Page 79 - Next Generation 2015 - Digtial Issue

Next Generation On our radar
ON OUR RADAR
Some of shipping’s most influential players are not very forthcoming;
some just couldn’t be pinned down for an interview; and, in some
cases, we simply haven’t found enough verifiable information for a full
profile. But here are some more people worth watching…
UK Grandbesancon brothers
PARIS. New York. London. Romain Grandbesancon has worked
as a shipbroker in the three cities specialising in liquefied
natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas and joined Clarksons
last September to add his wealth of contacts and experience to
the LNG shipping desk.
Joining him is his brother Axel, who will head up the spot
and shorter-term chartering LNG market.
Romain’s focus will be on period and project work as the
LNG shipping projects manager. Axel also worked at Poten and,
not surprisingly, there is a family connection. Father Jean is a
managing director of Poten & Partners, working there since
1980. He also specialised in LPG.
US Bart Kelleher
BART Kelleher, chief operating officer at Principal Maritime
Tankers, is one of the new breed of maritime executives with a
strong background in investment banking and finance. But his
CV does reveal some time at sea — a year or so as a shipboard
officer for OSG — suggesting career longevity and substantial
New York-based corporate career in shipping.
He managed a $3bn shipping portfolio for HSH Nordbank
before joining private equity-backed Principal, which has a fleet
of suezmax and chemical tankers and has been waiting to push
the initial public offering button for several years.
Apollo Global Management established the company in
2010, with Mr Kelleher reporting to Art Regan.
Monaco Alexandre Albertini
ALEXANDRE Albertini has served as managing director of
Scorpio Tankers Inc since 2008 and has been with Marfin
Management, manager of the Topic Fleet of handy and
supramax dry cargo vessels, since 1997.
At Marfin, he works in fields related to crew and human
resources, insurance, legal, financial, technical, commercial and
IT. A founding member of the Chamber of Shipping of Monaco
and its secretary-general since 2006,
Mr Albertini, aged 37, serves as a director of eight dry bulk
shipowning companies and holds various board positions in
several other local businesses and associations.
He is also co-founder, director and treasurer of
Conservation Guardians, a Monaco-based association whose
mission is to protect and conserve wildlife and bring support to
communities.
Greece George Prokopiou family
THERE are many women emerging among Greek shipping’s next
generation and George Prokopiou’s empire is a case in point. His
four daughters, one by one, seem to be following the founder of
Dynacom Tankers, Dynagas and Sea Traders into the business,
although the youngest member of the quartet is still at college.
Eldest daughter Elisavet is well established at the group,
which altogether controls a fleet of about 90 tankers, LNG
carriers and bulkers. In addition to her interest in the family
business,
Ioanna Prokopiou has her own company, Prominence
Maritime, together with husband Ioannis Kairis of the Kairis
Brothers Shipping company.
Sister Marina is said to be more involved on the tanker side
and is married to Tony Lauritzen, chief executive of the group’s
publicly-traded LNG shipping vehicle, Dynagas Partners.
Dubai Ritesh Ramakrishnan
DUBAI-based owner and operator Transworld Group and
its young director of strategy and business planning, Ritesh
Ramakrishnan, are worth watching.
Transworld has grown from a small Indian company in
1976 to a multi-faceted shipping, freight forwarding and logistics
services business with three separate shipowning divisions,
headquartered in the Jebel Ali Free Zone in Dubai.
The company has flourished under Mr Ramakrishnan,
current chairman of the Transworld Group, who took over the
role from his father in 1989.
As a next-generationer, Ramakrishnan junior has an
expanding business located in one current hotspot, the Middle
East, and with strong direct ties with another, the expanding
Indian economy.
Mr Ramakrishnan graduated from Purdue University
with a Bachelor of Science in logistics and a double minor in
communication and finance in 2009.
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