London-listed shipbroker Braemar Shipping Services has reshaped its management team to ease the pressure on chief financial officer Nick Stone.
Tris Simmonds, the managing director of Braemar Atlantic Securities, the group's derivative brokerage business, has been promoted to chief operating officer, a role that Stone took on a year ago in addition to his finance brief.
Simmonds will begin in the role from 1 August.
The move completes a shake-up at the top of the London shop that began when chief executive James Kidwell retired in 2019.
Chairman Ron Series then ran the company until shipbroking boss James Gundy took the top job in January. Series was replaced as chairman by former betting company executive Nigel Payne in April.
Simmonds has 30 years' experience in the commodities industry, having founded Atlantic Brokers in 2013. The company was sold to Braemar in 2018.
Prior to that, he worked at GFI Group for 14 years, latterly as head of European commodities.
Braemar said the new COO will be responsible for the operations of the group's businesses and will assist Gundy and Stone in implementing the board’s growth strategy.
New director joins the board
The brokerage also said it had appointed Elizabeth Gooch MBE as a director.
Gooch has more than 16 years' experience of governance, compliance and financial reporting at publicly listed companies.
She founded and ran AIM-quoted software company eg solutions from 2005 until its acquisition by Verint Systems in 2017.
Gooch will also join the group's audit and nomination committees and will chair the remuneration committee.
She is replacing Jurgen Breuer, who is standing down.
Breuer joined the board following the merger of Braemar and ACM Shipping, where he was a director.
Chairman Payne said Simmonds had been instrumental in the successful building out of Braemar's derivative brokerage services.
'Bandwidth' grows
"The board is fortunate to have two excellent executives in James Gundy and Nick Stone and I would like to thank Nick for stepping into the dual COO/CFO role and doing a first-class job during the recent management transition," he added.
Payne believes the change creates a stronger team with "the bandwidth and experience needed" to deliver on the company's growth plans.
The chairman added: "After many years in the industry and 10 years as a non-executive director with Braemar and ACM, I fully understand Jurgen’s decision to not stand for re-election."
Payne said Breuer was a driving force in setting up the wet forward freight agreement joint venture between GFI and ACM, which continues to thrive.
