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After more than three decades in the trade finance business, including the majority of those years spent at global food industry giant Cargill, Jennifer Davidson retired on 8 September 2023.
Jennifer started her career in 1992 with a small food export business, eventually landing a position three years later as Freight Forwarder at Cargill in Minnesota. During her 28 years at Cargill, Jennifer held various positions in Trade & Structured Finance, Corporate Treasury, Trade Execution, Corporate Audit, and, most recently, as Senior Trade Finance Coordinator in Trade & Capital Markets.
Among her major highlights while working at the company, Jennifer managed Cargill’s global LC margin program with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange valued at USD 1 billion over a four- year period and led Cargill’s Letter of Credit Center of Expertise for four years until her retirement.
Jennifer was a guest faculty Letter of Credit Instructor at the American Cotton Shippers Association (ACSA) Cotton Institute and was a featured speaker at numerous banking conferences, including IIBLP Annual LC Survey events.
Asked how the letter of credit industry has changed over the course of her career and where it may be headed, Jennifer told DCW: “In the late 90s everyone said LCs were on the way out and would soon disappear. Here we are, more than 25 years later, and we’re still banking LCs! I think this proves the enduring value of this particular trade finance instrument. The future may be bitcoin and blockchain, but buyers will ALWAYS want to pay as LATE as possible and sellers will ALWAYS want to get paid as SOON as possible, meaning that despite these advances in technology, I think we’ll continue to see LCs — whether digital or paper — for years to come.”
Having worked for a leading company whose finance needs are highly sought-after among banks, Jennifer offered a few words of advice: “Trade corporates don’t expect banks to fully understand the intricacies of their industry or business, but they do expect their bankers to be experts in trade finance and to be willing to share that expertise and insight with their customers.”
In her retirement, Jennifer looks forward to spending more time gardening, volunteering with a local Meals-on-Wheels organization, leading a church group, and traveling both domestically and internationally.