INTERNATIONAL SALVAGE UNION
October 2019
New President for International Salvage Union The 65th Annual General Meeting of the International Salvage Union (ISU) was held in London, 19 September and Mr Richard Janssen was installed as the new President of the ISU. Mr Janssen succeeds Ms Charo Coll who will continue as a member of the ISU Executive Committee. Ms Coll said: “I have been delighted to be the President. I am proud of the fact that we have begun to re-position the industry and to demonstrate the great contribution our members make to the marine industries by preventing loss, mitigating risk, protecting the environment and enabling global trade. We are a vital industry. I hand over the Presidency with great confidence to Richard and I know he will be an excellent leader of ISU. He has great experience of all aspects of marine salvage.” Commenting on his appointment, Mr Janssen said: “I would like to thank Charo for her hard work for ISU over the past two years, she has shown real leadership to address the strategic positioning of the industry. It is a great honour to be the President of the ISU which we want to be the credible, trusted and unified global voice of its members. I want to see through our commitment to encourage high standards of operation
and conduct, to promote the value and benefit of our members’ services and to engage with shipowners, insurers and other key stakeholders. We will continue to work with inter-governmental organisations to improve delivery of marine services and safety at sea and we will enhance ISU’s reputation as a source of Outgoing ISU President, Charo Coll hands the ceremonial information and expertise gavel to new President, Richard Janssen. and promote best practice.” and working with heavy machinery. He Mr Janssen is the Managing Director studied business in Rotterdam and has of Smit Salvage and he has 25 years’ undertaken a number of international experience of the marine salvage, towage, commercial, contracting, subsea offshore and energy sectors. It includes engineering and management courses. involvement as part of the Smit teams that He was a member of the ISU’s Salvage delivered many well-known and complex sub-Committee and has been a member salvage and wreck removal cases often of the Executive Committee since 2015. with innovative engineering and pollution At the same meeting, Mr Peter Pietka prevention requirements. Mr Janssen’s was elected as Vice President of the experience includes the Ievoil Sun, Kursk, International Salvage Union. Mr Pietka Ehime Maru, Tricolor, MSC Chitra, Troll, is CEO of Ardent (see story below), Modern Express and Maersk Honam. the international salvage and offshore Richard grew up in Rotterdam in a family decommissioning company formed in with a strong history in towage and 2015 by the merger of Svitzer Salvage harbour work as well as heavy lifting and and Titan Salvage. Mr Pietka has 30 transport; he spent most of his spare years’ experience in the maritime industry, time on tugs, big pushers, in shipyards primarily working for the Maersk Group.
Ardent - change of ownership Ardent, formed in 2015 through the merger of Svitzer Salvage and Titan Salavge, has been bought from its coowners global towage operator Svitzer and Crowley Holdings Inc., a holding company of international marine and logistics services provider Crowley Maritime Corporation. The deal will see Ardent’s senior management team acquire a shareholding in the Company. The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed and closing is subject to approval by the German anti-trust authorities. AURELIUS Finance Company, an alternative direct lender, has provided financing to support the deal.
Peter Pietka
and has diversified its services to include offshore decommissioning of oil and gas platforms and facilities as well as subsea services. Ardent’s main operational hubs are in Houston (US), Ijmuiden (Netherlands), Singapore and Sydney (Australia) supported by additional global offices and equipment depots.
Ardent provides emergency management services to the maritime industry, in particular, offering salvage and wreck removal. Ardent has established itself as a business independent of its shareholders 1
Following the deal, Ardent says it will have expanded financial resources to help develop its position at the forefront of both the emergency management and off-shore decommissioning industries while also expanding its offering of select Continued page 2