Peter Twiss has retired with immediate effect as president and CEO of Oldendorff Carriers after more than 27 years at the giant bulker owner-operator.
The Copenhagen-based head of chartering, executive director Yannis Efstathiou, is also retiring after 22 years at the company.
Staff were made aware of the departures in a shock announcement circulated to employees on Tuesday morning and seen by TradeWinds.
“Many years ago, we structured the board and suspected even back then that a macro-manager had a shelf life until around mid-50s. It’s an uncompromising job for our families and ourselves, and as we’ve been doing it for so long at some point you’ve got to call it a day,” Twiss and Efstathiou said in the joint announcement.
They added that they want younger staff to have the same opportunities to progress as they had.
The pair said they had no concrete immediate plans, except to hire a catamaran in the Greek islands.
London-based Patrick Hutchins, who heads Oldendorff’s capesize chartering activities, will take over as chief executive. He joined the company in 1999 and will relocate to Germany for the new role.
Owner Henning Oldendorff said he was “forever grateful” for the close working relationship with Twiss, which he said was “built on trust and friendship”.
“Together with our people and our global board, we have enjoyed countless adventures and weathered many storms. Peter will be around to support and assist the new CEO for as long as is required,” Oldendorff said on Tuesday.
Low-key Twiss, who has been known to turn up to the office in shorts and flip-flops, has been a popular and visionary leader.
Under his leadership, the family-owned company has expanded around the world and operates 700 bulk carriers at any time in segments from handysize up to newcastlemax. It is said to have booked more than $1bn in net profit for 2021.
With Twiss in the top job, Oldendorff has also branched out and invested in new areas, including transshipment activities and tech, such as its early investment in data platform AXSMarine in 2004.
But really it has been the ramping up of the operating business that has changed the face of Oldendorff under his leadership.
The company took the strategy at the turn of the century to move closer to the cargo and is today the world’s largest operator of bulkers.
Twiss joined Oldendorff at age 32 by way of Concept Bulk Carriers, a handymax operator that was taken over by the Lubeck-based owner in 1995.
He had a brief return to Concept Carriers when it attempted a short-lived charter venture in New York, after which he was promoted to managing director in January 1999.
Concept Carriers merged with Egon Oldendorff in 2001, which sealed Twiss’ career path at the company, where he took charge of the panamax and handymax business.
Twiss’ retirement is something of a full-circle moment for the firm under the ownership of Henning Oldendorff, who has made a point of nurturing talent.
Henning was 23 in 1980 when he took over control of the privately held company, which was founded by his father, Egon. Full ownership passed to Henning when Egon passed away in 1984.
Henning’s vision was to push for bottom-up management by delegating decision making to staff with the closest links to cargo clients and suppliers.
This came to fruition when Twiss and Jan Hagemann took the top jobs at Oldendorff in 2001 while still in their early 30s. TradeWinds called the promotions an “audacious” move by Henning at the time.
Twiss was left at the helm when Hagemann left in 2003.
His father — also named Peter Twiss — was head of Cast, in its day a major player in Canadian shipping.
More exits?
The question now will be: will more staff head for the door following Twiss’ departure? And what changes will be made by Hutchins?
Oldendorff has been rocked by abrupt staff departures over the past year, some of whom are big names in dry markets who have set up rival concerns.
