Chemical tanker giant Stolt-Nielsen will be run by an executive from outside of the founding family for the first time after chief executive Niels Stolt-Nielsen announced he was stepping down after 23 years.

Udo Lange will take over the reins of the company from 1 September after moving from logistics giant FedEx Express, where he led a team of more than 50,000 employees across 80 countries.

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The appointment marks the end of an era at Stolt-Nielsen, which has been run by Niels and his father — company founder Jacob — since 1959.

Jacob, who died in 2015, launched the company with a single ship and oversaw its growth until 2000 when he passed the baton to his son.

The organisation now has a deepsea fleet of 83 tankers and 63 vessels serving the regional market, according to its latest figures. Niels Stolt-Neilsen will become chairman of the board.

The Oslo-listed group has been tipped to spin off its Stolt Tankers chemical carrier division in the second half of this year.

Niels Stolt-Nielsen said he was confident the IPO would not be affected after the shipowner made a $155m provision following a US appeals court decision that found the company partially responsible for a fatal fire on the 6,732-teu MSC Flaminia (built 2001) in 2012. Stolt-Nielsen had containers of chemicals on board the vessel.

Stolt-Nielsen said Lange has previously worked for Lufthansa and DHL, and has more than 20 years of experience in international trade.

He serves on the board of e-commerce startup Freightos and the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. He is also on the board of trustees for an exhibition in Germany about the capture of Adolf Eichmann, a key figure in the Holocaust.

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