Prof. Dr Dirk Max Johns will be leaving the Management of the German Shipowners’ Asso-ciation (Verband Deutscher Reeder, VDR) effective 15 August 2019. He plans to devote even more time and effort to his lecturing activities as Professor at the Hamburg School of Business Administration (HSBA) and will be available to the German Shipowners’ Associa-tion in an advisory capacity in future. At the HSBA he is in charge of the university course of studies of the Maritime Management bachelor programme as well as of the Business Development master programme.
Johns, a member of the Management of the German Shipowners’ Association since 2012, had initially joined the Association in 2005 as Director of Communications, and in the year 2010 he had been placed in charge of Centralised Services within the Association. In addi-tion, he was responsible for national and international employer topics and, for instance, was a successful chief negotiator for the international maritime shipping industry at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Geneva. Previously he had spent ten years in managerial functions with the German TV station ZDF.
VDR President Alfred Hartmann cordially thanked Prof. Dr Johns (aged 53) for his past performance, adding: “I’m really pleased that he will continue to assist us as a consultant with his expertise, experience and key contacts and that he will closely monitor labour law topics of particular importance to maritime shipping and also represent the German Ship-owners’ Association internationally.”
Prof. Dr Johns’ further tasks will be assumed by the members of Management, namely Ralf Nagel as Chief Executive Officer and Dr Martin Kröger as Managing Director, in tandem with their past activities.
