Tom Hewitson knows he will stand or fall by results after taking the job of head of chartering and freight solutions at Maersk Tankers.
The former trader said vessel managers today must drive up owners’ earnings at the same time as cutting emissions by deploying vessels efficiently.
Hewitson was appointed in September to shake up chartering and operations, and address the changes in the trading environment and new emissions regulations from 2023.
He will oversee cargoes from large energy companies and trading houses, having worked for Morgan Stanley, BP and Castleton Commodities International.
He accepted the Danish job after a phone call, which gave him “butterflies in the stomach”.
Hewitson has known Maersk Tankers “since the first day I walked on to the BP trading floor 22 years ago”.
He explained the unknown remains a big part of maritime life. Vessels are loaded with cargo before setting out for a destination that is either not yet fixed or can change on the customers’ request.
Hewitson explained: “There is so much optionality embedded within a ship when it is at sea and that, to me, is fascinating.”
This optionality also comes with tanker shipping being a global industry that has to react to natural disasters or geopolitical storms such as the Ukraine war.
Performance is a priority
His priority now will be to strengthen the company’s commercial and freight solutions performance.
Hewitson said he and his team of 40 staff will be judged on the financial returns they deliver to shipowners.
This will involve “a lot of hard work” and a collaborative approach. “It has to be more about evolution, not revolution,” he added.
Hewitson accepts that energy demand will have to be met by a mix of fossil fuels and alternative sources for some time yet.
“We need ships to transport it,” he said, adding: “We live in a world that has to decarbonise and oil’s place in that world will change.”
Technical and commercial expertise needed
The next generation of shipping operations will need a blend of technical and commercial expertise, he argues.
Hewitson said propellers and hulls must be optimised, and fleet deployment efficiency improved.
Demand will “come sooner than expected because of new regulations”, he added.
And the new chartering chief said: “I don’t do things half-heartedly. I am in or out.”
The executive grew up in a small fishing village on the Isle of Man between the UK and Ireland.
His father had his own building company and his mother ran the accounting side of the business.
His brother went into the family business, but Hewitson took a different path and studied Naval Architecture and Shipbuilding at Newcastle University.
“I love being in, on or next to the sea,” he told the Copenhagen company’s website.
