A week after he stepped down as president of AP Møller – Mærsk, Søren Toft accepted the same position at the competitor of the Danish shipowner – the Swiss container group Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC). In the industry media, speculations are emerging and growing regarding this move.
On 11 November, Søren Toft resigned from his role as operational director of AP Møller – Mærsk. A week later he accepted the same position at the Swiss rival of his „former” company – the Mediterranean Shipping Company.
As reported by the Reuters news agency, Toft is to answer directly to Diego Aponte, president of the MSC group and his father Gianluigi Aponte, the company’s founder. The start date of Toft’s work at MSC has not yet been determined.
There is a lot of speculation in the media why Maersk’s ex-CEO had made these steps. Some say he would take the place of Diego Aponte as president because Gianluigi Aponte CEO of MSC would retire.
However, a spokesman of MSC denied the rumours of the resignation of Gianluigi Aponte. He also added that both Gianluigi and his son „will maintain a stern, practical role at the top of the company.”
Søren Toft became the CEO of Maersk in 2014 and was responsible for the global operations of Maersk shipping lines after taking up the position of head of network planning at Maersk Line. Toft’s responsibilities are likely to be taken over by Maerska’s CEO, Søren Skou.
The swap widely commented on in the industry
Soren Toft moving from Maersk to MSC, confirmed by MSC today, is the most spectacular senior management change in modern container shipping history. A 25-year veteran and executive team member at the largest container shipping company will become CEO of the container business of the second largest.(…) Toft’s arrival inevitably signals that changes are coming to MSC „comments Peter Tirschwell, Vice President of IHS Markit, an international company specializing in economic, financial and subject market analysis, on Linkedin.