In the late 1980s, Francis Mottrie's career path began to take shape when he accepted a trainee position in a shipping company. Thirty years later, he is still in the industry.
The 56-year-old Belgian national, who hails from the West Flanders region, was studying law when he took a specialist course in maritime science.
He found this theoretical, which is where the traineeship came in as he tried to get hands-on experience of the business.
He had the idea to set himself up as a maritime lawyer in Zeebrugge, which at the time had little coverage for this area of the law outside the maritime hot spot of Antwerp.
Today, Mottrie — who is also a consular judge in Antwerp’s Labour Court — not only finds himself with a maritime career behind him, but he is now heading one of the famous names of gas shipping in the port city on Belgium’s Scheldt river.
April 2020 to present: Chief executive of Exmar Group
January 2020 to April 2020: Deputy chief executive of Exmar Group
May 2012 to January 2020: Chief executive of Bexco
February 2019 to September 2020: Exmar Group transition project
March 2002 to May 2012: Europe region executive at Safmarine (part of AP-Moller Group)
October 1997 to March 2002: Human resources executive at Safmarine Group
September 1988 to October 1997: General manager of legal services at CMB Transport (acquired by Safmarine in 1995)
June 1987 to June 1988: Internship lawyer at the Antwerp bar, Belgium
Of the shipping business, he said: “I’ve always really enjoyed it despite all the ups and downs.”
'No bad ideas'
Mottrie described himself as “ambitious”, “committed” and “with a can-do attitude”.
“The value of integrity for me is extremely important,” he said.
Exmar's new chief executive is also very committed to openness and transparency.
“There are no bad ideas,” Mottrie said. “We will need every input and people to reflect on how to redefine their roles and really bring to value their expertise in this new environment.
“Let’s try to bring people to be creative, think out of the box, respond quickly to changes, be agile and be results driven.”
Mottrie is married with two children. He is keen on sports and enjoys getting out to walk, swim or cycle, although he says he should find more time to do it. He also enjoys spending time with his family.
“It’s very important by the way,” he said.
