Our Association’s European Representative, Carl-Johan Hagman, appointed as ICS Vice President
At the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS*) Annual General Meeting held in Athens, Greece on Thursday, June 12, 2025, our Association’s European Representative, Carl-Johan Hagman (executive officer of NYK Line and president and CEO of NYK Group Europe Ltd.), was elected as ICS Vice President. We would like to announce this with a comment from the representative.
Comment from CEO Hagman
“As the world seeks a high-quality, environmentally friendly transportation system, the shipping industry is at the center of this transformation. ICS represents the voice of the international shipping industry and strongly supports a unified legal framework of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), which governs the oceans that cover 71% of the Earth’s surface area. Ensuring a fair and equal competitive environment in ocean shipping is the best way to achieve our original mission of building global prosperity through trade.”
The Japanese Shipowners’ Association is one of the most technologically advanced and vibrant maritime clusters in the world, and it is a great honor for me to represent this organization. I will continue to strongly support ICS’ activities.
At this General Assembly, John Denholm (UK) was elected as the next ICS President, and he is scheduled to officially take up the position at the General Assembly in June 2026. In addition to Mr. Hagmann, Ms. Gaby Bornheim (Germany) and Mr. Claes Berglund (Sweden) have also been appointed as Vice-Presidents. The term of each Vice-President is two years, with a maximum of two terms.
The past ICS Vice-Presidents from our association include Mr. Kaneyoshi Moriya (1983-1985), Mr. Akira Sugawara (1990-1992), Mr. Tsuguji Yamaguchi (1997-1999), and Mr. Masamichi Morooka (2009-2010. Morooka was ICS President from 2012 to 2016) (all of whom were NYK/our association representatives for Europe).
Carl Hagman is the fifth person to be appointed as Vice-President. * ICS: International Chamber of Shipping Founded in 1921 with shipowners’ associations from around the world as members, the organisation is headquartered in London. The Japanese Shipowners’ Association (the predecessor of our association) was a founding member and participated in the first meeting held in London in November 1921.
The current Japanese Shipowners’ Association joined in April 1957. ICS advocates for liberal shipping, defends and represents the interests of shipowners, and aims to promote the development of the merchant fleet. It conducts concrete studies on marine environmental conservation, ship navigation safety, maritime legislation, and seafarer issues, and acts as an organization representing the shipping industry at the IMO, ILO, etc. ICS: https://www.ics-shipping.org/
