Kolding exits Maersk Line

   Maersk Line Chief Executive Officer Eivind Kolding will step down from his post in January to become executive board chairman at Danske Bank.
   Kolding, who took over the top spot at the world’s biggest container line in 2006, will be replaced Jan. 16 by Søren Skou, currently CEO of Maersk Tankers.
   ”Under Eivind Kolding’s skilled leadership, Maersk Line has undergone an impressive turnaround,” said Nils Andersen, group CEO of parent company A.P. Moller-Maersk. “Its competitiveness has improved significantly and at the same time, Maersk Line has set new standards for the industry with regards to environment and reliability. Furthermore, Maersk Line has gotten a much stronger focus on the customers.”
   The A.P. Møller-Mærsk Group and the A.P. Møller and Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller Foundation are the biggest single shareholders of Danske Bank, with a 22.8 percent share as of Nov. 22.

Kolding

   Kolding, who was chief financial officer for the A.P. Moller–Maersk Group prior to taking the reins at Maersk Line, arrived in the wake of Maersk’s acquisition of P&O Nedlloyd, a move that took its toll operationally and financially on the company.
   But in the last few years, Maersk has emerged stronger, with a renewed focus on customers and liner service reliability. In the last year, Kolding put himself at the forefront of a publicity drive to change the relationships between carriers and shippers. It culminated in October with the introduction of Daily Maersk, a product that leverages Maersk’s huge Asia-Europe resources to provide guaranteed transportation times between key Asian and Northern European ports.
   Maersk’s vast hub-and-spoke liner network strategy has also developed on Kolding’s watch, with major inroads made into high-growth markets like South America and Africa.
   The container line has also benefited from the diversified business units of the A.P. Moller–Maersk Group as it is better able to weather periods of low rates than its competitors, who rely more on containership revenue.
   Skou, meanwhile, has spent the last decade heading Maersk Tankers. He has nearly three decades within the Maersk Group, including a 15-year stint in the container business at Copenhagen, Beijing, and New York.
   “I am very pleased that Søren Skou has accepted the important task as CEO of Maersk Line,” Andersen said. “Søren is a sharp and visionary leader with strong international leadership experience, not least within shipping. He knows container shipping very well both from the time he worked for Maersk Line, but also as a member of the group’s executive board, where he has stayed in close touch with Maersk Line and the industry. He is quite the right man to continue the development of Maersk Line and expand our positions in the market.”
   Maersk said Skou headed an initiative to reduce the group’s costs in 2009 and 2010.
   “In order to concentrate fully on the tasks in Maersk Line, Søren Skou’s additional positions will gradually be transferred to others in the group,” Maersk said. – Eric Johnson