Teekay Corp chief financial officer Vince Lok will step down on 1 January after spending three decades at the energy shipping giant, the company said.
Lok, who also holds the title of executive vice president, had spent 16 years in the CFO chair at the company, a time period that saw New York-listed Teekay spawn some of what became a network of spin-off companies then sell them down to just the holding company and Teekay Tankers.
“Over the past 30 years, Vince has played an instrumental role in the evolution of the Teekay Group. Personally, it has been a real privilege to have worked with Vince for more than two decades,” said chief executive Kenneth Hvid.
“He has been a great CFO, colleague, and friend whose professionalism and care for Teekay, and all our stakeholders, has been a beacon through both our growth and our simplification years.”
Lok will remain an advisor through the end of next year.
The CFO started at Teekay in 1993, holding a variety of financial positions. He was controller from 1997 until he became vice president of finance in 2002. He was also senior vice president and treasurer from 2004 until 2006, when he became CFO.
He has also served as CFO at spin-off Teekay Tankers, as well as a director of Teekay GP, which was the general partner of what was then Teekay LNG Partners.
“With Teekay now in a solid financial position and well-positioned to benefit from the strong tanker market fundamentals, now feels like the logical time to retire as the company embarks on the next phase of its strategy.” Lok said in the announcement.
The company has not formally named a new CFO.
But Brody Speers, Teekay Corp’s treasurer and vice president of finance, will assume Lok’s responsibilities and continue to oversee the finance, accounting and tax teams.
Speers, who like Lok is based in Teekay’s Vancouver headquarters, has been at Teekay since 2008, holding numerous senior financial positions in the finance, accounting and strategic development departments, including a stint as CFO of the former Teekay LNG.
“We have focused on talent management and succession planning over many years, and I am confident that Brody Speers is the natural choice for the role and will ensure that we have a seamless transfer of responsibilities,” Hvid said.
