The current CFO Arjan van de Kerk will retire at the end of the year after having been employed at Van Oord for 18 years.
Poots-Bijl will start as of 19 September while van de Kerk will handover at the end of 2016. Poots-Bijl is 46 years old and has held several financial positions over a period of almost 25 years. She is presently CFO at Ordina (ICT) and was previously CFO at Volker Wessels (construction).
During his 23 years in GAC, Mark has held various positions including Managing Director of GAC Thailand, Managing Director of Abu Dhabi, Commercial Director of GAC Marine and Commercial Development Manager of GAC China. Prior to joining GAC, he worked for a number of established shipping and logistics companies.
Fredrik Nyström, GAC’s Group Vice President, Asia Pacific speaks of the ‘exciting times’ that lie ahead for Mark and his team, as major reforms are expected for the country’s shipping industry: “Being the 16th largest maritime country in the world, India’s trade and commerce relies heavily on its ports and the shipping industry. Cargo volumes have been increasing at the country’s 12 major ports with cargo traffic hitting 1,052 million metric tonnes in 2015 and set to grow by more than 60% by 2017. It will be interesting to see how developments in India’s ports and road infrastructure unfold under the Sagarmala project. Such infrastructural projects investments and increasing cargo traffic will benefit shipping and logistics services providers like GAC.
“GAC India has made remarkable progress under Paul’s leaderhip, and I believe it will continue to serve the industry well with our comprehensive suite of services, under the new leadership.”
Dr Roy Mathews, Chairman of GAC India says: “I would like to thank Paul for the many contributions that he has made to the company. He opened up new business channels for GAC India through leading the restructuring of its Logistics department and our diversification into new sectors such as oil and gas and offshore support. His passion and constant pursuit of new ways to improve the company and the workforce has brought the company to new and greater heights and won him the respect of everyone within GAC India. We wish Paul a happy retirement.
“I look forward to working with Mark, who brings a wealth of experience in shipping and logistics, along with an astute business acumen to his new role.”
GAC India is part of the global shipping, logistics and marine services provider, GAC Group. Through its extensive network of 26 offices, it provides a complete range of shipping, logistics and marine services at all ports and anchorages in India, including ship agency, freight forwarding, project logistics and offshore and oil and gas support.
The solution provides truck companies, freight forwarders and shipping lines with a zero-administration route to receiving proofs of deliveries from subcontracted suppliers in addition to their own drivers.
TOPS ePOD is not just about the proof-of-delivery. It provides a new and very efficient way of getting the full transport order instructions to the driver with the benefit of no EDI link being required – the only requirement on their side being a smartphone or other mobile device such as a tablet or laptop with a data-connection.
It caters for real-time status updates capturing times at each location and allows the driver to view the locations on a map and update ETAs. Once the proof-of-delivery is received it is immediately visible to the transport planning team and automatically sent to the signatory/pre-specified email address.
As General Manager Steve Collins observes “We think every driver has a smartphone these days and the real beauty of the system lies in its simplicity – not just for the transport planner but for the driver or supplier also. Trials of other solutions often fail due to a lack of time to dedicate to them and the on-going challenge of keeping on top of changes of equipment or suppliers. However once the TOPS ePOD system has been initially configured there is literally no further setup or on-going maintenance required.” He’s right – the solution is indeed very simple. There is no need to worry about who has what device as is often the case for telematics solutions and for drivers it seems no training is required. Combined with no upfront costs TOPS ePOD would appear to tick every box.
A busy London pier that was shut briefly after Storm Katie struck was reopened thanks to a new tidal Thames super-boat.
PLA’s £7 million mooring maintenance vessel, London Titan, used her 20-metre extending crane arm to remove part of a damaged canopy which was overhanging the MBNA Thames Clippers stop. The pier had been shut for a day and a half, after Hurricane Katie struck.
Titan’s crew, who were carrying out extensive repair works at nearby Greenwich ship tier, worked quickly to winch the canopy arm safely down onto the pier, before engineers ensured that the site could safely reopen. That meant thousands of MBNA Thames Clippers passengers could disembark there in time for Dynamo’s show.
PLA’s Marine Manager Afloat, Michael Russell, said: “Other vessels on the river could’ve done the job Titan did, but I doubt any would have got there at such short notice.
“When there’s a show on at The O2, Thames Clippers extends its service to bring more people to North Greenwich Pier. If we hadn’t been there to sort the problem out, the pier would’ve remained closed and a lot of people might have missed the event.”
Sean Collins, CEO of MBNA Thames Clippers, revealed that two stops on its 20 pier network were temporarily closed on 28th March due to stormy weather. One, Tower Pier, was reopened within a few hours after TFL staff repaired a piece of roof that had broken off.
“The other was North Greenwich Pier that remained closed for 34 hours and would not have reopened then if it wasn’t for the PLA providing a quick response in mobilising London Titan,” he added. It lifted part of a large cylindrical roof structure that had collapsed in the wind, allowing the pier to safely reopen. Their actions enabled our evening commuters to resume using our service and the many customers that wished to use our services get to The O2 for the Dynamo performance.”
Designed by MacDuff Ship Design, multi-purpose Titan is designed both to keep the river clear of obstructions and ensure channels are clearly marked for all to use. She’s capable of working from Richmond in west London all the way out to the Thames estuary. Her work is vital on a waterway that’s home to the UK’s second-biggest port, the busiest inland waterway for passengers and freight – as well as a centre for recreational activity.