The Supervisory Board of Hapag-Lloyd AG has appointed Dheeraj Bhatia to the company’s Executive Board effective 1 January 2024.
He will also become CEO of the new Rotterdam-based Hapag-Lloyd Terminal Holding, in which Hapag-Lloyd AG’s infrastructure holdings will be pooled.
Bhatia has more than 20 years of experience in the container shipping business. During this time, he has held several international management positions, including at Norasia Container Lines Limited and CSAV.
In 2014, Bhatia joined Hapag-Lloyd as Managing Director and initially headed Area India.
Since 2018, he has been based in Dubai and serving as Senior Managing Director of Region Middle East. At the same time, he has been a member of Hapag-Lloyd’s Executive Committee.
“With Dheeraj Bhatia’s appointment, we are gaining a proven expert in container shipping for the Executive Board of Hapag-Lloyd AG,” said Michael Behrendt, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Hapag-Lloyd AG.
“Thanks to his international experience, the Supervisory Board is firmly convinced that the development, expansion and integration of our terminal portfolio will be in the best of hands.”
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A new Terminal and Infrastructure portfolio will be established on the Executive Board.
Bhatia will thus be the first Indian national as well as the fifth member of the Executive Board – alongside CEO Rolf Habben Jansen, CIO/CHRO Donya-Florence Amer, CFO/CPO Mark Frese and COO Maximilian Rothkopf.
In August 2023, Hapag-Lloyd entered into a partnership with DB Schenker to use a waste- and residue-based biofuel to cut emissions during container shipping.
More recently, Hapag-Lloyd reported an EBITDA of $3.8 billion and an EBIT of $2.8 billion for the first half of 2023.
