The Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) has revealed that managing director Mohammad Saeidi quit the company.
Iranian media has reported that Saeidi will be replaced at the helm of Iran’s largest liner and bulker company by Mohammadreza Modares Khiabani, a steel industry veteran who until his appointment as managing director yesterday was also a member of the IRISL board.
Khiabani holds a bachelor of science degree in metallurgy engineering from Iran’s Sharif University of Technology. He is reported to have held senior management positions in large Iranian steel manufacturing companies.
Saeidi, a former deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and member of Iran’s nuclear negotiating team, joined IRISL in 2015 just after crippling sanctions against the country and many of its state-owned companies were being lifted.
The vision for IRISL that he laid out to TradeWinds at the time was to restore the company’s presence in the international shipping markets and build it up into one of the top-ten liner companies.
It was a tough task hindered by ongoing sanctions headaches in the banking sector, but the company was beginning to make headway until the Trump administration re-imposed sanctions against sanctions that sent IRISL back to square one.
Sources closely following IRISL said that Saeidi’s background in the political arena, while paramount to building the company in the post-sanctions era, was perhaps not what IRISL needed when navigating through the sanctions minefield it once again finds itself.
Khiabani is described as having a much stronger business background, which is what the company needs at this time.
IRISL controls a mixed fleet of around 115 vessels totalling in the region of 3.3 million dwt.
