About

Keir Ashton is chief legal officer for Louis Dreyfus Commodities (LDC) covering the regions of Europe, Middle East and Africa and co-manages the legal function globally. Ashton is based in Geneva and manages a team of 15 lawyers supporting the EMEA region in addition to the global trade disputes team. In addition to the Geneva office, the team has lawyers based in Russia, Ukraine and South Africa. The team services LDC’s various international business platforms which are focused on the origination, trading and merchandising of agricultural commodities, such as grains, oilseeds, coffee, cotton, rice and sugar. Recently he worked on closing the sale of LDC’s African fertilisers business at the end of November 2017 and then ten days later agreeing an SPA for the sale of LDC’s metals business. Delivering complex M&A transactions of this nature has required Ashton to create strong team collaboration with capable team members. ‘My experiences have made me resilient, commercial and a leader-mentor. I love the rich interactions and rewarding experience of managing people’, says Ashton. Prior to joining LDC in 2008, Ashton was senior counsel at Bloomberg in New York and general counsel at The Wireless Group London. On his experience at Bloomberg he says ‘being part of the in-house team in global media and financial information company was an incredibly invigorating growth experience’. He also previously served in private practice in London with Clifford Chance and Olswang.