Former DHL executive Green to run P&O Nedlloyd

Former DHL executive Green to run P&O Nedlloyd    P&O Nedlloyd Container Line, the Anglo-Dutch mega-carrier, has appointed former DHL International executive Philip Green, an industry outsider, to succeed Robert Woods as head of the company, effective Jan. 1.
   Philip Green will be named chief executive officer of P&O Nedlloyd on Jan. 1, the same day that Woods, currently group managing director, leaves P&O Nedlloyd to become chief executive of the Peninsular & Oriental Navigation Co. group, one of the 50-percent owners of P&O Nedlloyd.
   The appointment follows a long search for a new head for P&O Nedlloyd, the world’s fourth largest container shipping line.
   P&O Nedlloyd also announced that Haddo Meijer, CEO of Royal Nedlloyd NV, the other 50-percent owner of P&O Nedlloyd, will stand down as chairman of the executive committee of P&O Nedlloyd on Jan. 1.
   Both Woods and Meijer will become non-executive directors of P&O Nedlloyd. The appointments coincide with a restructuring of the top management of the company, whereby one executive — Green — will succeed both Woods, a former P&O Containers executive, and Meijer, a former Nedlloyd executive.
   Jeffrey Sterling, chairman of the P&O group, and Leo Berndsen, chairman of Nedlloyd, will remain co-chairmen of the P&O Nedlloyd joint venture.
   Green was until recently chief operating officer of Reuters Group plc, which he joined in 1999. Prior to this, he worked for nine years with DHL International, becoming COO for Europe and Africa. He holds a Master in Business Administration from the London Business School.
   The P&O and Nedlloyd groups said that Green’s experience from DHL gives him a detailed knowledge of the logistics market.
   The nomination of Woods will be seen as a rare appointment of a non-shipping executive as the head of the container shipping line.