Stanley Hutter Ryan will take over from long-serving chairman David Turnbull at Pacific Basin Shipping.
Ryan, already an independent non-executive director at the Hong Kong bulker owner, takes up the post on 18 April 2023 after the annual general meeting.
His director’s fee of HKD 800,000 ($102,000) per annum will increase to HKD 1.56m.
Pacific Basin said Ryan’s remuneration was agreed between him and the company and was “determined by reference to the levels of emolument of other senior executives of the company and in the market generally”.
“The board believes that his extensive commercial, strategic and operational experience in the commodities business, together with his knowledge of the company and its business, will enable him to provide leadership for the board,” Pacific Basin said.
In May, Turnbull announced he was stepping down as chairman of Pacific Basin after 14 years.
The 60-year-old US-educated Ryan boasts a 25-year career at commodities giant Cargill, joining in 1989.
During this time, he is said to have “developed extensive hands-on leadership experience across a range of asset and operationally intensive multinational businesses, particularly concentrated in the international commodities trade, cyclical industries and spanning both developed and emerging markets”.
From Cargill’s global headquarters in Minneapolis, he had stints in Brazil, Venezuela, the Netherlands and Australia.
Ryan served as an independent director at US-listed Eagle Bulk Shipping between October 2014 and June 2016 and stepped in as its interim chief executive in 2015.
Pacific Basin has 252 ships on the water, of which 115 are owned: 73 handysize and 42 supramaxes.
It announced last month that it is going for green methanol as its future fuel of choice after a feasibility study into how new vessels can be commercially viable.
The company has been developing a new generation of zero-emission bulkers and bunkering infrastructure with Japan’s Nihon Shipyard and Mitsui & Co, after agreeing a cooperation deal in May.
