Many of his peers in their eighth decade of existence might quite reasonably have reached for the slippers and cocoa. Not so the indefatigable Esben Poulsson who maintains his day job heading up Singapore operations for Greek owner Enesel. He has also recently taken on two more board positions so he now sits on a total of nine boards, as well as being a vocal and active vice president at the charity Mission to Seafarers. In between all of this, he’s found the time to pen his second book, with all proceeds going to the Mission thanks to the generous support of the book’s three sponsors: The UK P&I Club, Cambiaso Risso Group and Moore Stephens.
Containing a foreword by BW Group chairman Andreas Sohmen-Pao, Maritime matters, follows on from Poulsson’s earlier memoirs, A life in shipping.
The new book charts Poulsson’s working life over the last four years.
In terms of key themes or messages readers will take away from the book, Poulsson is hopeful the overall critical importance of shipping will hit home with the industry he loves so much described as the “enabler and servant” of world trade.
There’s a detailed look at the covid pandemic and the huge challenges faced with crew changes, something Poulsson was all too aware about during his tenure as chairman of the International Chamber of Shipping. Poulsson admits his deep frustration with many governments around the world for failing to treat seafarers as key workers.
The final chapter of the book is titled Reflections and looks at what has changed, what needs to change, cultural differences, flags of convenience, trade, shipmanagement, tanker safety performance, seafarers and the effects of geopolitics.
Looking back over the past four years Poulsson reckons that against a background of “needs must” shipping saw a whole new level of cooperation and collaboration amongst the key associations and organisations, something he hopes will continue and be further enhanced. Another noticeable development in the period covered, according to Poulsson, has been broad based recognition and agreement within the industry that it will and must play its part in the decarbonisation agenda.
The book is available to buy here.
