Jason Klopfer is a jack of all trades for the Navig8 Group, the world’s largest pooling and commercial management operator.
As a career tanker man with shipping in his blood, he moved into finance and capital market responsibilities around 2012 as the group raised hundreds of millions of dollars to acquire vessels ranging from VLCCs to chemical carriers.
The 43-year-old is also the smooth marketing voice for Navig8 at industry conferences, especially in the US, where he directs business development.
All of this has made him an indispensable asset for Navig8 founders Nicolas Busch and Gary Brocklesby, the former Glencore traders.
While Klopfer is known to play a key role in development for the group’s wide range of pools, “my responsibilities have gradually widened over the years”, he tells TW+.
“Being able to take on a wide range of responsibilities is what I like most about working with Gary and Nic. You get to touch all aspects of the business.
“Obviously pooling is my background and with that I have built up close relationships with a lot of shipowners and oil companies. Finding ways to maximise those relationships is an important portion of my day, but a focus on capital markets and sourcing new investment opportunities has become equally as important.”
Klopfer in one sense was born into the business. He is the son of Peter Klopfer, a prominent S&P broker who had been a partner at New York’s Jacq Pierot Jr & Sons and an entrepreneur who co-founded First Ship Lease in 2002.
At just about that time, the junior Klopfer was finishing law school at New York’s Hofstra University and taking his first job as a tanker broker with McQuilling Partners on Long Island.
My background in the tanker space helped me understand and communicate when it was an advantageous time to invest
Jason Klopfer
More than a year later, he moved to New York’s Overseas Shipholding Group (OSG), where as vice president he oversaw commercial management of the Aframax International pool. He also served as vice president of the Tankers International VLCC pool.
After nearly eight years with OSG, Klopfer moved just down the street to brokerage Poten & Partners, where he was managing director of the spot tankers unit. He oversaw a strategy said to have doubled the unit’s market share.
He joined Navig8 in 2012 as commercial director and was quickly involved in learning the finance game, an area in which he credits the tutelage of Busch.
“My background was more in traditional shipping, specifically tankers,” Klopfer says. “When we started seeing real opportunities to acquire advantageous assets and the timing was opportune, I began working closely with Nic. He brought me along for the ride as we made our entry into capital markets.”
Through three owners launched on Oslo’s over-the-counter exchange — Navig8 Crude Tankers, Navig8 Product Tankers and Navig8 Chemical Tankers — the group raised more than $1bn in equity on fleets worth $3bn.
“My background in the tanker space helped me understand and communicate when it was an advantageous time to invest — it helps to have that background,” Klopfer says.
While Navig8 continues to build its pools and is taking a new run at vessel ownership in product tankers, like many companies, it is dealing with the combination of a dizzying evolution of technology and challenges imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
It means less time on the road and the conference circuit for the man who is, aside from Busch, the group’s most outward-facing ambassador.
“We’ve definitely noticed a heavy dependence on the part of pool participants and investment partners for information during these uncertain times. You can’t have that regular sitdown, so people start looking for hard data to help them perform due diligence from afar,” Klopfer points out.
“At the start of the pandemic, the idea of holding a Zoom call with pool partners and discussing performance in great detail was not commonplace. Now we can do that quite seamlessly. It’s important to maintain strong dialogues remotely.”
Communication tools such as Zoom meetings, webinars and online dashboards with real-time data have helped meet the information needs of stakeholders.
“I think these things will continue. I think it will be some time before people are comfortable with travel and meeting in person. We need to continue to adapt in the interim.”
Klopfer is well placed to help these processes.
