Directors and Responsibilities
Bill Thomson, Chairman
As an executive director he has worked within the Clyde Blowers portfolio of companies since 1992, holding many and varied posts in the UK and overseas. He has been responsible for the development of the Clyde Blowers portfolio in China, setting up 4 companies. Bill Thomson was the Chief Executive of CleanCut Technologies Limited, a subsidiary of Clyde Materials Handling, which developed solutions to environmental challenges in the offshore oil and gas industry, before its sale in October 2002. He is an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to British exports, mainly in China, and was recently awarded an honorary degree from London Metropolitan University. He is also a Vice President of the China Britain Business Council. Bill Thomson is a Chartered Engineer with a BSc in Mechanical Engineering and is a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Bill has overall responsibility for leading the Board and ensuring its effectiveness and for the strategic direction of the Group.
Koert van Wissen, Chief Executive Officer
Koert van Wissen joined UTT’s predecessor, United Bos BV, in 1980 and, from 1980 to 1983, was employed as general manager of the Rotterdam Europoort office and was responsible for day-to-day running of the liquid bulk business between England and the European continent in road-tankers. Between 1983 and 1989, Koert had a number of roles, including General Manager of the Rotterdam business unit with responsibility for the restructuring of the packed logistics of Shell-Pernis. He was, during this time, General Manager for the newly founded Tankcontainer Division of United Bos BV and purchased the first Tankcontainers in its fleet. From 1989 to 1996, Koert was Operations Director of United Transport Tankcontainers. He started with a fleet of 350 Tankcontainers focussed mainly on Europe, which grew into a worldwide business with a fleet of 4,500 Tankcontainers. He was subsequently appointed as Business Development Director for worldwide operations and pricing structure during the time when UTT was owned by BET and Rentokil Initial. Between 1996 and 2000, Koert was Operations and Business Development Director of Initial Tank Containers, with responsibility for all world wide operations and business development. In 2000, he was appointed managing director of UTT’s predecessor, a subsidiary of Rentokil Initial, and, together with Roel Molenaar, led the management buy-out of UTT in 2002. Koert was Chairman of the International Tank Container Organisation from April 1999 to December 2005. Koert is responsible for developing and implementing strategy and the overall performance of the Group.
Scott Cunningham, Financial Director
Scott Cunningham has a Bachelor of Accountancy degree from the University of Glasgow. He obtained admission to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland in 1995. He joined the Clyde Blowers group in 2001 as Group Corporate Finance Manager. Since then he has been responsible for the review of acquisition targets, overview of consolidated financial reporting, business planning reviews and worldwide treasury and tax matters. Prior to joining Clyde Blowers, he was a senior manager with Arthur Andersen. His role in his first 7 years with Arthur Andersen was in the provision of assurance services to both public and private companies in a wide variety of industries including transport, oil support services, construction and engineering. During this period he performed audit work on financial statements and other reporting documents for companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. During his last 2 years at Arthur Andersen he had moved to focus on transaction support services, where he was involved in the provision of acquisition support for both companies and private equity/institutional investors. Scott is responsible for the Group’s financial and administrative functions.
Non-Executive Directors
Jim McColl
Jim McColl started his career as an engineering apprentice with Weir Pumps Limited in Glasgow. After six years in engineering and six years of part-time study, he left work to take up full-time study for a BSc degree in Technology and Business Studies on a four year course at Strathclyde University. After achieving a BSc degree with Honours in 1978, he returned to Weir Pumps Limited where he remained for three years while studying part-time for a Masters Degree in Business Administration. In 1981 he moved to a senior management position with Diamond Power Speciality Limited, an engineering company supplying equipment to the power industry worldwide. From 1981-1985 he studied part-time for a Masters Degree in International Accounting and Finance. In 1985 Jim was headhunted by Coopers & Lybrand as a senior consultant involved mainly in “corporate care” assignments. This meant working in various companies who were in financial difficulties and in need of turnaround. In 1986 he left Coopers & Lybrand to become a self employed “company doctor” and, after two successful turnarounds, in 1992 he bought 29.9 per cent of Clyde Blowers plc, a small engineering company with a full listing on the London Stock Exchange. Prior to purchasing his stake in Clyde Blowers plc, it had a market capitalisation of £2.2 million. In 1999 Jim led a management buy-out of Clyde Blowers plc to take the company private. Over the past 10 years the Clyde Blowers portfolio has grown significantly and has developed into a portfolio of global engineering companies. During 2001 the Clyde Blowers business was reorganised into discrete independent companies focusing on core markets. These businesses each have their own ownership structure but what is common is that the Clyde Blowers executive team has been the driver of the strategic direction. Jim received the ‘Alumnus of the Year Award’ from Strathclyde University in 1998, the Entrepreneurial Exchange ‘Entrepreneur of the Year Award’ for 1999/2000 and the Ernst & Young ‘Master Entrepreneur of the Year Award’ for 2001. In 2001 Jim was honoured in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List with an OBE. In November 2002 Jim was inducted into The Entrepreneurial Exchange Hall Of Fame. In November 2003 Jim was honoured by the Academic Board and the Court of Napier University with an award of Honorary Doctor of Business Administration. In July 2005 HRH The Duke of Edinburgh awarded Jim McColl with The Prince Philip Medal 2005 ‘Certificate of Achievement’ for an outstanding contribution to the engineering industry.
Graeme Bissett
Graeme Bissett is a Chartered Accountant, who was a senior partner with Arthur Andersen before becoming Group Director of Finance at Kwik-Fit Holdings plc from 1998-2001. He was a non-executive director of Belhaven Group plc, Scotland's largest brewing and pub group, until it was sold to Greene King plc in 2005 for £190m. He is currently providing consultancy services and non-executive roles to a number of companies including acting as a non-executive director of Macfarlane Group plc, the listed packaging group. Graeme is chairman of the Audit committee.
Eric van der Werff
Eric van der Werff spent 34 years working for Royal Dutch Shell plc in a variety of roles, but latterly as Global Land Logistics Manager, where he had responsibility for procuring logistic services and managing logistic activities in the areas of transport, storage, warehousing and packaging for all chemical production and business locations globally. He is currently developing his consultancy business advising on logistic services. Eric is chairman of the remuneration committee.
Magnus Jonsson
Magnús Jónsson was born on 25 April 1977. He became CEO of Atorka Group on 16 November 2005. Magnús has extensive experience of investment operations. During the years from 1998-2001 he acted as a fund manager for Kaupthing. In the following year he served as Managing Director of the venture fund Uppspretta. From 2002-2005 he served as Managing Director of Ránarborg hf. and related investments, and he was a member of the Board of numerous companies, including Jardboranir hf., Afl Investments hf., MP Securities hf., and Saeplast hf. He was also Chairman of the Board of Parlogis hf., A. Karlsson hf., Promens hf., and Atorka. Magnús was elected Chairman of the Board of Atorka in February 2004. He is Chairman of the Board of Renewable Energy Resources, Jardboranir, and Promens, and he is a member of the Board of Enex and Björgun. In April 2005, Magnús was acting Chairman of the Board of Atorka until he was hired as CEO of the Company.
Benedikt Olgeirsson
Benedikt Olgeirsson was born on the 4 October 1961, he is engaged as a Managing Director at Atorka Group in September 2005. He is an engineering graduate from the University of Iceland and completed his Master’s degree in Project Management at the University of Washington in Seattle in 1987. From 1988 to 1993 he worked as a construction project manager until he joined Eimskip. From 1993 until 1997 he directed Eimskip’s operations in the Reykjavík container terminal at Sundahöfn, whereupon he became director of domestic transport for Eimskip. During the period 1999-2003 he served as managing director of Eimskip in Hamburg. From 2004 to 2005 he was managing director of Parlogis hf., one of Atorka’s subsidiaries.
Herve Montjotin
Norbert Dentressangle Group - Member of the Executive Board - MD Transport Division. He is aged 42 and a graduate from the Ecole Normale Supérieure with an ESCP Masters. Herve joined the Nobert Dentressangle Group in 1995 and was Human Resources manager from 1996 to 2001. He has been a member of the Executive Board since 1998. From 2001 to 2005, he was General Manager in charge of Organisation and Human Resources and also MD of the Transport Division since 2005.