BRIAN INGPEN TEEKAY THE FIRST 40 YEARS TEEKAY The First 40 Years Dedicated to the many loyal staff members of Teekay – past and present – who have helped the company earn a position at the forefront of the maritime industry. TEEKAY The First 40 Years Brian Ingpen Kattegat Limited PublishEd bY: Kattegat Limited 69 Pitts Bay Road Hamilton HM 08 Bermuda CONTENTS http://www.teekay.com/ First published 2013 Text © Brian Ingpen 2013 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher. EdiTor: Douglas van der Horst Foreword vii ProjEcT mAnAgEr: Douglas van der Horst Chairman’s Perspective viii dEsign And layouT: The Nimble Mouse My Brother and Teekay xi dusTjAcKET dEsign: The Nimble Mouse Proof-rEAdEr: Tessa Kennedy Author’s Preface xiii indExEr: Ethleen Lastovica Hirt & Carter Cape (Pty) Ltd rEProducTion: 1 A Danish Farm Boy 17 PrinTing And binding: Tien Wah Press (Pte) Ltd, Singapore 2 American Dawn 29 3 A Cedar Has Fallen 59 ISBN 978-0-620-56155-6 4 Boom Years 93 5 Wider Horizons 153 In 2012 Teekay commissioned the well- known artist Ian Marshall to paint the Afterword 185 watercolours and sketches that appear at Appendix 1: Teekay’s Departmental Structure 187 various places throughout the text. These evocative works have added greatly to the Appendix 2: Recent Changes to Teekay’s Structures and Procedures 190 illustrative impact of the book. Appendix 3: Fleet list 192 Appendix 4: Chronology 199 Appendix 5: Ship Types and Glossary 202 Appendix 6: Typical Areas of Operation 204 Index 206 Foreword eadership is a service, it is not there to be with its most senior executives – one-to-one as reliability, integrity and teamwork are not L served. It is not a privilege of power and well as many hours with its board of directors the product of some executive team but the authority. It cannot be assumed, but only – I could not help but perceive a feeling of col- expression of enduring and proven ways of granted by those who follow. Highest among lective purpose. All share a sense of service and doing business and working together that the duties of leaders is to ensure that they commitment to a purpose beyond themselves. have been the founding principles of the com- leave a legacy of leadership beyond their ten- All see their role as custodians of the organisa- pany’s success from day one. ure that echoes into future generations. It is tion rather than the simple commercial vul- Perhaps Torben’s most lasting legacy was less about what must be done and more about garity of ownership and control so common to put in place the vision and conditions that the manner in which it should be done. This is in the modern business world. Teekay’s lead- ensured Teekay had choices for its future leadership at Teekay. ers are innovative and ground-breaking in direction and that these choices would be Throughout my own career I have had adapting to their client and market needs yet bounded by two simple and lasting compasses the privilege of observing and supporting the powerfully old-fashioned, traditional and rev- to ensure that the ship does not run aground selection and development of leadership in erent in the way they deliver that competitive or become lost: leadership and values. Teekay some of the world’s most influential corpora- innovation. People like working for Teekay. has these two compasses above its capabilities tions. In few have I experienced the lasting They feel safe there. They feel that the condi- and resources – from the boardroom to its legacy of leadership of any one figure as I have tions exist there for them to succeed whatever offices, the bridges of its ships and among the seen in the impact of Torben Karlshoej. From their role. What an old-fashioned concept so thousands of employees who carry the legacy the inspiration of vision and what might be, impressively packaged and so elegantly and of the Teekay Spirit onwards. Whatever lies to the tenacity to persevere with endurance sustainably delivered. ahead, the company is in good hands because through all challenges, to the driven values Teekay is a truly international organisa- of the strong foundations created by those of doing, above all, what is right and safe for tion. It thinks that way. It respects the world, who built it. employees aboard and ashore at all levels, the its people and its resources that way. So many leadership climate of Teekay remains to this other corporations should and must adopt Stephen Langton day a deeply embedded legacy of the vision this example. Teekay has adapted and evolved of an outstanding leader. Torben may have as any successful long-standing enterprise Stephen Langton has proudly supported Teekay as an created a fine shipping enterprise but his must in order to continue to succeed. It enjoys adviser on leadership and succession. He lectures in real achievement is the carriage of that early the position of setting standards for business senior leadership and CEO succession in leading busi- vision into the future, and the maintenance ethics and service to which thousands of other ness schools around the world. of core beliefs by people who never had the organisations and stakeholders are exposed Jens Torben Karlshoej 1941–1992. Aiko Karlshoej chance to meet him in person. in the hundreds of cities and ports where its When I met Teekay employees, experi- brand is visible every day. Its ‘spirit’ values of enced Teekay environments, spent many days safety and sustainability, passion, innovation, vi vii Chairman’s Perspective ‘Now this is not the end. It is not even the Ingpen’s fine book captures the essence of Tee- ‘marine midstream’ company, providing a beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, kay and its remarkable journey over the past broad range of services globally to the world’s the end of the beginning.’ 40 years. I have been privileged to be part of leading energy companies. We are widely Winston Churchill, 1942 the team for much of the second half of this respected in the capital markets. And I believe narrative, in the post-Torben era. that many more exciting and fulfilling chap- orben Karlshoej had a dream, audacious Bjorn Moller was appointed CEO in 1998 ters lie ahead of us. Tfor anyone, but especially for a Danish and I was elected chairman soon after. Bjorn It has been a privilege to work closely with farm boy who had emigrated to the US with led the brainstorming sessions that produced Bjorn Moller, Peter Evensen, and their tal- heroic ambitions, a modest formal education statements of our VISION and BHAG (‘Big ented management teams over the past 15 and very few dollars in his pocket. He dreamt Hairy Audacious Goal’), both in keeping with years. We have always believed that searching of building the world’s leading shipping com- Torben’s dream. We set out to transform Tee- the globe to find the most able and skilled indi- pany, managed to the very highest standards kay from a medium-sized tanker company, viduals to serve on our board of directors gives by the most competent people in the industry. hostage to the ever fluctuating spot market, us a great competitive advantage, and that Although he didn’t achieve this dream in his into a well-diversified and well-capitalised has proved to be the case. I have been most tragically shortened lifetime, the company company with access to capital markets at all fortunate to work with some of our industry’s that he created has provided a platform for points in the shipping and economic cycles. best minds, and I am most grateful for their the achievement of his lofty goal. I think it is fair to say that we were pioneers in unstinting support. I could not be more ex- Torben Karlshoej had the best possible ally this quest; there were no role models or sim- cited about the challenges that lie ahead as we in his quest – his older brother Axel. Staunch ilar shipping companies in the public markets. embark on this journey together, as we move supporters of each other in life, Axel stepped In 2002 we were joined by Peter Evensen, past the ‘end of the beginning’ and into our up at a time of intense grief to declare: ‘Sadly who brought with him incomparable finan- next chapter in pursuit of Torben’s dream! my brother is gone, but his dream will live cial and capital market skills. He has been the on!’ Most in our industry were sceptical; very principal architect of our successful ‘daughter sEAn Day few shipping companies survive the sudden company’ structure, which has contributed so Chairman loss of a charismatic founder, particularly in dedicated management team who were ready much to our success in recent years. Teekay Corporation tough economic times and a very depressed to keep driving Teekay forward. Today we are at the end of the second chap- shipping market. But Axel never wavered, Every company history describes a living ter: our entrepreneurially-led tanker com- assisted by Torben’s very talented and entity and its trajectory over time, and Brian pany has been transformed into a diversified viii ix My Brother and Teekay t gives me great pleasure and pride to write embargo was under way, was tough. But from throughout his life. Those principles remain Ithis introductory text to a book that celeb- that time – until he died – nothing could hold part of Teekay’s core values.