Richard Fulford-Smith-led broking firm Affinity has hired six former employees of Lorentzen & Co which declared bankruptcy after over 100 years in business.
The former Lorentzen staff joined Affinity’s bulker-oriented entity, Affinity Dry Bulk, and will establish the company’s new New York base.
According to a LinkedIn post by Affinity Dry Bulk’s director Hans Bredrup, the company hired Nick Tangney as managing director, John Geoghegan as the director of business development, and Bob Tangney.
“They will be bringing a new operations team in Greece with whom they have been working and which will ensure a seamless transfer and continuation of their business,” Bredrup said.
He added that the trio would be working together with Affinity Dry Bulk’s other operations and research personnel in Greece which consist of Dimitra Zachariou, Effrosyni Dimitrakopoulou, and Louisa Anastasopoulou.
The former three were employed in Lorentzen’s New York office while the latter were employed in the Norwegian shipbroker’s Athens office.
As for Lorentzen, the Oslo-based firm submitted a tender request after several years of heavy losses and a name change to Lilleaker Shipping Advisors last week.
The company’s debt is around NOK100m ($9.3m), of which it owes close to NOK80m to the parent company Tidships.
