Gary Vogel was co-chief executive of Denmark’s private Clipper Group when his mobile phone rang on a Saturday afternoon in the spring of 2015.

He saw the caller was an acquaintance of 25 years, Paul Leand — a finance man who was also chairman of Eagle Bulk Shipping.

“I thought I might know what this was about,” Vogel said. “I told my wife: ‘I think I should take this’.”

With that, Vogel was about to trade in more than 15 years working for private Clipper for a public executive’s title with New York-listed Eagle Bulk.

Planes traded for automobiles

He would also trade eight hours on an aeroplane from New York to Copenhagen for what would become a 30-minute car ride from his home in New Canaan, Connecticut, to Stamford.

“The Eagle idea was very compelling to me for other reasons, but it’s fair to say I didn’t miss getting on the plane to Copenhagen 10 to 15 times a year in addition to travelling to Asia and other places,” Vogel said.

It was also a good fit for Eagle Bulk’s board, which had a falling out with company founder and chief executive Sophocles Zoullas upon the owner’s emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganisation.

Leand, chief executive of AMA Capital Partners, said: “We had known each other for a long time and we had decent insight into the way he ran the business.

“Gary brings to the table everything we’d hoped he would. He has a deep history and knowledge of the assets and the market in which we operate. We went through some difficult financial times even after Gary joined. The banking and investment community has a great degree of confidence in Gary, and I think it’s well placed.”

Birthday present

Leand alluded to a collapse in the dry bulk market as Vogel came aboard that required yet another recapitalisation.

But with the dry market, and Eagle Bulk, now on a bull run, Vogel’s rude welcome is something he can today regard with a wry chuckle.

“I'll never forget that the lowest day ever for the Baltic Supramax Index was on my 50th birthday,” he said. “In hindsight, it was a birthday present that it was the lowest point. I just didn’t know it at the time.”