Michael Kasbar is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of World Fuel Services Corporation and a member of the company's Board of Directors.
Kasbar has served as Chief Executive Officer since 2012 and assumed the role of Chairman in 2014. Previously, he served as President and Chief Operating Officer, responsible for driving the company's aggressive acquisition strategy and quest for operational excellence.
He joined World Fuel Services in 1995 as Chief Executive Officer of World Fuel Services Americas, Inc., at the time the company’s principal subsidiary engaged in the marine fuel services business. Prior to joining the company, Kasbar and his partner, Paul Stebbins, co-founded Trans-Tec Services, Inc., a global marine fuel services company acquired by World Fuel Services.
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Ira Birns is Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer of World Fuel Services Corporation.
Birns is responsible for the executive leadership of the company’s financial organization including external reporting, accounting, financial planning and analysis, strategic business unit finance, internal audit, treasury, tax, credit underwriting and collections, non-fuel procurement, risk management, corporate development, and investor relations.
Prior to World Fuel, Birns served as vice president and treasurer, and vice president of investor relations at Arrow Electronics, Inc., a global provider of technology products, services and solutions to leading technology manufacturers and service providers.
He currently services as the vice chairman and treasurer of the New World Symphony in Miami, Florida and serves as a Board Member of the Florida Holocaust Museum based in St. Petersburg, Florida. He previously served as chairman of the Association for Financial Professionals, a professional society committed to advancing the success of its finance and treasury members and their organizations, globally.
Birns holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Public Accounting from Hofstra University. He is a certified public accountant as well as a certified treasury professional.
Executive Vice President of Global Aviation, Marine and Land
John Rau is Executive Vice President of Global Aviation, Marine and Land at World Fuel Services Corporation, where he is responsible for the leadership of all three of the company’s fuel and energy business segments.
Prior to joining World Fuel Services Corporation, Rau served as Managing Director at American Airlines, where his responsibilities included jet fuel procurement and management, transportation, and management of the supplier diversity program. He also served as a manager at United Airlines, where he was responsible for the purchasing and hedging of jet fuel and managing United’s jet fuel trading subsidiary.
Rau holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Kansas.
Senior Vice President, Chief Corporate Counsel and Corporate Secretary
Amy Quintana Avalos is Senior Vice President, Chief Corporate Counsel and Corporate Secretary of World Fuel Services Corporation.
She is responsible for securities, finance, and corporate governance, and oversees compliance, labor and employment, strategic transactions, and acquisitions. Quintana is also driving the company’s sustainability and ESG initiatives, including environmental, health and safety, diversity, and social responsibility.
Prior to joining World Fuel Services, she served as an associate at Greenberg Traurig, specializing in the areas of securities, finance, and corporate governance. Prior to that role, she worked for Blank Rome, advising public companies, private companies, and venture capital firms on securities and corporate governance matters.
Quintana Avalos holds a Juris Doctor from Florida State University and a Master of Business Administration from the Florida State University. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Finance and International Business from Georgetown University.
She proudly serves on the Board of Directors of Easter Seals South Florida.
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
Jeff Smith is World Fuel Service’s Chief Operating Officer. Jeff’s focus as COO is delivering innovation at the pace of the best tech companies by operationalizing culture – making it something you can learn, practice and improve.
Jeff believes that talent and culture are the differentiating factors of great companies. His organization strategy centers around building, nurturing and coaching small, self-directed teams that are loosely coupled and tightly aligned to Agile practices. His leadership beliefs focus on providing clarity of purpose for his teams and inspiring diversity of thought and collective wisdom to solve problems in unconventional ways. Jeff is driving an Agile culture of innovation and operational efficiency at WFS.
Prior to joining WFS, Jeff was Chief Information Officer at IBM. He was globally responsible for the company’s IT strategy, resources, systems and infrastructure. In addition, he also led the Agile transformation across the company. Before leading IBM’s IT organization, Jeff was CEO of Suncorp Business Services. He was responsible for Suncorp Group’s shared services including technology, real estate, finance, procurement and BPO/ITO operations. Jeff has over 30 years corporate experience and has held senior executive roles in a number of companies including Telstra, Honeywell and Toyota.
A native of Ohio, Jeff earned a bachelor’s degree in Applied Science from Miami University and an MBA from San Jose State University. He currently sits on the Board of Directors for Sonrai Security and on the Board of Advisors for Zoom and Box. In addition, he also served on the Australian Fulbright Commission awarding Australian post-graduate scholarships to US universities.
Fernando Casadevall is the Chief Human Resources Officer at World Fuel Services. As CHRO, Fernando is responsible for talent management, talent acquisition, leadership development, colleague experience, compensation and total well-being of the global organization.
Casadevall has served in the CHRO role since January 2019 and is responsible for all human resources (HR) responsibilities including compensation, benefits, recruitment, talent, HR services, and corporate security.
Prior to WFS, he served as CHRO for Qatar Airways (QA), one of the largest airlines in the world with operations in 75+ countries and more than 50,000 employees. He was responsible for HR for QA’s aviation divisions including commercial, cargo, private aviation, HIA airport, duty free retail, catering, and aviation services.
Before QA, Casadevall was the retail group HR director for Al-Futtaim. Based in Dubai, Al-Futtaim operates in more than 40 countries with a global workforce of 40,000+ employees.
Prior to Al-Futtaim he had various roles at Citibank, initially building the HR function across the retail banking and payments groups, then moving into various senior HR roles including regional HR head for Citigroup’s consumer and alternative investment businesses across EMEA. Before joining Citi, he held HR positions with the investment banking firm Spear, Leeds & Kellogg, and with Sony Entertainment.
An active member of the community, he has also previously served on the board of the Baltimore Children’s Museum and the Academy of Finance & Technology.
Fernando holds a Master of Arts in Human Resources Development from Fordham University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Arizona.
Wade DeClaris is Chief Commercial Officer at World Fuel Services Corporation. He is responsible for global account management and client relationship.
Prior to joining World Fuel Services Corporation, DeClaris served in marine fuel sales, trading, terminal management, and engineering roles with Chevron and Gulf Oil.
DeClaris holds a bachelor’s degree in Science from Texas A&M University and an MBA from Golden Gate University.
Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Counsel
Jeff Weissman is Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Counsel of World Fuel Services Corporation.
Weissman is responsible for legal oversight of all of the Company’s commercial and physical operations worldwide, including transactional, commercial, strategic, litigation, risk management, environmental, safety, technology, regulatory, compliance, ¬¬and governance matters.
Prior to World Fuel, Weissman served as General Counsel of Global Fleet Management Solutions at Ryder System, Inc., responsible for legal oversight, strategy and support for Ryder’s $5 billion vehicle leasing, rental, and maintenance business. Prior to that role, he served as an associate at Holland & Knight.
Weissman holds dual bachelor’s degrees from the University of Pennsyvlania – a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School – and a Juris Doctor from the University of Miami.
Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer
Jose-Miguel Tejada is Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer of World Fuel Services Corporation.
He is responsible for overseeing the Company’s global accounting, income tax, regulatory and financial reporting, market risk, and corporate finance functions.
Prior to joining World Fuel Services, he served as the Head of Finance, Americas for Noble Group Limited where he oversaw the accounting, product control, and financial planning and analysis functions. Before Noble Group, he worked for nine years at Constellation Energy, Inc. in various controller and financial planning and analysis roles. He has more than 20 years of energy commodity experience within finance.
Tejada holds a bachelor’s degree in Management from Boston College and a master’s degree in Business Administration from Cornell University.
