When Mr Ron Widdows took over at the helm of Singapore's Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) on Monday, he must have braced himself for some rough seas ahead.
After all, the line has had three chief executive officers (CEOs) in the past five years, making the top spot one of the hottest seats in corporate Singapore.
Mr Widdows, an American, replaces German Thomas Held, who held the job for just 20 months. He had taken over from former Cabinet minister David Lim, who had in turn replaced Dane Flemming Jacobs.
Mr Lim and Mr Jacobs led the firm for more than three years each.
Mr Widdows has been running NOL's container shipping arm APL since 2003.
He has been part of the APL organisation for 28 years and joined the NOL group when the Singapore line acquired APL in 1997.
Mr Widdows is widely credited within the industry as being the steadying hand behind NOL's daily operations, a skill he will need in abundance if what industry experts say is any guide.
One insider who requested anonymity said the wide scope of responsibility attributed to the firm's CEO makes it such a demanding post.
'The day-to-day operations are pretty much taken care of by Ron (Widdows), so the CEO's job is to grow NOL, which no one has really been able to do so far,' he said. 'But it might be a bit unfair for Mr Held as he has been in the job for less than two years.'
Under Mr Jacobs, NOL shunned acquisitions despite rumours that it wanted to acquire P&O Nedlloyd.
The rumours persisted under Mr Lim's watch, but no deal came to fruition and the Anglo-Dutch giant was snatched away by rival AP Moeller in 2005.
Mr Held's sudden departure has kicked the rumour mill into high gear as neither the departing boss nor NOL has disclosed specific reasons behind the shock move.
Market watchers say Mr Held's departure might signal the imminent failure of NOL's recently reported plans to raise some US$5 billion (S$6.8 billion ) to make a long-rumoured acquisition of Germany's Hapag-Lloyd shipping line.
'When he joined, many expected him to smooth the way for a German deal, given his nationality,' said a market watcher who declined to be named.
'Now that he's gone, it could signal that the deal has gone south.'
However, optimists point to Mr Widdows' container line pedigree as a signal that NOL is serious about making the Hapag-Lloyd acquisition work in a deal that would create the world's third-largest container shipping group.
Some say Mr Held's background as a former chairman and CEO of freight-fowarding firm Schenker was behind NOL's successful development of its logistics footprint during his tenure.
NOL chairman Cheng Wai Keung alluded that Mr Widdows' expertise in container shipping could be a better fit for the company.
He said in a statement on Monday: 'The board feels that this is the right time for a change...as it positions to grow in container shipping... Ron Widdows is the right person to lead the company forward at this time.'
This article was first published in The Straits Times on 9 July 2008.
