Cargill Declares New Head of its Ocean Transportation Business in Geneva

05/06/07 Cargill announced the appointment of Gert Jan Vandenakker as head of its Ocean Transportation business, headquartered in Geneva. Vandenakker succeeds Tom Intrator, under whose leadership the business has seen substantial growth over the last five years. Intrator will now lead Cargill’s newly formed Energy, Transportation and Industrial group of businesses, together with Norman Hay and David MacLennan. These new appointments, effective 1 June, have been made to position the business for future success.

Commenting on the changes, Intrator says: “It is crucial that we have the right leadership and I’m delighted to welcome Gert Jan to his new position. I am confident that he will provide leadership, vision and drive to ensure continued growth and success for the business, our customers and our employees.”

Vandenakker joined Cargill in Amsterdam in 1987 as a grain trader and held a number of positions of increasing responsibility in Asia before returning to Geneva and joining the Ocean Transportation business.

“Since 2003 he has been in charge of the highly successful Panamax trading desk, managing a team of 14 in an extremely challenging market environment,” says Intrator.

In line with these changes, Tom Beney and Jan Dieleman have been jointly appointed to run the global Panamax business. These moves are also effective 1 June.

"This change in our Panamax organisation will allow us to further enhance the value we provide our customers, sharpen our risk management focus and deliver on our strategic goals,” adds Intrator.

Over the last few years Cargill’s Ocean Transportation business has experienced substantial growth, shipping in excess of 160 million tonnes in its last fiscal year – over half of which was with external third party customers.