CommodityFirst
About us
CommodityFirst is committed to help optimise and grow
your commodity trading and technology business.
Meet our team
Christian Rud
Consultant
”Energy trading organizations face significant challenges in managing risks and optimizing their financial strategies. The rapidly evolving landscape requires a nuanced understanding of increasing regulatory requirements and an ability to implement robust risk management frameworks.
Our expertise allows us to provide tailored solutions to help organizations navigate these complexities and implement effective strategies to optimize their financial performance.”
Christian Sønderup
Associate Partner
”In the ever-changing landscape of green transitions, effective Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) management is key to market adaptability and risk mitigation. Our holistic approach centers on innovating and adapting products throughout the value chain. We specialize in guiding your business through the operational lifecycle, offering a unique blend of strategic vision and hands-on execution. With industry experience from across the whole value chain; from future to frequency, we drive a holistic impact, ensuring your business thrives in the evolving energy sector.”
Ian Clark
Senior Consultant
“A gap between business and IT is quite common in trading organizations, especially in front-office and mid-office. Our technology experts specialize in bridging this gap by translating the business requirements into technical concepts and deliverables which IT people can understand and manage. Leveraging cutting-edge technologies such as Excel DNA, Web sockets, OAuth2.0, Azure, Kafka, SQL, AWS API Gateway, Aurora, Dynamo, Kinesis, Beacon Python, MongoDB, Redis Cache, and Lambdas, we deliver seamless solutions. Experience the ‘magic’ of our services, exceeding expectations while adhering to budgets, and unlocking new possibilities for your trading organization.”
James Williams
Senior Consultant
“In the fast-evolving trading sector, the push for sustainability and technological evolution brings similar obstacles for all. The rise in volatile data flows from renewable assets and market shifts necessitates advanced trading software. As developers at CommodityFirst, we enable clients to overcome these challenges, integrating real-time trade and market data with precision and agility.
Our development of microservices and event-driven systems ensures that your infrastructure is built to adapt and scale.”
Martin Sørensen
Senior Consultant
”Trading organisations often face a gap between business and IT, especially in front-office and mid-office functions, where timely, data-driven decisions depend on seamless system integration. At CommodityFirst, we help close that gap by designing and delivering robust solutions that ensure data flows reliably across the entire trade lifecycle, from trade capture to risk reporting and regulatory compliance. With deep experience in trading, risk, and IT, our experts bring a hands-on understanding of the operational pressures facing trading desks, and the technical architecture required to support them, including the integration of market data, weather data, and analytical inputs. Whether enhancing ETRM systems, automating REMIT workflows, or building tailored tools, we focus on turning complexity into clarity, ensuring our clients can trust their data and act with confidence.”
Mats Forsman
Senior Partner, Co-Founder
”In an ever-changing trading environment with urgent calls for green transformation, most organizations face similar challenges, with important and critical questions around key capabilities. The expected growth and increased frequency of data originating from intermittent assets and external changes in the short- term markets put additional challenges on the existing trading systems landscape. We help clients to successfully navigate these difficulties and complex topics by bridging trading and technology through a mix of business and IT savvy people.”
Mikael Nordström
Managing Partner, Co-Founder
”To reduce their carbon footprint, many energy utilities and energy majors are actively working to eliminate their dependence on fossil fuels, which in turn is leading to shrinking asset portfolios. Compensating for such a loss requires new strategies such as expanding into new markets and geographies, managing new commodities such as LNG, and not least accelerating the development of renewable assets. We help large international players to understand and implement the capabilities, work processes, and systems support, necessary to realize their new strategies.”
Merethe Christiansen
Senior Consultant
“As trading becomes increasingly complex, with customized setups like PPAs and SPVs, the demands on the trade lifecycle intensify. Commodity First leverages deep industry and system expertise to deliver tailored solutions that minimize manual steps, focusing user attention on high-impact areas. By ensuring comprehensive support across middle and back office to regulatory reporting and finance, we help clients achieve reliable, scalable systems that drive efficiency and growth in dynamic markets.”
Nicola Bumford
Senior Consultant
”The energy industry is undergoing an era of continuous change, underpinned by technological advancements, combined with changing consumer demand and the need for sustainable solutions. Ensuring data currency and high-quality data across the entire energy eco-system will provide businesses in the industry with commercial advantage. CommodityFirst helps empower energy trading companies to achieve their strategic objective, drive innovation, make informed decisions, optimize processes, and improve systems and data efficiency, via the management of Business and Technology Change.”
Peter Antkowiak
Senior Consultant
”Traders require efficient tools for recognizing risk and driving profits. CommodityFirst specializes in delivering tailored toolkits that streamline front-office activity and enhance collaboration across trading desks.
With comprehensive features, adaptable designs, and views on real-time data, our solutions empower traders to make informed decisions and stay ahead in dynamic markets. Our clean application design helps maximize trader awareness of market development.”
Peter Larsen
Associate Partner
”In volatile commodity markets today, data and analytics are foundational for trading decisions, risk management, and cost-effective operations. Success requires a simultaneous focus on an organization’s people, processes, and technology across front, middle, back office, and IT. Together with our clients, we unlock Quantitative Impact by bridging strategy, operating model, and hands-on execution through our unparalleled industry experience. We will help you navigate towards an uncertain yet certainly data-driven future.”
Petter Torp
Senior Partner
”Today, all trading organizations are facing the same challenges when it comes to running efficient and low-cost trading operations. In a changing market environment, the challenges range from compliance with regulatory requirements to standardizing systems and processes, at the same time staying flexible enough to quickly capture new business and scalable enough to cope with increased transaction volumes. We help trading companies to design, optimize and automate trade processes that support new business activities and growth.”
Tim Haaijman
Partner
“Almost all commodity trading organizations are challenged by a technical debt of many decades. This is becoming increasingly pivotal to delivering competitive advantage and risk management in markets affected by climate targets, geo-politics, increased volatility, and expanding algorithmic trading activity. We support trading organizations with their technological advancements, delivering near-real-time data capabilities for decision-making, and systems for handling significant growth of trading activities and data volumes.”
We know the commodity trading industry
CommodityFirst is founded and managed by people with senior management experience from the commodity, technology, and management consulting industries. CommodityFirst partners with utilities, trading houses and investment banks to address their challenges and help grow, optimise, and transform their business.
We know the commodity trading industry
CommodityFirst is founded and managed by people with senior management experience from the commodity, technology, and management consulting industries. CommodityFirst partners with utilities, trading houses and investment banks to address their challenges and help grow, optimise, and transform their business.
European presence but global reach
We operate predominantly in Europe where we run and participate in regional and global projects, and together with partners we can deliver and operate on a global basis.
Selection of current and recent assignments:
A €75m transformation program for an international energy trading company
Multimillion pan-European asset optimization and scheduling solution for a large European energy utility
Multimillion risk management solution to enable business growth for a leading renewables company.
Best-in-class knowledge, expertise, and people
- In depth industry knowledge – Most of CommodityFirst’s consultants have a background from the Commodity Trading industry.
- Trading and Technology expertise – Staff consists of several former C-level managers, trading desk heads, and technology staff.
- Mindset, attitude, and commitment – Recurring feedback from clients is “Transparent”, “Engaged”, and “Delivery Oriented”.
We understand what it takes
CommodityFirst was founded in 2011. In addition to decades of business, management, and technology consulting experience, all key consultants have in depth experience from the commodity trading industry as former C-level managers, trading desk heads, originators, risk managers, lead architects and developers.
We have worked with many international commodity trading companies
CommodityFirst fully covers trading, operations, and technology, and the strength lies primarily in managing large programs, realising strategies, developing and transforming businesses and technology, and implementing processes and business critical applications.
We have extensive experience from delivering successful projects
Based on the broad background and experience of the key consultants, CommodityFirst is able to cover several roles with fewer resources, and hence has a very strong track record of delivering the most complex projects with agreed functionality, on time and on budget.
