Shipping industry recruiter starts own firm

Shipping industry recruiter starts own firm Eric Wiberg, an executive recruiter specializing in the shipping industry, has started his own firm, Ketch Recruiting, based in Norwalk, Conn.
   Wiberg founded Ketch after two years at the RSR Partners in Greenwich, a firm with clients in many industries including financial services, healthcare, consumer products, technology, transportation, automotive and manufacturing.
   Wiberg said that having his own firm gives him more flexibility in how he recruits for employers.
   He explained that some recruiters operate exclusively on a retainer basis where clients pay whether or not the recruiter is successful in finding the executive it eventually hires. Wiberg said his firm will offer the option of working on a contingency basis for some clients. He likened it to the 'no cure-no pay' contracts under which shipping companies sometimes engage salvage companies.
   'Ketch will allow me the freedom to provide clients with both contingency and retained search at the executive and board as well as management and even entry level,' he said.
   Rapid growth in shipping has created a strong demand for shipboard officers, with industry groups such as the International Shipping Federation stating that there may be a shortage of as many as 27,000 ship officers by 2015.
   Wiberg said the boom in shipping is also creating a demand for the types of shoreside executive positions that he seeks to fill.
   Some shipping companies are fairly clubby, he said, not looking far and wide for talent, and at the same time many executives from other sectors are unaware of the opportunities in shipping.
   'You don't see many shipowners at job fairs,' he noted.
   Wiberg has a varied and unusual background in the maritime sector.
   After earning a master's degree in Marine Affairs from the University of Rhode Island, he focused on maritime law when he got his law degree from the Roger Williams University Law School. He is member of the Maritime Law Association of the United States.
   Wiberg was a commercial operations officer of a fleet of product tankers for B&H Co. in Singapore, and he also holds a master's license from the U.S. Coast Guard.
   In addition, he has a strong background in the yachting industry. He has helped run over 90 vessels and from 1999 to 2005 he built up a business, Echo Yacht Deliveries Worldwide, which moved 150 yachts around the world.