UASC Announces Expansion Plans

UASC announced two senior executive appointments to further position the company for its next phase of growth. The major transformation and investment program which is underway, calls for a new operating model to support the business. The appointments provide the depth and breadth to UASC’s Executive Management team to deliver on ambitious growth plans.

“UASC is preparing for significant changes on the back of new capacity coming into service with a major program of new vessel acquisition,” said Jorn Hinge, UASC President and CEO. “We are repositioning our offering to the market, recapitalizing our business and optimizing our trades. We are structuring our executive talent so that we can leverage their exceptional professional capabilities to deliver long-term value to our shareholders.”

In line with growth plans, the UASC Board of Directors appoined Lars Christiansen as Chief Trade Officer of UASC and Uffe Østergaard as Chief Commercial Officer of UASC.

The existing executive management team of Waleed Al Dawood as Chief Operating Officer, Basil Al-Zaid as Chief Financial Officer and Jorn Hinge as President and CEO will be complemented by these new senior colleagues providing a leadership team to drive the business.

Waleed Al Dawood is a long standing member of UASC having joined over 30 years ago. Waleed has held a number of management positions including serving as Chief Technical Officer and as Vice President Middle East Region. Basil Al-Zaid joined UASC in 2001 as Vice President Treasury. He has over 21 years of Managerial experience in Corporate Finance, Treasury and International Investments, including 14 years with financial institutions in Kuwait.

“I have worked side by side with Waleed Al Dawood and Basil Al-Zaid over the past number of years. Their vision and foresight has led to the transformation UASC is undergoing today,” Hinge said. “Working together as a leadership team, strengthened by our new appointments, we will ensure that UASC continues successfully on its strategic path.”

Lars Christiansen, a seven-year UASC veteran, has broad based experience and was until his appointment the Vice President Asia Region, responsible for all UASC activities in Asia. He also spent 20 years with A.P. Moller-Maersk and has served as Management Consultant and as Transport Director with IKEA on their Global Transportation Management Team.

“Lars Christiansen is a seasoned executive and proven leader with an extraordinary command of UASC’s business,” Hinge said. “He has in-depth knowledge of the container shipping industry as well as of UASC.”

Uffe Østergaard joins UASC to take on the newly created role of Chief Commercial Officer. Uffe comes to the role with deep knowledge of container shipping having spent 20 years with A.P. Moller Maersk focusing on strategy, sales and marketing, and business development.

“Uffe Østergaard is one of the new generation of industry leaders,” Hinge said. “Uffe has a proven track record in delivering sustained growth and leadership within a liner shipping sales environment. We are delighted to have Uffe join the leadership team at UASC and look forward to working with him as he leads our commercial business.”

Organizational development and structuring
The structural and organizational changes being implemented at UASC are designed to bring the business closer to the customer and to understand and serve their needs better. The new structure will see Trade Management Units managing round trip trades and Clusters managing Agencies in their geographical proximity. This change will also see the establishment of a new office in Hamburg as the center of European operations, a move away from London in order to be closer to the customer base, as well as the establishment of an office in Istanbul to capture the growing Mediterranean business.