John Fredriksen's Flex LNG is bringing in a CFO from another of his companies, Ship Finance International (SFL).
SFL has appointed Aksel Olesen as CFO to replace Harald Gurvin, who is leaving to become Flex finance chief.
Olesen joins on 1 January from Pareto Securities, where he is head of shipping and offshore project finance.
Gurvin is expected to join Flex in January.
He has been CFO at sister company SFL since 2012, having joined the company in 2006.
Gurvin said: "I am very much looking forward to joining the Flex LNG team at an exciting time for both the company and the LNG shipping industry in general.
"With a fleet consisting of thirteen next generation vessels, Flex LNG is uniquely positioned to capitalise on a market with strong underlying fundamentals due to the ongoing shift from coal to natural gas as well as the substantial reduction in freight costs offered by the new modern LNG carriers.”
Flex CEO Oystein Kalleklev added: "Flex LNG is very pleased to announce this CFO recruitment. Harald is probably one of the CFOs with the best performance and reputation in the shipping industry with a proven track record in this industry for close to twenty years.
"Harald brings valuable expertise and experience to Flex LNG at a period of time where we are scaling up activity with nine modern LNG carriers currently under construction in addition to the four vessels already on the water.”
Olesen excited to join
New SFL man Olesen was head of investment banking for Pareto in Asia from 2011 to 2014.
He started his career working for the shipping company Kristian Jebsens Rederi as part of the legal and finance team.
SFL CEO Ole Hjertaker said: "We are pleased to welcome Aksel as the new chief financial officer in Ship Finance.
"We expect his broad industry and corporate finance experience will be a significant benefit to the company."
Olesen added: "I am very motivated to join the Ship Finance team at an exciting time for the company where we see a structural shift in access to capital for maritime companies, and particularly within the maritime lending space.
"With a strong track record and healthy balance sheet, I believe the company is in a unique position to benefit from an increasing number of asset acquisitions opportunities and the potential for incremental growth through a diversification of the product offering."
