The seven managing partners of the Atlas companies have extensive experience building and growing electronic platform traded markets.
Mike Bridges is a founding partner of Atlas. Immediately prior to co-founding Atlas, he served as President of Atlas Acquisitions, LLC. Bridges has held various trading, risk management and technology positions with ConAgra, Enron and others for almost two decades, and has experience in the energy and agriculture complexes in various trading, brokering, risk management, technology, and business development positions. Bridges earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Nebraska.
Bob Shults is a founding partner of Atlas, and has been responsible for daily operations and business development of its businesses since July 2006. Immediately prior, Shults served as Managing Director of Commercial Services and a member of the Executive Management Committee for APX, Inc., the leading provider of essential market infrastructure solutions for the energy and environmental markets. He also served on the Board of Directors of the Environmental Markets Association. Shults has more than two decades of experience in the energy sector in trading, origination, risk management, technology, operations, accounting, regulatory, strategy, project management, and project development. He holds an MBA degree in finance and international business and an undergraduate degree in accounting.
Chris Yarrow is a founding partner of Atlas. He is responsible for directing the dissemination of price information and for coordinating the daily activity of brokers. Yarrow has 18 years of experience in commodity markets as both a trader and broker. A former member of NYMEX and KCBT, he was director of electronic trading for ICE member Aquila. Yarrow served on the advisory boards of both ICE and NYMEX during the start-up phase of electronic trading. He has a degree in economics from the University of Connecticut.
John Harangody joined Atlas Grains as Managing Partner in 2010. Harangody is charged with defining and executing Atlas Grains’ overall business strategy. Most recently, he served as Director, Commodity Products, for CME Group, where he managed the agriculture commodity products suite and developed and executed the strategy to swell electronic trade on Globex. In addition to holding various trading and risk management positions at Con-Agra, Drexel Burnham, and other firms, Harangody has been a member, firm floor manager and floor trader of agriculture options at the Chicago Board of Trade. He holds degrees in management and marketing from Purdue University and an MBA in finance from the University of Chicago.
Dan Gould is a founding partner of Atlas Grains, LLC. He has 17 years of experience in OTC energy and commodity markets. Gould is responsible for coordinating daily broker activity and developing new products and services for the company’s expanding customer base. Prior to Atlas, he was a founding partner and executive vice president for Northwind Resources, a Chicago-based energy merchant company. Gould has held senior trading positions at energy merchant companies, FCMs and utilities, and is an experienced broker and trader – having worked in multiple commodity complexes and many derivative products, including basis swaps, index swaps and swing swaps. He holds a B.S. in International Finance from Bradley University.
Bart Vance joined the firm in 2011 and is a founding director of Atlas Physical Grains, LLC. With 15 years of experience in commodity markets, he is responsible for coordinating daily broker activity and developing new physical products and services. Prior to Atlas, he was Manager of Domestic Trading of a Kansas City-based commodity brokerage company. Vance began as a market analyst and trader at Koch Industries/Purina Mills, where he gained a diverse nutritional insight as well as exposure to energy products. He has served as President of the Kansas City Feed and Grain as well as the Cottonseed and Feed Association (CFA). He holds a B.S. in Business Production/Operations and Human Resource Management from Kansas State University.
Raul Stevens joined Atlas in 2011 as founder of Atlas Petroleum Markets. He has more than 25 years of experience in domestic crude oil markets. Prior to Atlas, Stevens started the crude oil desk at ICAP United, an energy and business advisory firm, and built the desk into one of top domestic crude oil brokerage shops in the industry. He also has lent his expertise in crude oil to PVM, the world's largest oil broker, and started the crude oil business line at Prime Energy. A native of Seattle, WA, Raul has lived in the Houston/Katy area for the past 22 years while raising 5 children. He now resides “inside the loop” in Houston, Texas.
