Rune Birkeland is stepping down as CEO of G2 Ocean to return to the Grieg Group. Birkeland had been leading G2, the Grieg/Gearbulk open hatch dry bulk joint venture, since its formation in 2017.
Birkeland will be replaced by chief commercial officer, Arthur English, at the start of next month. English has worked for the past 25 years for Gearbulk and G2 Ocean.
Speaking with Splash, Birkeland said the Scandinavian joint venture had proved a success to date.
“Grieg Star and Gearbulk have expressed to us that they are pleased to see that the consolidation is giving expected synergies, such as technology and talent development, increased revenues and cost reductions,” Birkeland said.
On prospects for 2020, English told Splash yesterday: “We foresee a bumpy dry bulk market through 2020, though do expect a gradual improvement through the latter part of the year. For our core open hatch markets, we expect to see ongoing challenges with high stock levels in some key commodities for a while longer and growth in some emerging market and project related operations.”