One of Simpson Spence Young (SSY)’s most prolific and well-known dry bulk chartering brokers has retired.
SSY announced on its social media pages that Taro Harada has concluded a three decades-long career in shipping, the last 13 years of which were spent on SSY’s handy and supramax chartering team.
Most recently, he has been based in London.
“Harada san — you are a LEGEND — a total of 2,152 fixtures in 13 years ... there are not many brokers out there who could claim that track record! Your retirement is well deserved — time to put your feet up,” SSY senior director and head of period bulk Jonathan Bond said in a Linkedin post.
Ole Martin Ulstein, partner and executive director for dry cargo at SSY, described Harada as a “top-quality person and broker”.
“Enjoy your retirement, it’s certainly well deserved,” Ulstein said.
Other industry personalities and past colleagues also wished Harada a happy retirement.
Mark Lincoln, chartering broker at Bulkfleet Chartering, said: “Thanks for all your help when I was at Santana. We had some great fixtures together.”
Harada, who studied at the University of Tsukuba, started his shipping career with Mitsui OSK Lines in April 1999. He left the Japanese shipping giant to join SSY in November 2010.
