Marcus Lu was appointed Asia Head of Hard Commodities for Mercuria in 2012, a leading global commodity trading house headquartered in Switzerland. Prior to his current position, Lu was the China Chief Representative for Rio Tinto, a leading global mining and metals company, from 2007 to 2011. He was responsible for the general management, business development, and sales and marketing of the China energy team. Lu also led the restructuring and the strategic planning that resulted in increased sales revenue from $10M in 2007 to $580M in 2008.

Previously, Lu worked as the Coal Trader for China with Glencore International AG, a global commodity trading and investment firm based in Switzerland. With his in-depth understanding and knowledge of doing business in China, Lu established key information and market development and logistics networks in China, Southeast Asian, Australian, and Russian trading partners, successfully increasing coal trade into China.

In his very early career path in the late 90’s Lu also served as the Founder and General Manager for ML Trading International, a Sino-US joint venture start-up that focused on sourcing/producing a range of products from military outfits, lawn & garden equipment, hardware components which were marketed in the U.S., Japan, and Korea.

He received his MBA from USC Marshall School of Business.