The People Behind The Trilateral Difference
Robert Bresnahan, President & Director of Grains & Oilseeds
Bob Bresnahan founded Trilateral, Inc. in 1986. He is now widely recognized for his market analysis acumen and recommendations—combining technical and fundamental analysis.
Bob spent the first 11 years of his career in the trading pits of the Chicago Board of Trade, the Minneapolis Grain Exchange, the New York Commodity Exchange, the New York Mercantile Exchange, and the New York Futures Exchange to diversify his trading opportunities and skills. He left the trading pits in 1986 to focus on building Trilateral’s services in managing purchasing and risk management transactions—including supplier negotiations, pricing, hedging, and administrative management—for companies whose operating margins are highly sensitive to commodity, ingredient and energy input costs.
Bob refers to himself as “purely a technical trader.” And while his technical analysis expertise is an indisputable competitive advantage, Bob is also an ardent fundamental analyst; particularly in the context of monitoring the dynamics of how the market is “determining value.”
A primary benefit of Bob’s approach is it allows buyers and traders to make pricing and purchasing decision with a confident level of probability of what the market is going to do as opposed to reacting to what the market has done.
Bob is a regular contributor to the Milling & Baking Market Fax along with being the sole market contributor for the American Baking Association (ABA) in Washington D.C. Bob is also sought out on a regular basis by the American Soybean Association, the U.S. Wheat Council, and U.S. Coarse Grains Council to conduct foreign purchasing seminars for their customers. Bob is also a frequent participant for the many risk management training programs conducted by the Chicago Board of Trade Division of the CME Group.
Chris Kristufek, CMT, Director
Chris is a Director at Trilateral. Before joining the Trilateral team, Chris spent 15 years as a proprietary derivatives trader on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
During his tenure as a proprietary trader, Chris developed numerous trading strategies using various technical strategies including relative volatility and market flow along with fundamental analysis. He also served as a member of the Pit and Settlement committees from 2002 to 2012 where he enforced exchanged rules, oversaw and facilitated trading activity, and worked with brokers and exchange officials to calculate settlement prices.
Chris joined Trilateral in 2013, and achieved his Chartered Market Technician (CMT) certification in 2018. He helps Trilateral clients with monitoring and managing risk in grains, oils, softs, proteins, energy, dairy, and packaging. Chris uses his technical expertise combined with a strong understanding of market fundamentals for an encapsulating, multi-dimensional approach to market analysis. Chris’s ability to develop highly personalized financial models and market solutions for Trilateral’s clients by combining his analytical-based market approach with their respective market profiles has proved invaluable to the Trilateral team.
Chris was born and raised in Oak Park, Illinois, where he attended Fenwick High School. He went on to Lake Forest College where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics with a concentration minor in Mathematics. He and his wife, Niamh, have three children, and his passions include being a father, learning and guitar.
James Campbell, Analyst & Marketing
James Campbell is an analyst and marketer for Trilateral Inc. who started his tenure in 2022. James is a recent graduate from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
During his time at Leeds, he earned a dual major of Operations Management and Marketing. His experiences have allowed him to implement sustainable business practices across industry.
James is a serial learner. His certifications in Microsoft products and Google Analytics make the Trilateral Team more well rounded.
James applies his skills and knowledge base in assisting Trilateral with the analysis of proteins, eggs, cocoa, dairy, grains, edible oils, natural gas, and diesel fuel. As Director of Marketing, James oversees Trilateral’s LinkedIn as well as other channels in the social media environment.