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Pace Magazine
Michael Gelchie '90: Leadership With Global Reach
As chief executive officer of Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC), a leading international merchant and processor of agricultural goods, ŮٱƵ Lubin School of Business alumnus Michael Gelchie ŮٱƵ90 has a big job. Overseeing some 20,000 employees worldwide, commercial activities in more than 100 countries, and globe-spanning operations that process and transport nearly 100 million tons of products each year, his role is a daily adventureŮٱƵone that takes him to the far corners of the world, crisscrossing the vast networks and extensive partnerships that make up LDCŮٱƵs truly global business.
MichaelŮٱƵs 2020 appointment as CEO of LDC was decades in the makingŮٱƵa journey that began in the accounting department on ŮٱƵŮٱƵs Pleasantville Campus.
As an ambitious college student fascinated by the burgeoning technological revolution sweeping the 1980s, Michael charted his academic course through PaceŮٱƵs accounting and information systems program. He found it was the perfect marriage of his interests, combining a conventional accounting education with principles of finance and a deep exposure to the technological mechanisms used to retrieve, organize, and analyze financial data.
At the urging of PaceŮٱƵs ŮٱƵ Services office, Michael also enrolled in several classes outside his degree program, allowing him to qualify for the key certification and licensing exams he needed to successfully launch his career.
ŮٱƵEileen Murphy in ŮٱƵ Services was quite instrumental in guiding me toward that pragmatic approach,ŮٱƵ Michael said. ŮٱƵI ultimately did graduate with an accounting and information systems degree, but because of those extra courses, I was also able to sit for the CPA, CMA, and CIA exams. Those experiences were extremely helpful.ŮٱƵ
As he was preparing to receive his degree from Pace, Michael was also diving headfirst into the job search. In the months leading up to graduation, he estimates he sent out seventy-two résumés: ŮٱƵAnd this was a time when you had to sit down and typewrite every individual cover letter,ŮٱƵ he said.
The hard work soon paid off. Just weeks before graduating, Michael landed a job through a connection heŮٱƵd made at Arnold Foods, where heŮٱƵd held summer internships over the two previous years. That first job was a junior internal audit position at LDCŮٱƵthe very same company he would be appointed to lead as CEO thirty years later.
ŮٱƵI graduated in May of 1990, and I started at LDC that same June,ŮٱƵ he said. ŮٱƵIt was an intriguing positionŮٱƵnot necessarily what I thought a young person in accounting would be doing. But it was extraordinary to see how many bright, intelligent people were in that environment. Coming into the field of agricultural commodities trading, learning that language, learning auditing at the same timeŮٱƵthere was a lot of information to process, but it was an amazing learning experience.ŮٱƵ
Michael held a range of positions at the company over the next twenty years, from trading and merchandising to managing LDCŮٱƵs sugar, rice, and cocoa businesses. In 2008, he helped spearhead the development of the Louis Dreyfus Investment Group as a senior portfolio manager. After a stint away from the company, he returned to LDC in 2019 as global head of coffee and was soon thereafter appointed chief operating officer.
ŮٱƵEstablishing our endowed scholarship was an important way for us to extend the same opportunities we received at Pace to current and future students,ŮٱƵ Michael said.
He assumed the role of CEO at LDC in July 2020, the culmination of a three-decade agri-commodities career that began just days after he received his Pace diploma. It was a full-circle moment, but there was precious little time for reflectionŮٱƵhe was stepping into a role of staggering responsibility in the middle of a global pandemic, as compounding crises were forcing industries across the globe to reckon with a strange and uncertain new reality.
It was among the most complex and challenging periods of his career, he saidŮٱƵa time defined by difficult and potentially existential decisions with vanishingly slim margins for error. But as a leader tasked with navigating the turmoil of the pandemic and engineering a strategy for forward progress, Michael was determined to manage the uncertainty and translate challenges into opportunities.
ŮٱƵWhen I was appointed CEO, everything was happening through screens,ŮٱƵ he said. ŮٱƵI had the chance to learn the role and the business in an incredible way, because it was all being delivered through video. In a normal environment, I might have had to travel around the world for three years to absorb the amount of information and material that I was able to take in virtually at that specific point in time.ŮٱƵ
For Michael, the key to successfully leading LDC through challenges like the pandemicŮٱƵand further elevating the company as one of the worldŮٱƵs foremost agricultural commodities trading firmsŮٱƵis simple: itŮٱƵs always about the people. ItŮٱƵs about cultivating a sense of connectivity across his leadership team and throughout the organizationŮٱƵs 20,000 employeesŮٱƵa sense of collective purpose and achievement, a shared culture where everyone understands the mission and everyoneŮٱƵs contributions are valued.
In short, Michael believes that investing in people generates extraordinary outcomes. ItŮٱƵs why he has worked to strengthen the culture of mentorship and community at LDC, and itŮٱƵs why he has provided life-changing philanthropic support to the next generation of leadersŮٱƵparticularly those pursuing their education at his alma mater.
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In 2022, Michael and his wife, Pace alumna Linda Gelchie ŮٱƵ94, established the Gelchie Family Scholarship at ŮٱƵ, a permanent endowed fund designed to provide sustained, transformative aid to Pace students, with a specific focus on students who may experience learning challenges.
ŮٱƵEstablishing our endowed scholarship was an important way for us to extend the same opportunities we received at Pace to current and future students,ŮٱƵ Michael said. ŮٱƵLinda and I have seen in our own lives the doors that can be opened through a strong education, and it means a great deal to us to be able to create those possibilities for others.ŮٱƵ
In addition to his scholarship support, Michael is also committed to building meaningful personal relationships with students whoŮٱƵinspired by success stories like hisŮٱƵsee a Pace education as their pathway to building careers of purpose.
In the spring of 2025, Michael returned to the Lubin SchoolŮٱƵthe place his journey beganŮٱƵto share his experiences with a group of hard-working finance majors. Motivated by the same spirit of mentorship that animates his guidance of younger colleagues at LDC, Michael spoke to the students about his role, his story, the opportunities available in the agri-commodities industry, and the principles that inform his own theory of effective leadership: building a team you can rely on, developing strong communication skills, walking the talk, andŮٱƵperhaps most importantlyŮٱƵcommitting to a lifetime of learning.
It's that untiring dedication to learning that keeps that best leaders sharp, Michael said. And itŮٱƵs a precept he keeps at the center of his own life: He has recently committed to completing an MBA program at Pace, with plans to earn his second Lubin School degree by the end of 2026.
ŮٱƵFor people who want to be leaders, what IŮٱƵd say is that you have to embrace the notion of continuous learning,ŮٱƵ he said. ŮٱƵThereŮٱƵs always something new out there to learn, and great leaders always keep their minds open to the ways our businesses and our world continue to evolve.ŮٱƵ
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