Former Maersk boss to be next LR chairman

Andersen, who was appointed as a Trustee by the General Committee in June, will take over from Moorhouse who is due to retire at the end of 2010 after serving eleven and a half years as the chairman of the group.

Moorhouse commented: “It is a great pleasure for me to welcome my successor, Thomas Andersen. I have every confidence that he, together with [Chief Executive] Richard Sadler and his management team, will lead this organisation to even greater success in the future. The Lloyd’s Register Group has a significantly more diversified range of activities today than at any time in its history. That diversity has helped us to weather the current economic storm and has given us great confidence as we look to the short and long-term future of the group.”

Andersen, a former member of the board for the A. P. Moller-Maersk Group, will take over at the non-executive helm of Lloyd’s Register after almost 25 years in the maritime and energy sectors. He is currently a board director of Scottish and Southern Energy, Petrofac and VKR Holdings, the parent group of Velux. He has had a long career with A. P. Moller – Maersk, starting as a shipping trainee in 1977, and has held senior positions throughout the group, latterly as a partner and member of its executive board and CEO of Maersk Oil. Previous positions include president and CEO of Maersk Inc, based in New Jersey USA, managing director for Maersk Company Ltd, executive vice president of A.P. Moller – Maersk and president of Maersk Contractors. With a Graduate Diploma in Foreign Relations (HD) from Copenhagen Business School, Andersen also studied at Columbia and Harvard universities and is a freeman of the City of London. He is also chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce in Denmark.

“It is an honour and a privilege to join the Lloyd’s Register team. One can’t help but be impressed by how the organisation, over its past 250 years — and not least under the Chairmanship of David Moorhouse – has consistently supported the industry by setting new standards for technical innovation and expertise,” Andersen said. “I have been very fortunate over my long career in the shipping, infrastructure and energy sectors to have worked closely with Lloyd’s Register as a customer, bearing personal witness to the huge value of this organisation. This experience reflected very positively on the commitment of the Lloyd’s Register team worldwide. Our history is unique, our achievements are impressive and, while our future will be challenging, the opportunities are certainly great.”