R.J. O'Brien Appoints Patrick Christie to Lead Hrvyst Ag Tech Business Unit

CHICAGO, Jan. 17, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Chicago-based R.J. O'Brien & Associates (RJO), the oldest independent futures brokerage and clearing firm in the United States, announced today the appointment of Patrick Christie as Senior Executive Officer and Head of Hrvyst, the firm's agricultural technology (ag tech) business unit. Christie has more than 25 years of experience in starting, operating and investing in emerging technologies, including most recently in the ag tech and agribusiness sectors.

Developed internally by RJO's Commercial Agricultural team, Hrvyst is the firm's grain marketing profit platform, enabling users in the commercial grain industry to manage their cash and basis grain ownership risk in real time and automatically converting cash grain contract management into futures hedging orders. The cloud-based, scalable Hrvyst platform enables users to digitally streamline grain origination, merchandising and automated hedging. Hrvyst electronically links offers, purchases and sales to the futures market and to a grain company's accounting software system and mobile app, seamlessly and efficiently. Broker-agnostic, the platform can be used by cooperatives and processors with a link to their existing brokerage firms.

Based in Minneapolis, Christie reports to RJO Chairman and CEO Gerald Corcoran.

Corcoran said: "Hrvyst is a prime example of our commitment to the agricultural community that helped us build this firm and that endures as a fundamental and still growing segment of our business. Patrick is extremely well respected in the agribusiness community, and he has built deep relationships with farmers, owners and management at companies in the agribusiness, commodities, ag tech and food sectors. He has a tremendous track record of establishing and scaling successful, innovative organizations. As Hrvyst has matured in its offerings, we are thrilled to have Patrick at the helm to create and execute an ambitious growth strategy, as well as ensure we are always staying true to helping our clients meet their unique, evolving risk management challenges."

Christie said: "In all my roles, I've sought to spend my time on things that matter, create durable value, build go-to-market strategies and work with great people. RJO is a firm that demonstrates a genuine sense of caring about its people, and as I've spent more time with the team, I found these are individuals who really care about the industry and their role in it. I know with this group we can grow Hrvyst into a scalable solution to provide clients with a competitive advantage on how they run their operations and manage their risk."

Christie was founder and CEO of Conservis Corporation, a leading Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) farm data management solution which provides decision-making confidence and insights by collecting and organizing operating and financial data at farms. He founded the company in 2009, pivoting the mission of the firm after identifying an unmet need in the farming community. He and his team grew the business, serving clients ranging from family farms in the Midwest to large-scale international agribusinesses, helping them use technology to manage and grow their operations. Earlier in his career, Christie acquired and served as President and CEO of Cybernet Systems, a technology systems integration firm specializing in large-scale data and networking architectures.

About R.J. O'Brien & Associates

Founded in 1914, R.J. O'Brien & Associates is the oldest independent futures brokerage and clearing firm in the United States, serving more than 80,000 institutional, commercial and individual clients globally, in addition to a network of approximately 300 introducing brokers (IBs). RJO services the industry's most expansive global network of IBs, a vast array of middle market firms and many of the world's largest financial, industrial and agricultural institutions. The firm offers state-of-the-art electronic trading and 24-hour trade execution on every major futures exchange worldwide. RJO received the FOW International Award for Non-Bank FCM of the Year for five consecutive years, and the firm and its UK affiliate have earned eight honors from the HFM Global publications in recent years.

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