AP Moller-Maersk has unveiled a new executive leadership team with the focus on diversity.
The move is being implemented days after Vincent Clerc replaced Soren Skou on 1 January as chief executive of the Danish liner giant.
Clerc will push through a new organisational structure shaped around 15 roles and areas of responsibility.
“This team includes leaders with a long tenure within Maersk and leaders with experience from outside the company,” he said.
Their appointment will bring “increased diversity of thought, age, gender and nationality”, he added.
Clerc said the new structure will help accelerate the company’s business transformation, which has been led since 2016 by Skou and a smaller group of top management executives.
It has involved a shift from a diversified conglomerate into an integrated logistics company through a series of sell-offs.
But the new organisational structure was composed to create strong alignment across the enterprise, generating clear ownership and accountability for key aspects of the next phase of the company’s strategy.
Challenging outlook
Maersk banked record profit during the recent boom and its management has developed the group’s decarbonisation strategy with a series of orders for innovative methanol-fuelled container ships.
But the Copenhagen-based company is facing a challenging global economic outlook and a softening market, Clerc said.
“To navigate through and beyond this environment, we will intensify our focus on cost discipline and service quality while increasing customer centricity and decision power in the front line,” he said.
The new executive team is expected to be given financial incentives to improve the company’s performance on environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) targets.
In November, Maersk revealed plans to link management remuneration to sustainable shipping targets in 14 ESG categories. Each is controlled by a member of the executive leadership team.
Perfect ten
The new team comprises 10 new board appointees, all of whom already work with Maersk.
Some joined in the past couple of years including Rotem Hershko, chief product officer – logistics & services, Ditlev Blicher, president of the Asia Pacific region, and Aymeric Chandavoine, president of the European region.
Others have been with the company for longer including Silvia Ding, head of transformation and Johan Sigsgaard, chief product officer – ocean.
The balance of the new team is made up of chief infrastructure officer Rabab Boulos, chief product officer Roem Hersko, Keith Svendsen, CEO of APM Terminals, Narin Phol, president, North America, and chief commercial officer Karsten Kildahl.
These will add to Maersk's existing executive team that includes the company’s new boss Clerc, as well as Patrick Jany, Henriette Hallberg Thygesen, Navneet Kapoor, Caroline Pontoppidan, and Susana Elvira.
