Directors and Responsibilities
Koert van Wissen, Chief Executive Officer
Koert van Wissen was born on 04 February 1952. 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 was born on 26 March 1971. 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.
Bill Thomson, Executive Director
Bill Thomson was born on 25 June 1958. 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's focus is on business development, especially in China.
Non-Executive Directors
David Rolph, Chairman
David Rolph was born on 26 September 1956. David Rolph brings over 30 years international experience in the chemical and plastics industries including executive board positions at Borealis and European Vinyls Corporation (EVC), two of the leading companies in the field. At Borealis he was head of the Polyolefins Business Group and the Supply Chain from 2001 to 2007. Earlier he had been Polymers Division director at EVC with additional responsibility for Health and Safety, Technology and Group Risk Management.
He read Natural Sciences at Cambridge and has an MBA from the Open Business School.
Jim McColl
Jim McColl was born on 22 December 1951. 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 was born on 11 February 1958. 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.
Thordur Olafur Thordarson
Mr Thordarson, 38, is Chairman of the board of directors of Atorka, on behalf of Vestia Holdings ehf, a minority shareholder in Atorka, where he is Managing Director of Asset Management and Deputy CEO. He is a qualified district court counsel and a member of the Icelandic Bar Association. Mr Thordarson has previously worked as Senior Legal Counsel at Kaupthing Bank hf and as Senior Manager in International Business Development at Landsbanki Islands hf. Mr Thordarson is a non-executive director of Promens hf and Chairman of the following companies: Teymi hf, Og Fjarskipti ehf (Vodafone Iceland), SKYRR ehf, Hugur Ax ehf, EJS and Kögun ehf.
Halldor Bjarkar Ludvigsson
Mr Ludvigsson, 42, is a Managing Director in Corporate Finance at Arion Bank and has previously been a senior director at Kaupthing Bank and CEO of Maritech International AS, the IT solutions provider. Mr Ludvigsson is Chairman of Intelscan and Stiki and is a non executive director of the following companies: Atorka, Exista, Nordic Photos, 1998, Álftarós, Ármannsfell, Eignabjarg, Húsfélagid Glæsir, Korp, Langalína 2, Nordurhöfn and Bakkavor. In the past five years, he has also been a director of Men and Mice.
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.