ShipServ appoints Henrik Hyldahn as CEO

Hyldahn to drive new era of growth for ShipServ. Current CEO Kim Skaarup appointed Vice Chairman

London - ShipServ, the world’s leading maritime e-procurement platform, today announced that Henrik Hyldahn has been appointed as its new CEO, effective from January 1, 2020. Former CEO, Kim Skaarup will join the board as Vice Chairman. Henrik Hyldahn was previously ShipServ’s Chief Solutions Officer and will be charged with taking the company through its next phase of growth, following a very successful period of development over the past few years.

In his 19 years at the company, the last four as CEO, Kim Skaarup led ShipServ to be the market leading e-procurement platform within the maritime industry. In 2019 the company saw record-breaking figures with total OPEX spend placed through its platform of nearly $4bn. ShipServ’s buyer customers have swelled to more than 260 shipowners and managers representing 10,000 vessels, as well as seeing over 73,000 suppliers connected to the platform. 

2019 also saw ShipServ migrate its entire infrastructure to Microsoft’s Azure cloud, increasing scalability and the company’s ability to provide customers with more integrated services and solutions. This has created a strong foundation for continued, exponential growth, and the impending launch of ShipServ’s new e-procurement platform, and the re-launch of a number of solutions, which will take place in 2020. Kim Skaarup will be taking an active role in ensuring a successful handover to the new CEO.

As CEO, Henrik Hyldahn will prioritise driving further collaboration with customers and partners, as well as seizing the opportunity to capitalise on the significant advancements in digitalisation within the maritime industry. A key component of this will involve leading the business to work more closely with customers and the wider market to develop products and solutions that service specific market segments. Henrik Hyldahn joined ShipServ in 2017 and was promoted to Chief Solutions Officer the following year. Prior to working with ShipServ, he was Chief Information Officer at global maritime services group Seven Seas and Managing Director at technical and strategic consultancy CUBISOL.

Commenting on his appointment, Henrik Hyldahn, CEO, ShipServ, said “There are huge opportunities for ShipServ to continue our rate of growth and the positive impact that we can have on the market. As a mature organisation I want to increase collaboration and engagement with our key stakeholders across technical and procurement functions, understanding in detail their pressures and demands. This will generate insights that allow us to bring to market specific solutions that help our customers seize the advantages of digitalisation, of which e-procurement is a critical step.”

Herman Marks, Chairman, ShipServ, said “I would like to thank Kim Skaarup for his long and distinguished service, and the important leadership role that he has played in building ShipServ into the market leading company that it is today.

“This is genuinely an exciting time for ShipServ, and we are delighted that Henrik has taken on the mantle of CEO. He has great experience, a proven track record and the impact that he has already had on ShipServ as Chief Solutions Officer is second to none. We are confident he will continue this in his new role, and further accelerate the company’s ambitious growth plans and position ShipServ at the forefront of digitalisation and innovation within the maritime industry.”