Konecranes Plc has appointed Anders Svensson as its new President and CEO, with effect from December 7, 2022 (possibly sooner). Until he joins the company, Konecranes’ CFO Teo Ottola will continue to act as the Interim CEO. Ottola has been interim CEO since Rob Smith left the company last August to become the new CEO of Kion Group. Anders Svensson joins Konecranes from Sandvik, where he is currently President of the Sandvik Rock Processing Solutions Business Area. Prior to his current role, he has held various leadership positions within Sandvik since 2008, including President, Crushing and Screening Division; President, Customer Services and SVP Global Sales, Sandvik Construction as well as Chief Purchasing Officer, Sandvik Construction and Sandvik Mining.

Swire Shipping Group has promoted Jeremy Sutton to Managing Director. He succeeds James Woodrow who returns after seven years in Singapore to the UK to become Managing Director of James Finlay, a subsidiary company of Swire Group. At the same time, Chris Daniells has been appointed Managing Director of Swire Projects, specialising in services in the energy, resources and infrastructure sector. Daniells will remain as CCO for Swire Shipping.

Britta Dalunde will resign from the Board of Directors of Russia-based ports operator Global Ports Investments, with effect from 23 March next year, while Inna Kuznetsova has stated that she will not make herself available for re-election at the next AGM. Mrs Dalunde has been an independent Non-Executive Director and Chairwoman of Audit and Risk Committee since 2017. Mrs Kutznetsova has been an Independent Non-Executive Director, Chairwoman of the Nomination and Renumeration Committee and a member of the Audit and Risk Committee since 2018. It has also been reported that Lambros Papadopoulos, an Independent Non-Executive Director, has withdrawn his candidacy for re-election at the AGM to be held on June 10^th. He has been served as a member of the Strategy Committee and the Audit and Risk Committee. No reasons have been given for these personal decisions, but it might not be that hard to second-guess them. In March APM Terminals announced that it would be seeking a buyer for its stake in GPI, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And last month APM Terminals’ parent group Maersk announced it was closing all its operations in Russia. It was speculated that APMT’s equal shares partner Delo Group would be the obvious candidate for APMT’s 37.5% stake, but there is no news on this as yet. It could be that the “decks are being cleared” for Delo nominations.

After nine years in the post, Christian de Tinguy is stepping down as President of UNIM, the Association of Stevedoring Companies in France. De Tinguy, a long-time director of Terminaux de Normandie in the Port of Le Havre, has served two consecutive 4-year terms at the helm of UNIM, France’s main body for representing employers in the ports industry. At the time of writing, WorldCargo News does not know who will succeed him. De Tinguy’s tenure covers major developments, from the 2014 port reform law to the incorporation of the Seine ports of Le Havre, Rouen and Paris into a single port authority.

Thomas Damsgaard has been appointed to head BIMCO’s new office in Houston, TX, USA. The office will offer a round-the-clock service while advocacy work in Washington, DC, will continue to be run by the BIMCO head office in Copenhagen. Damsgaard has a longstanding business history with shipping companies and has been engaged in training activities and agency work, mostly in the USA.

Itasca, Ill, USA: SEKO Logistics has named Kai Lincoln as its first Global VP of Sustainability, as a key step towards its ESG targets, which aim at ensuring that all owned and controlled facilities and activities, including road linehaul and parcel final mile, are carbon neutral by 2050. Based in Sydney, Australia, Lincoln joined SEKO in January 2014 as Managing Director of SEKO Omni-Channel Logistics.