Change in the Executive Board at Germanischer Lloyd

Dr Hermann J. Klein, Member of the Executive Board of Germanischer Lloyd SE and responsible for Maritime Services, will at his own request be resigning from this position with effect on 15.12.2010, thus leaving the Executive Board. In future, he will retain his links to Germanischer Lloyd by acting as a consultant. In the course of 2011, Dr Klein is to be appointed to a position on the Supervisory Board of Germanischer Lloyd. The Supervisory Board respects the wishes of Dr Klein and has accepted his resignation with regret. This made it necessary to fill the position of responsibility for Maritime Services on the Executive Board.

Günter Herz, the majority shareholder of Germanischer Lloyd since the end of 2006, and Dr Wolfgang Peiner, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, thanked Dr Klein for his enduring accomplishments since joining the Executive Board in 2003 and his willingness to support Germanischer Lloyd in a consultative capacity after leaving the Board. Under the leadership of Dr Klein, Germanischer Lloyd considerably expanded its market position in ship classification worldwide, more than doubling the fleet of ships with GL class. The resounding success of Germanischer Lloyd in the worldwide classi?cation of container ships deserves special mention: over the years 2003 to 2009, Germanischer Lloyd increased its global market share in the classified fleet of this ship segment from 34% to more than 40% and further consolidated its leading position.

Dr Klein hands over a well-ordered company: the Maritime Services of Germanischer Lloyd have highly qualified employees who are excellent representatives for the quality objective and technical competence of the Group.

As his successor, Mr Erik van der Noordaa (49) has been appointed Chairman of the Executive Board of Germanischer Lloyd SE with effect on 1 December 2010. In addition, Mr van der Noordaa will take over responsibility for Maritime Services from Dr Klein.

Mr van der Noordaa is a graduate in naval architecture and mechanical engineering. After completing his studies, he started his career in 1986 at Damen Shipyards Group, a globally active shipbuilding group with headquarters in Gorinchem, the Netherlands. In the first four years of his service there, Mr van der Noordaa was employed in various areas of the group as a ship development engineer, after which he took on the responsibility of expanding the European sales and marketing activities. In 2000, Mr van der Noordaa assumed responsibility for Damen Shipyards, Gorinchem, the largest yard location of the Group and, in 2004, he was named a Member of the Executive Board of the Damen Group. His area of responsibility included, amongst other duties, the management of the yards in the Netherlands, Romania, Poland, China, Vietnam, Singapore and Cuba. Moreover, he had the global product stewardship for tugs and fast patrol boats. In his last position, Mr van der Noordaa was Chief Operations Of?cer of the Damen Shipyards Group, which owns 35 companies, with a total of 6,000 employees and a turnover of 1.2 billion Euro.

The GL shareholders and Supervisory Board are delighted not only to have found, in Mr van der Noordaa, an eminently quali?ed successor for Dr Klein but also to have created, through the consensual change in the Executive Board, an essential prerequisite for a continuation of Germanischer Lloyd’s success story, in which Dr Klein played such an important role.

In future, the Executive Board will consist of Mr van der Noordaa as the new Chairman, responsible for the Maritime Services, as well as Mr Pekka Paasivaara, who will continue to be responsible for the lndustrial Services, and Dr Joachim Segatz, responsible as before for the Corporate Services.

Picture: Dr Hermann J. Klein (left) and Erik van der Noordaa