KANSAS CITY, Mo., Sept. 24, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FCStone Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:FCSX), a commodity risk management firm, today announced that it has named Tricia Harrod Vice President of Credit and Risk Administration. In this position, Ms. Harrod will be responsible for the establishment, enforcement, and oversight of the Company's credit policies and practices with respect to regulated exchange-traded commodities and OTC markets. She will report to Pete Anderson, FCStone's President and Chief Executive Officer, and is assuming this role effective October 1 from Dennis Stuart, who has been named Managing Director for FCStone do Brasil.
"Tricia is a highly accomplished executive with more than 20 years of experience in credit and risk management for the energy industry. Her solid track record of identifying and directing risk management activities and compliance make her the ideal candidate for this leadership position at FCStone," said Pete Anderson. "We are pleased to welcome her to the company and look forward to leveraging her expertise as we capitalize on the opportunities ahead and position FCStone for growth."
Anderson added, "Dennis is a perfect fit for his new role in Brazil. His strong industry background and knowledge of the company are great assets as we build out our Brazilian operations."
Ms. Harrod joins FCStone from Kansas City Power & Light Company (KCP&L), where she was Director of Risk Management and responsible for leading the credit and market risk, insurance, middle office, and enterprise risk management program for the publicly held parent company, Great Plains Energy (GXP), and all of its subsidiaries. Prior to its 2008 merger with KCP&L, she was with Aquila, Inc. which became a wholly owned subsidiary of GXP. During her decade-long tenure at Aquila, Ms. Harrod led the Company's credit-risk management and strategic sourcing programs. Some key accomplishments at Aquila include managing credit and market risk for the Merchant's $1.8 billion trade book consisting of 15 actively traded commodities, managing the financial traders in the execution of the Merchant's remaining financial trade book and the financial hedging strategy for the utility's annual gas purchases worth over $2 billion. She also headed the Supply Chain transition and integration team to identify and set strategy for execution of merger supply chain synergy savings in excess of $100 million.
Earlier in her career she held senior roles at PanCanadian Energy Services, Transco Energy Company and Anadarko Petroleum Corporation.
About FCStone Group, Inc.
FCStone Group, Inc., along with its affiliates, is an integrated commodity risk management company providing risk management consulting and transaction execution services to commercial commodity intermediaries, end-users and producers. The firm assists primarily middle market customers in optimizing their profit margins and mitigating exposure to commodity price risk. In addition to risk management consulting services, FCStone, LLC, operates one of the leading independent clearing and execution platforms for exchange-traded futures and options contracts. FCStone Group, Inc. serves more than 8,000 customers and in the 12 months ended May 31, 2009, executed 73.7 million derivative contracts in the exchange-traded and over-the-counter markets. The FCStone Group companies work in all the major commodity areas including agriculture, energy, renewable fuels, foods, forestry, cotton and textile, dairy and currency exchange. Headquartered in the Midwest, it has offices located throughout the world and is a clearing member of all major North American Futures exchanges. FCStone Group, Inc. trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol "FCSX."
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