Our Team

How We Work With You

Ceres is led by professionals with a depth of experience across commodity, energy and logistics industries and an understanding of what is important to our customers – Collaboration, Precision, Value. From our storage and port facilities to our trading desks and everything in between, we build long-term partnerships across all product segments: agriculture, energy & industrial products, and logistics. We actively partner with our customers and strategic partners to focus on the value add and deliver the right solutions.

“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”

Henry Ford

Meet Our People

Robert Day

President & CEO, Board Member

Robert Day joined Ceres on February 24th, 2015 as Vice President of Trading and Risk Management for the corporation and is now the President and CEO of the Corporation. Prior to that he worked for Cargill, Inc. from 1993 – 2012 and then ED&F Man from 2012 – 2015. While at ED&F Man Mr. Day held the position of Managing Director Asia, based in Singapore and also supported the build-out of their capital markets business in North LATAM. While at Cargill Mr. Day held the positions of Commercial Director Grain & Oilseed Supply Chain, Greater China & Korea 2009 – 2012 (Shenzhen & Shanghai); Managing Director & Commercial Director, Grain & Oilseed Supply Chain Mexico 2004 – 2008 (Mexico City), Project Team Leader & Analyst, Cargill Strategy & Business Development 2000 – 2004 (Minneapolis, MN), and a variety of merchandizing and trading roles in the U.S. and Mexico from 1993 – 1999. Mr. Day has an MBA from St. Thomas University in Minneapolis and a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Minnesota.

Glen Goldman

Vice-President, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary

Glen Goldman joined Ceres on May 22, 2018 as Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary. Prior to joining Ceres, Glen spent 20 years practicing law at Cargill, Incorporated, one of the world’s largest global businesses. While at Cargill, Glen served as senior counsel to a variety of core Cargill businesses, providing strategic legal counseling on a broad array of complex commercial legal matters. Glen began his legal career as an associate in a large Minneapolis law firm, focusing primarily on litigation matters. He holds a J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School and a BA from Macalester College.

Sarah Blomquist

Vice President of Human Resources & Corporate Administration

Sarah Blomquist started her HR career as a Placement Specialist with Kelly Temporary Services after graduating with a BA in Psychology from the University of Minnesota-Morris. She then spent 19 years with Cargill in a variety of HR specialist, generalist, and management roles across many of the company’s functions and businesses, including IT, Legal, poultry products, and energy trading. Since leaving Cargill in 2015, Sarah created her own independent HR consulting and coaching firm and then became the HR Director for the Minnesota Vikings in 2017. She joined Ceres Global Ag in August 2018.

Carlos Paz

Vice President and Commercial Director

Carlos Paz has over 25 years of experience in a wide variety of trading, merchandizing and management 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.

Jay Bierley

Chief Financial Officer

Jay Bierley joined Ceres on April 22, 2020 as Chief Financial Officer. Prior to Ceres, Mr. Bierley was with Bunge where he worked across North America and Asia in regional and global CFO and financial leadership roles for 18 years. He brings a depth of industry experience across key business areas with over 25 years of financial and operational leadership experience across the agribusiness and food value chain with extensive experience working globally in grain origination, processing, trading, merchandising, and distribution. He has an MBA and a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business.

Pat Gathman

Agricultural Operations Director

Dusty Clevenger

Business Development Director

Douglas Speers

Chairman of the Board

Douglas E. Speers is Chairman of the Corporation. He is the former acting Chairman and a former Director of Hydro One and also is the former Chairman and Director of Emco Corporation, a leading Canadian distributor of building materials for the residential, commercial, and industrial construction markets. Prior to his appointment as Chairman of Emco Corporation, Mr. Speers was Emco’s President and CEO from 1997-2004. Between 1971 and 1988, he held several senior positions with Imperial Oil in Canada and Exxon International in New York City. Mr Speers is a Professional Engineer-Province of Ontario and is an Emeritus Member of the Advisory Board of the Ivey Business School at Western University. He is Past Chair and Director of the Ivey Services Board and Past Chair of Ivey Business School Alumni Association. He is also Past Chair of the Executive Committee of the Canadian Industry Program for Energy Conservation (a joint Industry-Federal Government Initiative). Mr Speers holds a B.S.A. from the Ontario Agricultural College-University of Guelph, a B.A.Sc. from the University of Toronto and a M.B.A. from the Ivey Business School.

Harvey Joel

Board Member

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.

Gary Mize

Board Member

Mr. Mize has 32 years of experience running commodity based trading and processing businesses. During his career, Mr. Mize has held the following corporate leadership roles: Global Chief Operating Officer of Noble Group; President of ConAgra Foods Grain Processing Group, where he managed the complete portfolio of the company’s grain processing businesses; President and Chief Executive Officer of ConAgra Malt, the world’s largest barley malt processor; and President of Cargill’s Worldwide Juice Division. Mr. Mize received a Bachelor of Arts (Business Administration and Marketing) degree from Michigan State University and attended the Advanced Executive Program at Northwestern University.

James Vanasek

Board Member

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.