ECSA’s General Assembly:
Claes Berglund and Philippos Philis as next President and Vice-President

At its meeting on 2 October that met in Athens, ECSA’s General Assembly decided on the organisation’s President and Vice-President.

The President for the next 2 years is Claes Berglund. Mr Berglund is Director Public Affairs & Sustainability of Stena AB. He has been a senior executive in the shipping industry for 15 years, before which he worked for 12 years in road-based transport and third-party logistics services. Mr Berglund is also a reserve officer in the Royal Swedish Navy.

“I very much look forward to engaging with the EU decision makers and all our partners across the continent, to work towards our common goal of strengthening the European shipping industry, so that it is sustainable, competitive, innovative and agile enough to adapt to the rapidly-changing global environment,” said Mr. Berglund.

“The future of shipping is bright, because on the one hand, our industry has profound knowledge and expertise built over centuries of maritime history, and on the other hand, we are forward-looking and ever-ready to innovate, we will rise to transform our industry into the principal driver of European economy,” he added.

The Vice-President for the next 2 years is Philippos Philis, founder and Managing Director of Lemissoler since 1996. Lemissoler owns and operates a modern fleet of owned designs of eco bulk carriers and stresses its R&D activities to continuously develop a greener fleet. Mr Philis is the President of the Cyprus Shipping Chamber (CSC) as well as of the Cyprus Shipowners’ Employers Association (CySEA) and has previously served on the Board of Directors of the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS).

“The European shipping industry has been a huge success story for Europe. It is now our job as ECSA to continue this success, through a strong relationship with the new European Commission and European Parliament, national governments in each Member State, as well as all our maritime partners,” said Mr Philis.

The outgoing President is Mr Panos Laskaridis and outgoing Vice-President is Mr Claes Berglund. Their mandate will end on 31 December 2019.