Sabrina Chao elected president of BIMCO

Written by Nick Blenkey
Sabina Chao of Hong Kong's Wah Kwong Maritime Transport Holdings is new president of BIMCO

Sabina Chao of Hong Kong's Wah Kwong Maritime Transport Holdings is new president of BIMCO

At its online general meeting today, BIMCO, the world’s largest shipping association, elected Sabrina Chao of Hong Kong headquartered Wah Kwong Maritime Transport Holdings Limited as its president.

Chao takes over as BIMCO’s 45th president and is its the fifth to be based in Asia and third to be based in Hong Kong. She succeeds Şadan Kaptanoğlu, managing director of Kaptanoglu Shipping, who has completed her two-year term.

“I am honored to be offered this opportunity by an organization that is trusted world-wide with a membership representing over half of the world cargo fleet,” says Chao. “Over the next two years, one of my key priorities is to use this opportunity to help increase awareness of our industry and our seafarers. The pandemic has exposed the lack of knowledge by policymakers about the important role we play in society, causing inaction when it comes to solving urgent issues including the crew change crisis and piracy. We need to keep raising our voice outside of our industry.”

Sabrina Chao has been in the shipping industry since 2001 and joined the family business—Wah Kwong Maritime Transport Holdings Limited in 2002. Chao held the position as Chairman of the group from 2013 until August 2019 and from 2016, she served a two-year term as Chairman of the Hong Kong Shipowners Association.

Chao takes over after a two-year period as president designate. At today’s general meeting, Nikolaus H. Schües, CEO of German-based Reederei F. Laeisz, was elected to succeed Chao as president designate.

“We need strong industry bodies more than ever, as we face a tremendous amount of regulatory pressure from governments. We must work together to find solutions to decarbonize while assuring a level playing field. I am honored that I will take part in this journey with BIMCO,” Chao says.

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