Frank Bünte has joined the Management Board of the Rickmers Group as Chief Treasury and Risk Officer. Previously he was with HSH Nordbank AG, where he was latterly responsible for the bank’s entire domestic shipping company business.
“Acting in concert with the existing management team, Mr Bünte will drive forward the consolidation and expansion of Rickmers Group’s risk management system and dovetail opportunity and risk information with planning,” explained Bertram R C Rickmers, Chairman of Rickmers Holding.
Mr Bünte commented on his new duty: “The roots of Rickmers Group date back more than 175 years. I am looking forward to playing a key role in the mission to drive forward a company with such a long tradition, taking on the challenges that lie ahead in this fiercely contested shipping market.”
He continued:
“The industry is and remains extremely capital-intensive! The demand for capital – even in an organisation like Rickmers – just keeps on growing. Primarily, it’s a question of developing sustainable, future-oriented business models with as high a degree of stability as possible in revenue and return, clarity in organisation, structure and processes and, last but not least, a reliable risk management function. With this in mind, it will, in the future, also be a matter of giving ourselves the ability to determine our risk position at any time in order to draw conclusions from it for the actions we take.”
Bünte completed his bank training with the HSH Nordbank AG’s predecessor institution, Hamburgische Landesbank, in 1983 and then worked in the company’s various credit divisions. Following graduation in savings bank business management in 1994, he was responsible for parts of the bank’s international loan business from 1995 to 1999. In that year he switched to the HSH Nordbank Group’s shipping division.
