1888PressRelease – Barrons will only promote people to managing director once every two years. It’s the second-highest title at the firm for non-executives and a very big deal. There are more than 3000 BarronsFX employees, but only 150 or so managing directors. It is very rare for someone to climb that mountain within the first five years at the firm.
BarronsFX announced its newest crop of managing directors on Wednesday, promoting 20 people. One of the stars BarronsFX is promoting this time around is Wayne Pearse.
In the span of one year, Pearse has gone from associate to vice president and, starting in August 2015, he will be a managing director. The well-regarded forex and commodity trader works on Barrons’ agricultural desk. People familiar with Pearse’s work say he has become one of the top agricultural traders in the world. For example, he was a key player in analyzing and recognizing the extreme supply/demand imbalance in the coffee market in Q1 2014. Investors who adopted his strategy using March Coffee call options (KCH14) made upwards of 1000% return.
An applied math major at Northwestern University, Pearse presented a paper on risk mitigation and management in agriculture while in high school. Pearse was named to this year’s BarronsFX Top Ten analyst list, based on percentage returns. Another young BarronsFX managing director, Mark Ronan, was also on this year’s list. Ronan, who was promoted to managing director in 2011, is currently director of Barrons’ Regional Division of the Americas research management team and is serving on the investment review committee.
