COMPANY / LEADERSHIP
The People Behind Trade Science
Entrepreneurship, finance, technology and operational execution.
EXECUTIVE ORGANIZATION
Leadership, clearly defined.
Leadership structure
The Chief Executive Officer sets strategy and leads the company's principal commercial and financial relationships.
The Chief Operating Officer runs execution: the processes that move a transaction from commercial agreement to delivery.
Michel Fontaine
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Michel Fontaine founded Trade Science in 2019. He started his first company, [company name], in 1984, specializing in static electricity control and electromagnetic protection. It was recognized as Canada's fastest-growing company [publisher and year] and won [award names].
He has since served as chief executive of more than twelve companies across manufacturing, logistics and finance in several countries, and brings broad board experience. At Trade Science, he led the development of Jarvis, a platform that automates supply chain finance and issues credit insurance at the invoice level.
Michel holds degrees in finance, marketing and chemical engineering. He is a pilot and a former officer of the Royal Canadian Air Force, and a former Olympian [sport, Games and year] who later served as president of his sport's national federation.
[LinkedIn profile URL]
A letter from the CEO
Building business on substance
When we established Trade Science, the objective was not to build another company that simply presents opportunities to the market. We wanted a business that understands what makes a transaction work.
From a distance, international trade looks simple: a buyer needs a product, a supplier can provide it, a company needs capital, an investor can provide it. In practice, contracts, financing, logistics, risk, documentation, timing and, above all, the credibility of the people involved decide whether an opportunity becomes an executable transaction.
Our two businesses, physical energy trading and structured finance, are different disciplines with one common requirement: understand the underlying transaction and build a structure that actually works.
We are selective about the people and organizations we work with. We expect transparency from our counterparties, and they are entitled to expect the same from us.
Credibility is not created by larger claims. It is built transaction by transaction, and by delivering what has been agreed.
We know what we are building, and the kind of people we want to build it with.
Michel Fontaine
Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Trade Science
Roberto Castro Cumsille
Chief Operating Officer
Roberto Castro Cumsille brings more than two decades of experience across entrepreneurship, technology, commercial development and operational management.
Before joining Trade Science, he founded and managed information technology businesses and led the development and implementation of software, communications infrastructure and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems for industrial and commercial clients. His operational work has included international procurement, industrial projects, logistics and multidisciplinary teams across Latin America.
At Trade Science, Roberto leads transaction execution: turning commercial agreements into defined processes, coordinating counterparties and documentation, and identifying execution risk before it materializes.
[LinkedIn profile URL]
The discipline of execution
An operations perspective
An opportunity is not a transaction. Between initial interest and execution there are contracts to reconcile, counterparties to verify, financial conditions to satisfy, documents to validate, logistics to coordinate and risks to identify.
Operations means converting commercial intent into a sequence of actions that can be executed: what is missing, who is responsible, and which conditions must be met before the next step.
It also means knowing when not to proceed. A transaction that cannot withstand counterparty verification, contractual review or operational scrutiny should not advance because the opportunity looks attractive.
Strategy creates an opportunity. Execution determines whether it becomes real.
Roberto Castro Cumsille
Chief Operating Officer, Trade Science