Furetank Names Björn Stignor CEO

Swedish family-owned shipping company Furetank is making a shift in management, where Björn Stignor steps into the CEO position from an international career in the Stena sphere. Former CEO Lars Höglund continues as chairman of the board, focusing on Furetank’s expansive newbuilding programme and other engagements in shipping industry and policy.

Lars Höglund has a career of 50 years in shipping. During his almost three decades of leadership, Furetank has grown from owning two tankers to in-house management of about 20 vessels.

With the company undergoing intense and unprecedented expansion, he finds the timing is right to hand over operational responsibilities and bring an external injection of leadership competence and international experience into the company.

”This is a way of moving Furetank forward as our growth reaches new levels. As the timing turned out well with welcoming Björn Stignor into our ranks, this is a good moment in time for me to step back. He shares our values concerning business as well as people, while bringing a perfect mix of external shipping experiences,” Höglund said.

Stignor moves back to Sweden after a 13 year appointment for Stena in Singapore. He headed their joint venture with Golden Agri International, Golden Stena Baycrest Tankers: ship owners, commercial managers and pool managers operating tankers world wide. He has a master mariner degree and started his career on board intermediate tankers in the Broström fleet. Stignor has known Lars Höglund and Furetank for more than 20 years.

”I have always appreciated and respected Furetank’s work. They are at the forefront of technical development, which is a matter close to my heart. I am very impressed with their conviction in making tanker shipping more sustainable, ordering a long series of highly energy efficient LNG/LBG powered intermediate tankers. I find expansion to be an inevitable part of progress and hope to bring my technical and commercial experience and develop Furetank further,” Stignor said.

Three of Lars Höglund’s children are working in the company: Jonatan Höglund as deputy CEO with technical expertise, Viktoria Höglund on the chartering side and Yvonne Höglund in human resources. Björn Stignor transfers from a joint venture of two family owned companies and is experienced in working with generations of owners.

Lars Höglund will continue his engagements in the company newbuilding programme as well as several company boards and industry councils, in Sweden and beyond.

”I want to put my many years of experience to work and contribute to the green transition of shipping, influencing policy makers and sharing the knowledge of technical solutions we built up”, he says.

Stignor assumes the role of CEO on October 1.