About us

David C. Nealis, President and Co-Founder

Mr. Nealis oversees the corporate strategy and operations at Ceres.

He has in-depth business development experiences across Mainland China, Hong Kong, South East Asia and the USA.

Mr. Nealis brings deep and diverse financial industry experiences to Ceres; he has been the main driver in our IPO, M&A, and Futures Brokerage Consulting services. With over 30 years of trading global capital markets Mr. Nealis brings great insight to Ceres Ltd.’s global capital markets trading division.

In addition to his duties at Ceres, Mr. Nealis serves on several corporate boards both past and present to include but not limited to the DAEX cryptocurrency exchange, the International Emerging Europe Business Council, Shenyang Huatie Automobile, and the Chicago China Club.

Prior to co-founding Ceres, Mr Nealis was the President of Blue Bridge Inc. a business consulting firm with offices in Honolulu, Hawaii and Chicago, Illinois. At Blue Bridge, Mr. Nealis served MNCs in the capital markets, financial services, manufacturing, technology, construction, real-estate consumer goods, and telecom industries. Mr. Nealis also served as the Commercial Representative of Trade and Investment Development of the City of Xian, China.

Mr. Nealis was employed by uBid.com an online auction house that went public with over a 300% gain on its first day of trading.

 Mr. Nealis is a regular guest lecturer at Chinese brokerage firms, is often a guest on China’s CGTN TV and has been quoted in China’s Global Times.

Mr. Nealis studied Finance at DePaul University in Chicago and attended DePaul’s e-Commerce Management Program, attended Yonsei University’s Korean Studies Program in Seoul, Republic of Korea, earned a Certificate in Lean Manufacturing from the Chicago Manufacturing Center, received multiple Certificates in Microsoft technologies from the University of Hawaii. Mr. Nealis is a U.S. Army veteran and was awarded the Certificate of Achievement while serving in the U.S. Army.

Mr. Nealis is a native English speaker, and also speaks conversational Chinese, conversational Spanish and basic Korean.

Jane Qin Yang, Vice President of Project Development 

Jane Yang is a global financial market specialist with in-depth knowledge of both Western and Asian financial markets and deep knowledge of the intricate cultural differences of doing business in each. 

Ms. Yang’s years of experience at Ceres serving cross border individual and institutional clients she has acquired extensive knowledge of cross-border M&A, cross-border financial consulting project development, superior industry research, macro-economic analysis of global futures & securities as well as trading Global Capital Markets. 

Prior to joining Ceres Ltd., Miss Yang worked in the physical side of the commodity industry, dealing with Magnesium and Aluminum trading in Dandong City near the Chinese border with North Korea.

Her cumulative experience in international physical commodity trading as well trading Global Capital Markets enables her to have an in-depth view of the International financial world, insight to international market opportunities and the deep connection between the financial and the physical industries.

Miss Yang received her Bachelor’s degree in International Economics and Trade from Eastern Liaoning University. She holds a Futures Professional Certificate from the China Futures Association, Securities Qualification Certificate from Security Association of China as well as Investment Fund Qualification Certificate from Asset Management Association of China. Miss Yang earned a Microsoft Office Specialist Master Certification (MOS)

Ms. Yang is a native Chinese speaker, fluent in English and conversational Korean.

Craig Williams MBA, Vice President of Financial Consulting

With over 15 years of experience working in the financial industry Mr. Williams brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to Ceres.

Since 1999 Mr. Williams has been in the financial services industry with a focus on economics, research, financial planning, and portfolio management. 

Prior to joining Ceres, he held positions with several investment advisory firms in America including Fidelity where he provided holistic financial advice and wealth-management services to individuals and companies.

Mr. Williams was a Portfolio Manager at a boutique Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) with $2.5Billion under management (AUM) for 4 years, he served on the Investment Committee and managed accounts with assets around $700Million; he placed all trades with discretionary authority.

He has been FINRA licensed holding a Series 7 General Securities Representative Exam Stockbroker, Series 8; Series 9 General Securities Sales Supervisor Exam – Options & Series 10 General Securities Sales Supervisor Examination, Series 63 Uniform Securities Agent State Law Exam, Series 65 Uniform Registered Investment Adviser Law Exam (RIA)*, Series 66 Uniform Investment Adviser – Combined State Laws Exam, and also an Insurance License.

Mr. Craig Williams received his M.B.A. from Thunderbird the American Graduate School of International Management and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Northern Kentucky University in International Studies with an emphasis on East Asia.

Mr. Craig Williams is a native English speaker and also speaks Conversational Chinese.

Michael J Beda Vice President of Business Development

Mr. Beda brings in-depth knowledge of economic and financial knowledge to Ceres Ltd; He is a regular guest-lecture of Economics at a myriad of universities including Fudan, NYU, and Tongji. He has in-depth business development experiences across Mainland China, Hong Kong, Vietnam and the USA.

Mr. Beda served at the Director of Expatriate Investment for HuaXia Finance a leading Peer-to-Peer Lending IFSP headquartered in Shanghai China where he oversaw the foreign wealth management services departments based out of Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, and the greater Zhejiang region as well as the the IR and Market Analysis teams for the firm.

Michael Beda helped grow  HuaXia Finance in to a billion-dollar entity employing over 7,600 employees across 106 cities and aiding in the successful investment of nearly $3 Billion USD through the online platform and was an integral part of planning the firm’s IPO on the NYSE. One of Mr. Beda’s proudest achievements while at HuaXia Finance was fully funding and opening a school for over 150 full-time students in Tai An, China.

 Mr. Beda originally came to China in 2008 on a business trip and stayed for the Olympics, he later moved to Beijing to work for an EB-5 Real Estate Investment Company which oversaw a dock renovation project in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

 Mr Beda received his double major Bachelor’s degree in Business Management and Finance from The Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Studied Mandarin Chinese at Beijing Language and Culture University as well as at Shanghai International Studies University. He is an intermediate Mandarin speaker with HSK Level 3 (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi) Chinese language proficiency.

Robert Meara CTA, Vice President of Futures

 Mr. Meara brings a wealth of experience to Ceres Ltd; he has over thirty years of experience in the commodity trading industry and is a registered CTA. He was featured in Futures Magazine in 2008 as an up and coming CTA

Prior to joining Ceres Mr Meara worked at  MF Global, First American, Ira Epstein & Company and the Chicago office of the China International Futures Corporation (CIFCO), one of the largest brokerage firms in mainland China, dealing with institutional speculators in the sugar and metals market.

In addition to his responsibilities at Ceres, Mr Meara runs MAD Group Investments which was founded in 2005 to leverage his varied expertise by serving clients needs from information requests and order entry through to the selection of trade.

Mr. Meara has a thorough knowledge of what is necessary for even the most experienced trader to optimize risk reward ratios to improve chances for trading success.

Mr. Meara graduated from Indiana University with a BA in History, concentrating in Chinese language and History, he has a Series 3 license and he is a registered CTA.