A shockwave has rippled through the secretive world of global grain trading with the sudden death of Patrick Treuer, the 52-year-old finance chief who steered Louis Dreyfus Company through boom years of war-driven profits and market chaos.
The Swiss banker, a trusted ally of the Louis-Dreyfus founding family, passed away 'unexpectedly overnight', leaving the Rotterdam-based giant – the 'D' in the ABCD quartet of crop merchants – scrambling for a successor amid tributes from colleagues and even a Premier League football club.
