"It is with great sadness and regret we have to announce that Claude Dauphin, passed away peacefully in the early hours of this morning in a hospital in Bogota, Colombia after a hard-fought battle with cancer," Trafigura said in a statement.
Dauphin, 64, had been a leading figure in the global commodities trading industry for more than three decades.
He founded Trafigura together with five partners in 1993, and as chairman and chief executive built the company into one of the world's leading traders of oil, metals and minerals.
