Frank Olsen, the Norwegian chief executive of London-based Inchcape Shipping Services, is set to quit the company at short notice.
The port agency company said he will leave the company on 30 November, but will “support the transition and handover process”.
Inchcape said Olsen will be “available to the company for a period going forward” and will also remain an investor in the company.
Philippe Maezelle, who describes himself as an “international business leader with strong executive experience across the professional services industries”, has been named as his successor and is due to take up the post on 1 December 2022.
He joins from independent commodity analysts, inspectors and consultants Alfred H Knight where he spent the last three years as chief executive.
Prior to that, he spent a decade at health and security services firm International SOS and 14 years at logistics giant DHL mainly in Asia.
“We thank Frank for his immense contribution to the company over the last seven years,” Inchcape said in a brief statement posted on its website.
“Frank has built a solid foundation for future growth through his professionalism, dedication, and passion for our industry and for Inchcape.”
The company gave no reason for Olsen’s sudden departure, which comes just months after the company was taken over by UK private equity firm Epiris.
The company was acquired in April 2022 from Dubai investment company Istithmar, which bought it in 2006. No price for the transaction was revealed.
The takeover by Epiris was described as returning the company to its “British roots” after it was originally founded in 1847 by Scottish merchants William Mackinnon and Robert Mackenzie.
Inchcape’s port agency division is said to be present in more than 85% of the world’s ports where it handles all aspects of a port call from arranging pilots, tugs and mooring, to loading, unloading, clearing and forwarding freight, to resupplying, refuelling and crewing, handling around $4bn of transactions across more than 80,000 port calls annually.
