Oldendorff Carriers has circulated details of staff changes that will be made following the retirement of its chief executive and head of chartering.
TradeWinds broke the news on Tuesday that president and CEO Peter Twiss is retiring with immediate effect from Oldendorff Carriers after more than 27 years. Executive director and head of chartering Yannis Efstathiou is also retiring after 22 years at the company.
And so begins a rollout of new roles under new chief executive Patrick Hutchins, who until now has been head of Oldendorff’s capesize chartering activities.
Alex Vajsova-Jones will take over running the capesize business unit, according to an internal announcement seen by TradeWinds. He has until now been managing director of the panamax business in Singapore.
This means Hamburg-based executive director Johannes Babendererde will now run the panamax business unit alone.
Efstathiou will hand over responsibility for Oldendorff’s operations, port operations and marine accounting departments to Marco Moller, who will also remain in his current role as executive director of ultramax and handysize chartering in Hamburg.
Efstathiou’s seat on Oldendorff’s board will be taken over by Ajayan Sahadevan, who is based in Dubai and who joined the firm in 2011 from Daeyang Shipping in South Korea.
Sahadevan became head of Oldendorff’s Indian trades in 2015 and relocated to Dubai in 2016.
As well as the board seat, Sahadevan will also take over the bunker team and cargo desks for India and South Africa from Efstathiou.
Meanwhile, the forward freight agreement desk has been assigned to executive director Massimo Vignali, who is based in Copenhagen and has until now headed up Oldendorff’s period chartering activities.
Alongside Twiss, Efstathiou has also played a key role shaping Oldendorff Carriers into the giant it is today.
Business owner Henning Oldendorff described Efstathiou as a mentor and “the godfather of our India and South Africa trades” in an internal email seen by TradeWinds.
“He has shaped the company in many areas, since he joined in July of 2001, such as being one of our first macro-managers, when he initially headed the Pacific supra[max] fleet and later the Atlantic supra fleet,” Oldendorff added.
Efstathiou also built up or headed Oldendorff’s chartering, projects, research, operations, bunkers and marine accounting units during his time at the firm.
He opened Oldendorff’s offices in India, Cape Town and expanded the existing office in Dubai.
“He leaves behind an enormous legacy and big boots to fill,” Oldendorff added in the email.
Twiss and Efstathiou intend to remain with the company until the handovers of their responsibilities have been completed.
