Posted on: 8 November 2016
Well-known UK shipping personality Jeremy Penn was presented with the Maritime CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) Leadership Award at Capital Link’s 6th Annual ‘Operational Excellence & Maritime CSR Forum’ in London on November 2.
“Jeremy Penn is known to all in shipping, and is most deserving of this Award,” commented last year’s recipient Clay Maitland, founding partner of NAMEPA, chairman of NYMAR and Managing Partner of International Registries in his introductory remarks. “One of many reasons is that Jeremy has been a change agent, both during his time at Reuters and at the Baltic Exchange. He was instrumental in bringing in processes that increased return value to investment. Most recently with the sale of the Baltic Exchange, as an administrator Jeremy Penn showed how important it is for a traditional institution to keep up with the time.”
“Jeremy is one of the number of global shipping leaders, a lot of whom are based in London,” Maitland continued. “He is actively involved in Maritime London, which is a role model for many maritime organisations across the world. With Brexit its role as a will become even more important. We all know in shipping that London is the maritime capital of the world, and I believe it will remain that.”
In his acceptance speech Jeremy Penn said he had enjoyed the good fortune of “working for two organisations with fabulous names and traditions – Reuters, now Thomas Reuters, and the Baltic Exchange. Both stood for the principles of independence, integrity and freedom from bias,” he said, with the Baltic also standing for “fair dealing in the marketplace. Correct and appropriate behaviour is important, it is possible to conduct a business cleverly and aggressively but honestly.”
Penn went on to describe the processes of how the Baltic rates are put together, saying that transparency and daily supervision of the Baltic indices production process is proof of these principles.
With the Exchange now in the process of being sold to SGX of Singapore, its independence will remain intact, he maintained. “I firmly believe this deal with SGX protects and even enhances the Baltic Exchange,” he said. “Is it a loss to London? Absolutely not, as with the London Stock Exchange joining with Deutsche Börse, the purchase of the Baltic will not affect its role in London.
“These are global businesses,” he added. “We want to attract investment into London. SGX want to expand into the UK, and use the Baltic Exchange as the platform for doing that.”
On the subject of London, Penn went on to say “one can’t pretend and ignore challenges facing us here. The change in the non-dom tax rules has been damaging – it’s been bad news for shipping. We now live in the Brexit world. But we will strive to safeguard our global role in insurance. The position of the English law remains unchallenged, both in courts and arbitration… London also continues to be the shipbroking capital, complicated deals are put together here rather than anywhere else in the world.”
“As chairman of London International Shipping Week (LISW), I wanted to call it International Shipping Week, as where else you would hold a global shipping week,” he continued. “In 2017 LISW will show once again why London is, and will remain, the world’s most important maritime centre.
“I’m often asked to talk about what makes a maritime centre successful,” Penn concluded. “A few new shipping centres have appeared in the past few decades, Shanghai is developing rapidly for example. My response is that it is relatively easy to assemble all the component businesses, and even to build the skills, but overall, the ethics and fair dealing that you get in London are second to none, and are the most difficult characteristic to replicate.”
Jeremy Penn finishes his 13-year tenure as chief executive of the Baltic Exchange this month, handing over to Mark Jackson. He will continue to be director and treasurer of Maritime London and director of Maritime UK, as well as chairing the Steering Group for London International Shipping Week 2017 among other appointments.
