Less than six months since he masterminded his company’s sale to Finnish technology group Wärtsilä, Splash understands Frank Coles has tendered his resignation as head of navigations solutions specialist Transas.
Coles, one of the best known propopents on shipping’s drive towards digitalisation, is expected to announce a new posting soon. He helmed Transas since September 2015, having previously been in charge of communications giant Inmarsat Maritime.
Andrey Sitkov, a 20-year veteran at Transas, will take over as interim operative manager for Transas from September 21.
In March this year Wärtsilä spent $258m buying Transas with the Finnish company’s president of marine solutions, Roger Holm, commenting at the time: “We can now connect Wärtsilä’s product portfolio, the biggest in the marine industry, with ship traffic control, simulators, navigation solutions and fleet operation solutions from Transas.”
A lawyer by training, Coles started out at Richards Butler before moving to Hong Kong dry bulk player Pacific Basin in the 1990s, after which his career has been focused more on the communications side of the industry.
This news begs the question of whether / how visionaries can succeed within a corporate stable. Not an easy course to navigate at a time that real digital solutions for maritime are fog-enshrouded, and the drive of visionaries as sorely needed so we can pierce thru this fog and gain some clarity.