BW Offshore: Son takes over Chairman role from father

BW Offshore, an Oslo-based provider of floating production storage and offloading units to the international oil and gas industry, has elected a new Chairman of the Board.

Dr Helmut Sohmen has announced his retirement effective 20 November 2014 as Chairman of the Board of BW Offshore Limited, after having held the position since 2005. Sohmen has retired both as Chairman of the Board of BW Group Limited and BW Offshore Limited, having served the group for 44 years with 28 years as Chairman. BW Group Limited owns 49.7% of the shares in BW Offshore Limited.

As his replacement, BW Offshore and BW Group have elected Andreas Sohmen-Pao, Dr. Helmut Sohmen’s son, as the new Chairman.

These changes are part of a planned leadership transition, BW Group has said.

Helmut Sohmen said: “It has been a privilege to oversee BW’s growth from a tanker and dry bulk business to a significant maritime oil and gas player involved in LNG, LPG, crude, products, chemicals and FPSOs. Andreas has been with BW for the past 15 years and I am confident that under his leadership, the company will continue to grow.”

Andreas Sohmen-Pao added: “My father has guided the company through numerous cycles over a period of forty years, and has been an exceptional Chairman to the group. He has shaped the group’s values and reputation, and his strong and decisive leadership has brought us to where we are today. Both of us are very grateful to our dedicated colleagues around the world who have been instrumental in the group’s success.”

Furthermore, BW Offshore welcomed a new member to its Board of Directors, Carsten Mortensen, effective January 1, 2015. Mortensen has previously been announced as Group CEO of BW Group and he will take up this role from April 1, 2015.

Helmut Sohmen

Dr Helmut Sohmen joined the World-Wide Shipping group in Hong Kong in 1970, having been trained as a lawyer in Austria and the United States. He became chairman of the group in 1986. After his family’s acquisitions of N&T Argonaut in Sweden in 2001, and of Bergesen d.y. ASA in Oslo in 2003, he also assumed the chairmanship of these two companies. Since 2005 Dr Sohmen was also chairman of the Board of BW Offshore Limited listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange.

He was chairman of the International Maritime Industries Forum and of the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation in London, President of the Baltic and International Maritime Council in Copenhagen, and International Chairman of the Pacific Basin Economic Council in Honolulu.

In Hong Kong he served as chairman of the Hong Kong Shipowners Association, of the HK General Chamber of Commerce, and of the HK Academy for Performing Arts, as a member of the Courts of Hong Kong University and the HK University of Science and Technology, and as a member of the Legislative Council. For many years he was a non-executive director of HSBC Holdings plc in London, and of its subsidiary in Hong Kong.