Greece-based Pioneer Marine has concluded a management buyout with top executives Jim Papoulis and Korinna Tapaktsoglou acquiring around 21m shares held by Joseph Tansey’s Garrison Investment Group.
Consequently, Tansey resigned as a member of the board of directors and was replaced by Papoulis. Independent directors Bradley Dietz and Erol Sarikaya have also stepped down and will not be replaced.
Following the decision to sell its entire fleet, CEO Papoulis and CFO Tapaktsoglou, together with the wider management team, reached a deal last year with the board of directors to take over the company. The company currently manages 13 vessels and, according to VesselsValue, owns one handy bulker, the 2012-built Resolute Bay.
.Pioneer was founded in 2013 by Pankaj Khanna, former CEO of DryShips, and listed on the Norwegian OTC in 2014. Papoulis and Tapaktsoglou were part of the team that replaced Khanna after his departure in 2017 and moved the company’s offices from Singapore to Greece.
