; a business focused on the convergence of cash & futures, which he managed for 18 years until its acquisition by Cofco.  He retired in 2019 as Managing Director North America at Cofco International.

Mr. Coyle is a former Chairman of the National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA), Chairman of the NGFA Risk Committee and was a member of the NGFA Executive Committee for 16 years. He has been a member of each of the regulated futures markets serving US agriculture; Chicago Board of Trade, Minneapolis Grain Exchange, Kansas City Board of Trade, and a member of the CFTC Agriculture Advisory Committee and the CFTC Market Risk Advisory Committee.

Mr. Coyle is a graduate of DePaul University in Chicago and received his MBA from The University of Dayton (Ohio).

Mr. Joel has over 30 years of experience in a range of corporate leadership roles and is currently the Principal of an Infrastructure and Supply Chain Advisory that offers a variety of services to assist clients to build, implement and optimize supply chain, logistics and transportation solutions. From 2003 to 2010, Mr. Joel was Vice President, Logistics for Canadian National Railway. In that role, he led and was accountable for a diverse group of transportation and supply chain services designed to interface with rail and deliver complete supply chain solutions. This group of businesses included warehousing, transloads, bulk commodity distribution terminals, auto handling distribution and accessorization facilities, marine terminals, ships, custom brokerage, freight forwarding and truck brokerage. Prior to joining CN, Mr. Joel held a number of Senior Management positions at Norbord Industries including strategic planning, business development, operations improvement, sales, marketing and logistics. Mr. Joel has a MBA and a HBA in Business Administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business.

David Rotenberg is a Principal at Bixby Bridge Capital, LLC (“Bixby”), a private investor and lender founded in 1992 and headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois, and certain affiliates of Bixby are investors with Ceres’s largest shareholder, VN Capital Fund C, LP. Mr. Rotenberg’s investment portfolio includes commercial real estate, operating businesses, private equity, and secured financings. He also serves as Bixby’s in-house legal counsel and is licensed to practice law in Illinois. Prior to joining Bixby in 2007, Mr. Rotenberg practiced law in Chicago. He received a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 2004 and graduated with honors from Vassar College in 1999.

Mr. Wolkin is an accomplished investment banker and financial analyst with over 40 years of experience. He retired in 2011 from the position of Executive Vice President and Head of Investment Banking with Dundee Capital Markets. Mr. Wolkin also served with BMO Capital Markets for 25 years, holding the position of Managing Director, Diversified Industries. Since 2011, Mr. Wolkin has continued to serve as an independent director on a number of public and private company boards, and non-for-profit organizations. He was a past President of the CFA Society of Toronto, a member of the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute since 1980 and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). Mr. Wolkin received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from York University and a Masters of Arts in Economics and Finance from the University of Toronto. Mr. Wolkin is also a graduate and member of the Institute of Corporate Directors.