Svitzer Europe appoints Karlsen as new COO

Kasper Karlsen, Senior Director at Maersk Drilling, will join Svitzer Europe as Chief Operating Officer from 1 July 2020, the company has announced today.

Karlsen joins Svitzer Europe as COO after nearly 13 years with Maersk Drilling, where he has held a variety of leadership roles spanning the organisation’s operational, technical and support functions. As recent Head of Transformation Office and Customer Solutions at Maersk Drilling, Kasper was responsible for standardising and optimising across many different functional areas which resulted in enhanced ways of working and significantly streamlined processes and outcomes to the benefit of the customers.
Kasper holds a Master’s Degree from the Technical University of Denmark in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, along with several other business and leadership qualifications from amongst others the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and IMD Business School.
Commenting on his new role, Kasper Karlsen said: “It is a real privilege to be appointed COO of Svitzer Europe – one of shipping’s most recognised and respected global brands. Towage occupies an unique and extremely important position in the supply chain. Optimising our operations and delivering consistent and safe service as well as customized solutions for our customers is vital to stay competitive and relevant in the towage business. Svitzer Europe is showing the way here and I am humbled to join and look forward to work with my new colleagues at Svitzer Europe and to contribute to and ensure that we continue to deliver truly innovative, safe, customer-focused and market-leading towage services across the full span of our European operating locations.”
Adding his remarks on the appointment, Svitzer CEO, Kasper Nilaus, said: “With his combination of operational, management, development and business transformation expertise, I am thrilled that Kasper is joining us as the new COO for Svitzer Europe. With the towage sector undergoing a significant transformation and our industry under unprecedented strain, Kasper is ideally placed to help Svitzer Europe adapt to the new normal and help bring in a new age of customer-focused improvements for our European operations.”