Exmar has announced its chairman Baron Philippe Bodson has died of Covid-19, a loss that has led to a change of its management structure.
The Belgian businessman and politician was 75.
Exmar said: "On 4 April our chairman of the board, Baron Philippe Bodson, sadly passed away after his fight against Covid-19."
The gas shipping specialist added: "Exmar pays tribute to Baron Bodson for his unconditional dedication to our group.
"We express our heartfelt condolences to his wife, children and grandchildren."
The Exmar board has been reorganised as a result, with chief executive Nicolas Saverys becoming executive chairman.
New chief executive
This means deputy chief executive Francis Mottrie becomes CEO.
"Exmar is confident that these complementary positions will enhance Exmar’s growth and success," it said.
Born in 1944, Bodson served in the Belgian Senate from 1999 to 2003.
He graduated as a civil engineer at the University of Liege.
Bodson started his career at McKinsey in Paris where he worked for three years.
He was then at Daus Bank in Germany and the US, before joining Glaverbel, where he would be the chief executive from 1980 until 1989. From September 1989 until December 1998, he was a non-executive member of the board of directors of Fortis.
From 2004 until 2010, he was a director at Fortis and in 2001, he was chief executive of Lernout & Hauspie Speech Product.
He had been a director of Exmar for 18 years, and chairman for the last 15 of those.
Experienced shipping man
Mottrie has been second in command since January, with more than 30 years’ experience in the maritime industry.
In 1987 he started his career as a lawyer at the Antwerp bar, going on to hold various management positions at shipowners CMB, Safmarine and AP Moller-Maersk.
From 2012 until 2020 he was chief executive of Bexco, a manufacturer of ropes for the offshore and maritime industries.
Saverys has been involved in the family shipowning business since graduating from the University of Ghent with a degree in economics in 1980.
He has been responsible for developing Exmar from a small subsidiary of a shipyard in the early 1980s to become one of the leading independent gas shipowning companies.
