Damen welcomes new board members

(Posted on 01/10/20)

Damen Shipyards Group has completed the transformation of the corporate governance structure into a separate Executive Board and a Supervisory Board with the appointment of three new external, independent Supervisory Board members: Jurgen van Breukelen, Bert Greven and Henk Rottinghuis. The chairmanship of the Supervisory Board will remain unchanged by Kommer Damen.

Damen operates 36 shipbuilding and repair yards, employing 13,000 people worldwide. Damen has delivered more than 6,500 vessels in more than 100 countries and delivers around 175 vessels annually to customers worldwide

At the end of last year, the course of the largest shipbuilding group in the Netherlands was revised. CEO Arnout Damen: “We are going 'back to the future': towards standardisation and series construction. These are not only success factors that led to great growth in the past, but also essential conditions to meet the megatrends of our time: digitalisation and sustainability. Damen Shipyards aims to grow into the world’s leading green and connected shipbuilder.”

Last year, the step towards a divisional structure was also taken in the context of operational excellence. This means that responsibilities are more clearly assigned within the organisation and work is even closer to customers and suppliers. The transformation of the One Tier Board into a separate Executive Board and a Supervisory Board fits within this strategy. “This not only increases our strength, but also means that the responsibilities with regard to management and supervision are clearly invested within our management model,” explains Arnout Damen.

“In that context, we welcome our new Supervisory Board members. Their extensive knowledge and experience will certainly help us to further shape our ambitious plans in the field of digitalisation, sustainability and operational excellence.”

Jurgen van Breukelen worked at KPMG Netherlands between 1994 and 2015, of which the last 15 years as a partner, since 2007 a member of the Board of Directors and later as CEO. Today he is, among others, Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Altice Group. In the past he was Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Van Gansewinkel Groep and Chairman of the Board of Bosal. He also fulfills a number of advisory and supervisory functions.

Bert Greven started at Rabobank in 1975 and retired from the bank last year. After this he took on a number of advisory and supervisory positions, including that of advisor to the board at the shipping company Royal Wagenborg.

Henk Rottinghuis was CEO and Chairman of Pon Holdings from 2001 to 2010. He joined Pon in 1993. Before that, he held senior management positions at Koninklijke Nedlloyd Group. After his retirement from Pon, he has held various supervisory directorships.

The Supervisory Board of Damen Shipyards Group is completed by Annelies Damen and Kommer Damen. The latter assumes the role of chairman, as he did in the One Tier Board.

With the introduction of the new structure and the appointment of the new Supervisory Board memebers, four Non-executive Board members from the One Tier Board say goodbye: Floris Croon, Bear Damen, Rose Damen and Maarten Hulshoff. “We would like to thank them for their great efforts in recent years,” says Arnout Damen. "Partly because of this, Damen Shipyards has grown into the concern it is today."

All changes took effect on September 1, 2020. The composition of the Executive Board has not changed.