The board of directors of agri services group AFGRI Limited has announced the appointment of Chris Venter as Managing Director with effect from 01 October 2008.  He is currently CEO  of AFGRI Financial Services and on the board of AFGRI Operations Limited. Venter succeeds John Mooney, who has been AFGRI’s interim CEO since July 2008.  Venter, who holds BA and MBA degrees from the University of Pretoria, joined AFGRI in July 2005 from the Absa group.  He started his career in 1992 at Standard Merchant Bank (now Standard Corporate and Investment Bank) and spent nearly 14 years in merchant banking.

In 1999, Venter joined Absa Corporate and Merchant Bank as head of Structured Trade and Commodity Finance and, in 2002, was promoted to the position of General Manager.  Thereafter he was appointed head of a newly established Structured Trade and Commodity Finance team in New York where, for the next three years, he focused on expanding the bank’s business in Latin America.

In December 2004 Venter relocated to South Africa as head of Absa Global Structured Trade and Commodity Finance, from which position he joined AFGRI as Managing Director of AFGRI Financial Services.  In July 2007, Venter joined the board of AFGRI Operations Limited.