Lloyd’s Register’s Board of Trustees has selected Thomas Thune Andersen as the Chairman-elect of the Lloyd’s Register Group, the leading provider of independent assurance and expert advice to the marine, energy, transport and management-systems sectors around the world.

Thomas Thune Andersen Chairman-elect of Lloyd's Register

Andersen, who was appointed as a Trustee by the General Committee in June, will succeed Chairman David Moorhouse CBE, who is due to retire at the end of the year after serving eleven and a half years as the Chairman of the Group.

Moorhouse commented: “It is a great pleasure for me to welcome my successor, Thomas Andersen. I have every confidence that he, together with [Chief Executive] Richard Sadler and his management team, will lead this organisation to even greater success in the future.  The Lloyd’s Register Group has a significantly more diversified range of activities today than at any time in its history. That diversity has helped us to weather the current economic storm and has given us great confidence as we look to the short and long-term future of the Group.”

Andersen, a former Member of the Board for the A. P. Moller-Maersk Group, will take over at the non-executive helm of Lloyd’s Register after almost 25 years in the maritime and energy sectors. 

Thomas is currently a Board Director of Scottish and Southern Energy, Petrofac and VKR Holdings, the parent group of Velux. He has had a long career with A. P. Moller – Maersk, starting as a shipping trainee in 1977, and has held senior positions throughout the Group, latterly as a Partner and member of its Executive Board and Chief Executive Officer of Maersk Oil.

Andersen’s previous positions include President and CEO of Maersk Inc., based in New Jersey USA, Managing Director for Maersk Company Ltd, Executive Vice President of A.P. Moller – Maersk and President of Maersk Contractors. With a Graduate Diploma in Foreign Relations (HD) from Copenhagen Business School, Thomas has also studied at Columbia and Harvard universities and is a Freeman of the City of London. He is also Chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce in Denmark.

“It is an honour and a privilege to join the Lloyd’s Register team. One can’t help but be impressed by how the organisation, over its past 250 years — and not least under the Chairmanship of David Moorhouse – has consistently supported the industry by setting new standards for technical innovation and expertise,” Andersen said. “I have been very fortunate over my long career in the shipping, infrastructure and energy sectors to have worked closely with Lloyd’s Register as a customer, bearing personal witness to the huge value of this organisation. This experience reflected very positively on the commitment of the Lloyd’s Register team worldwide. Our history is unique, our achievements are impressive and, while our future will be challenging, the opportunities are certainly great.”

The Lloyd’s Register Group today reported its annual results to its General Committee, revealing that all business streams — Marine, Management Systems, Energy and Transportation — made strong contributions last year despite the adverse market conditions created by the global economic downturn.

Group income for the fiscal year to June 30, 2010 dipped slightly to £806 million, against £820 million last year, as all divisions weathered the global financial downturn which had a significant impact on the amount of financing available for large-scale infrastructure projects. Group operating surplus, buoyed by significant one-off gains, reached £127.8 million.

Moorhouse said the strong result allowed the Group to increase its donation to the Lloyd’s Register Educational Trust (LRET), a wholly independent charity whose sole benefactor is the Group, to £10 million for the 2010/11 fiscal year.

“The Group’s constitution requires us to secure for the benefit of others ‘the advancement of education’ within the industries we serve and other engineering and science-led disciplines,” he said. “The LRET has grown in scale and stature to establish itself not only as a giver but as a participating charity and, with our strong support, we expect it to continue to help shape and improve the world’s engineering and science-based academic communities to the benefit of all.”

The Lloyd’s Register Group provides independent assurance to companies operating high-risk, capital-intensive assets in the energy and transportation sectors. We enhance the safety of life, property and the environment by helping our clients to ensure the quality construction and operation of critical infrastructure. The Group comprises charities and non-charitable entities, with the latter supporting the charities in their main goal.

Celebrating 250 years of service

In 1760, 11 men met in Edward Lloyd’s coffee house to talk about publishing a list of ships, a register to define their quality and safeguard life and property carried on them. In the years since then we have applied our expertise across the energy and transportation sectors, helping to make the world a safer place. In 2010 we are celebrating 250 years of service and quality and we are looking forward to the new challenges the future brings.