Star Bulk Carriers Corp
Officers & Directors
Petros Pappas, Chief Executive Officer and Director
Petros Pappas serves as our CEO and as a director on our board of directors. Mr.
Pappas served from our inception up to July 2014 as our non-executive Chairman
of the board of directors. He served as a member of Star Maritime’s board
of directors since its inception. Throughout his career as a principal and manager
in the shipping industry, Mr. Pappas has been involved in over 275 vessel acquisitions
and disposals. In 1989, he founded Oceanbulk Maritime S.A., a dry cargo shipping
company that has operated managed vessels aggregating as much as 1.6 million deadweight
tons of cargo capacity. He also founded the Oceanbulk Group of affiliated companies,
which are involved in the service sectors of the shipping industry. Mr. Pappas
has been a Director of the UK Defense Club, a leading insurance provider of legal
defense services in the shipping industry worldwide, since January 2002, and is
a member of the Union of Greek Ship owners (UGS). Mr. Pappas received his B.A.
in Economics and his MBA from The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Mr. Pappas
was recently awarded the 2014 Lloyd’s List Greek Awards “Shipping
Personality of the Year”.
Spyros Capralos, Non-Executive Chairman and Director
Spyros Capralos serves as our Non-Executive Chairman and director. Mr. Capralos
served from February 7, 2011 up to July 2014 as our Chief Executive Officer, President
and director. From October 2004 to October 2010, Mr. Capralos served as Chairman
of the Athens Exchange and Chief Executive Officer of the Hellenic Exchanges Group
and was the President of the Federation of European Securities Exchanges. He was
formerly Vice Chairman of the National Bank of Greece, Vice Chairman of Bulgarian
Post Bank, Managing Director of the Bank of Athens and has ten years of banking
experience with Bankers Trust Company (now Deutsche Bank) in Paris, New York,
Athens, Milan and London. He is the current President of the Hellenic Olympic
Committee and served as Secretary General of the Athens 2004 Olympics Games and
Executive Director and Deputy Chief Operating Officer of the Organizing Committee
for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. He studied Economics at the University of Athens
and earned his Master Degree in Business Administration from INSEAD University
in France. Effective as of January 1, 2015, Mr. Capralos also serves as Chief
Executive Officer of Oceanbulk Container Carriers LLC.
Hamish Norton, President
Hamish Norton serves as our President. He was previously the Head of Corporate
Development and Chief Financial Officer of Oceanbulk Maritime S.A. Prior to joining
Oceanbulk Maritime, from 2007 through 2012, Mr. Norton was a Managing Director
and the Global Head of the Maritime Group at Jefferies LLC, and from 2003 to 2007,
he was head of the shipping practice at Bear, Stearns. Mr. Norton is notable for
creating Nordic American Tankers Ltd. and Knightsbridge Tankers Ltd., the first
two high dividend yield shipping companies, and has advised on numerous capital
markets and mergers and acquisitions transactions by shipping companies. From
1984-1999 he worked at Lazard Frères & Co.; from 1995 onward as general
partner and head of shipping. Mr. Norton received an A.B. in Physics from Harvard
and a Ph.D. in Physics from University of Chicago.
Simos Spyrou, Co-Chief Financial Officer
Simos Spyrou serves as our Co-Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Spyrou joined us as
Deputy Chief Financial Officer in 2011, and was appointed Chief Financial Officer
in September 2011. From 1997 to 2011, Mr. Spyrou worked at the Hellenic Exchanges
(HELEX) Group, the public company which operates the Greek equities and derivatives
exchange, the clearing house and the central securities depository. From 2005
to 2011, Mr. Spyrou held the position of Director of Strategic Planning, Communication
and Investor Relations at the Hellenic Exchanges Group and he also served as a
member of the Strategic Planning Committee of its board of directors. From 1997
to 2002, Mr. Spyrou was responsible for financial analysis at the research and
technology arm of the Hellenic Exchanges Group. Mr. Spyrou attended the University
of Oxford, receiving a degree in Mechanical Engineering and an MSc in Engineering,
Economics & Management, specializing in finance. Following the completion
of his studies at Oxford, he obtained a post graduate degree in Banking and Finance,
from Athens University of Economics & Business.
Christos Begleris, Co-Chief Financial Officer
Christos Begleris serves as our Co-Chief Financial Officer. He served as Deputy
Chief Financial Officer of Oceanbulk Maritime since March 2013. He has been involved
in the shipping industry since 2008, as deputy to the Chief Financial Officer
of Thenamaris (Ships Management) Inc. Mr. Begleris has considerable banking and
capital markets experience, having executed more than $9.0 billion of acquisitions
and financings in the corporate finance and fixed income groups of Lehman Brothers
and the principal investments group of London & Regional Properties. Mr. Begleris
received an M.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College, London, and
an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Nicos Rescos, Chief Operating Officer
Nicos Rescos serves as our Chief Operating Officer. He was the Chief Operating
Officer of Oceanbulk Maritime S.A. since April 2010. Mr. Rescos has been involved
in the shipping industry since 1993 and has strong expertise in the dry bulk,
container and product tanker markets. From 2007 to 2009, Mr. Rescos worked with
a family fund in Greece investing in dry bulk vessels and product tankers. From
2000 to 2007, Mr. Rescos served as the Commercial Manager of Goldenport Holdings
Inc. where he was responsible for the acquisition of 35 dry bulk and container
vessels and initiated the company’s entry in the product tankers arena through
an innovative joint venture with a major commodity trading company. He received
a BSc in Management Sciences from The University of Manchester Institute of Science
and Technology (UMIST) and an MSc in Shipping Trade and Finance from the City
University Business School.
Zenon Kleopas, Executive Vice President-Technical Operations
Zenon Kleopas serves as our Executive Vice President-Technical Operations. Mr.
Kleopas joined us in July 2011 as Chief Operating Officer and has over 30 years
of experience in the shipping industry. He was actively involved in the acquisition
of our initial fleet in 2007 and 2008. He has extensive experience in ship operations
and supervising ship management through his continuous employment in Shipping
Companies in the U.K. and Greece since 1980. Mr. Kleopas has worked for various
shipping companies, including Victoria Steamship Co Ltd. (London), Marship Corporation
(renamed Marship Services Inc), Astron Maritime SA, Combine Marine Inc. and Oceanbulk
Maritime SA. Before joining us, Mr. Kleopas was the general manager of Combine
Marine Inc. and the managing director of Oceanbulk Maritime SA. Mr. Kleopas received
a B.Sc. degree in 1978 and a M.Sc. degree in 1980 from Glasgow University, both
in Naval Architecture & Ocean Engineering. He is a member of the Technical
Chamber of Greece, the Royal Institution of Naval Architects (UK), the Marine
Technical Managers’ Association of Greece and the Hellenic Technical Committee
of classification society RINA.
Tom Søfteland, Director
Tom Søfteland serves and has served since our inception as a member of
our board of directors and as chairman of the audit committee. He served as a
member of Star Maritime’s board of directors since its inception. During
1982 – 1990 he served in different positions within Odfjell Chemical Tankers,
including operations, chartering and project activities. In August 1990 he joined
the shipping department of IS Bank ASA and in 1992 he became the general manager
of the shipping, oil & offshore department. In 1994 he was promoted to Deputy
CEO of the bank. During the fourth quarter of 1996, Mr. Søfteland founded
Capital Partners A.S. of Bergen, Norway, a financial services firm which specialized
in shipping, oil & off-shore finance, investment bank and asset management
services. He held the position as CEO until he resigned in June of 2007. As from
second half of 2007 and until today, Mr. Søfteland runs his own investment
company, styled Spinnaker AS, based in Norway. He has also joined several private
and public companies both shipping and non-shipping, based in London, New York,
Bergen, Athens and Singapore, as an investor, chairman or director such as EGD
Holding AS, SeaSeaShipping Ltd, Tailwind Group and Stream Tankers AS. Mr. Søfteland
received his B.Sc. in Economics from the Norwegian School of Business and Administration
(NHH).
Koert Erhardt, Director
Koert Erhardt serves and has served since our inception as a member of our board
of directors. He is currently the Managing Director of Augustea Bunge Maritime
Ltd. of Malta. From September 2004 to December 2004, he served as the Chief Executive
Officer and a member of the board of CC Maritime S.A.M., an affiliate of the Coeclerici
Group, an international conglomerate whose businesses include shipping and transoceanic
transportation of dry bulk materials. From 1998 to September 2004, he served as
General Manager of Coeclerici Armatori S.p.A. and Coeclerici Logistics S.p.A.,
affiliates of the Coeclerici Group, where he created a shipping pool that commercially
managed over 130 vessels with a carrying volume of 72 million tons and developed
the use of the Freight Forward Agreement trading, which acts as a financial hedging
mechanism for the pool. From 1994 to 1998, he served as the General Manager of
Bulk Italia, a prominent shipping company which at the time owned and operated
over 40 vessels. From 1990 to 1994, Mr. Erhardt served in various positions with
Bulk Italia. From 1988 to 1990, he was the Managing Director and Chief Operating
Officer of Nedlloyd Drybulk, the dry bulk arm of the Nedlloyd Group, an international
conglomerate whose interests include container ship liner services, tankers, oil
drilling rigs and ship brokering. Mr. Erhardt received his Diploma in Maritime
Economics and Logistics from Hogere Havenen Vervoersschool (now Erasmus University),
Rotterdam, and successfully completed the International Executive Program at INSEAD,
Fontainebleau, France. Mr. Erhardt has also studied at the London School of Foreign
Trade.
Roger Schmitz, Director
Roger Schmitz serves and has served since July 25, 2013 as a member of our board
of directors. Mr. Schmitz is a Senior Investment Professional for Monarch Alternative
Capital LP, where he is responsible for analyzing investments and potential investments
in a wide variety of corporate and sovereign situations, both domestically and
internationally. Prior to joining Monarch in 2006, Mr. Schmitz was an Analyst
in the Financial Sponsors Group at Credit Suisse, where he focused on leverage
finance. Mr. Schmitz received an A.B., cum laude, in economics from Bowdoin College.
Mahesh Balakrishnan, Director
Mahesh Balakrishnan serves as a member of our board of directors. Ms. Balakrishnan
is a Senior Vice President in Oaktree’s Opportunities Funds. He joined Oaktree
in 2007 and has been focused on investing in the Chemicals, Energy, Financial
Institutions, Real Estate and Shipping sectors. Mr. Balakrishnan has worked with
a number of Oaktree’s portfolio companies and currently serves on the boards
of STORE Capital Corp. (NYSE:STOR) and Momentive Performance Materials. He has
been active on a number of creditors’ committees during restructuring of
investments, including Eagle Bulk Shipping, Excel, Lehman Brothers and LyondellBasell.
Prior to Oaktree, Mr. Balakrishnan spent two years in the Financial Sponsors &
Leveraged Finance group at UBS Investment Bank. Mr. Balakrishnan graduated cum
laude with a B.A. degree in Economics (Honors) from Yale University.
Jennifer Box, Director
Jennifer Box serves as a member of our board of directors. Ms. Box is a Senior
Vice President in Oaktree’s Opportunities Funds. Since she joined Oaktree
in 2009, Ms. Box has made investments in the Shipping, Power, Energy, Media and
Technology sectors. Prior to Oaktree, Ms. Box spent three and a half years as
an Investment Associate at The Blackstone Group in the Distressed Debt Fund. Prior
to Blackstone, she was an Associate Consultant at The Boston Consulting Group.
Ms. Box graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. degree in Economics and a minor
in Mathematics from Duke University, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
She is a CFA charterholder.
Stelios Zavvos, Director
Stelios Zavvos serves as a member of our board of directors. Mr. Zavvos is the
Founder and CEO of Zeus Private Equity Group, which engages in the investment
and development of large scale projects throughout Southeastern Europe, Turkey
and the United States. Mr. Zavvos was also Founder and CEO of Continental American
Capital, an investment group which focused on real estate investment and financing
in the United States. He is the Founder and President of the Harvard Business
School Club of Greece, Chairman of Solidarity Net Foundation, a Member of the
European Council on Foreign Relations, as well as a Member of International Crisis
Group’s International Advisory Council. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business
School and a MSc in Civil Engineering from Polytechnic University of Athens.
Star Bulk Carriers Corp currently has 294 employees.
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