Maersk, Hamburg Süd to reshuffle management after merger

Upon completion of the deal, several Maersk Line senior executives will join the top management team of German ocean carrier Hamburg Süd, the companies said in a joint statement.    Danish ocean carrier Maersk Line and the Oetker Group plan to shake up the management team of Hamburg Süd after Maersk acquires the German liner company, according to a joint statement from the companies.
   Maersk said it expects the deal to close in the fourth quarter of 2017, and that until then, the two companies will continue to conduct business as usual.
   The following executive changes are planned:
     • Ottmar Gast will retire as chairman of Hamburg Süd’s executive board to become the chairman of its supervisory board (a body similar to a board of directors);
     • Søren Toft, chief operating officer of Maersk Line A/S, will become member of the supervisory board of Hamburg Süd;
     • Arnt Vespermann, currently a member of Hamburg Süd’s executive board, will become the new chairman of the executive board of Hamburg Süd. In addition to existing responsibilities he will be in charge of compliance, corporate communication and of Hamburg Süd’s Columbus Ship Management unit. He will be what the companies call a “coach” for two of Hamburg-Süd’s five regions – North America as well as the Caribbean and Latin America West Coast;
     • Frank Smet will continue as member of the executive board of Hamburg Süd with responsibilities for sales and marketing, customer order management and all Hamburg Süd parts of operations, including network and logistics. He will be the coach for the Asia Pacific and South America East Coast regions;
     • And Jakob Wegge-Larsen, currently chief financial officer of Maersk Line operations, will join the executive board of Hamburg Süd to assume the responsibility of finance and accounting, controlling and information technology and services. He will be the coach for the Europe region.
   While “coach” is not commonly used as a title in U.S. businesses, Eva Graumann, the global head of corporate communications at Hamburg Süd, explained the role is part of what the company calls its “matrix” organizational structure.
   “Members of the executive board in Hamburg are in charge of certain functional departments in the head office, such as sales, customer service, logistics, operations, finance and accounting, human resources, etc.,” she said. “Those departments oversee and give guidance to the respective functions in the five regions. The regions are in charge of the day-to-day business with a high degree of commercial and operational empowerment and independence.”
   Two or three senior managers in each region, “report to and are coached by one of the members of the executive board when it comes to organizational or other matters that are not directly related to the day-to-day business,” added Graumann. “While the role of the coaches was established long time ago and not only recently in the advent of the take-over by Maersk, the coaches will certainly play a vital role in the integration process.”
    Maersk said it “intends to maintain the business model of Hamburg Süd as well as the commercial structure in the regions” following completion of the deal. “Hence, the five customer facing regions and the areas will remain unchanged after closing and the respective management is asked to continue in their current capacity.”
   The companies noted the acquisition is still subject to regulatory approval and said until the closing, Hamburg Süd will continue to operate independently from Maersk Line as required by competition laws.
   Maersk Line and Hamburg Süd also said they will “establish a joint team to ensure that business operations will continue seamlessly at and as of closing.” The team will be headed by Lars Mikael Jensen from Maersk Line and Michael Triskatis from Hamburg Süd, with further team members to be announced in the near future.