André Toet, who has been Chief Operating Officer (COO) at the Port of Rotterdam Authority since January 2008, will be resigning as of 1January. The 47 year-old Toet started at the Port Authority three years ago. He is leaving because the Supervisory Board indicated that it could not see Toet as the future CEO of the Port Authority. Hans Smits’s appointment to this post ends in two years time.

The Supervisory Board and the two fellow Executive Board members (Hans Smits and Thessa Menssen, the Chief Financial Officer) are sorry about the announced departure of André Toet, but respect his reasons.

The Supervisory Board revealed its position regarding Toet’s future shortly after the summer. Following this, Toet decided, in October, to leave the Port Authority to continue his career elsewhere. On the recommendation of the Supervisory Board, the shareholders appointed Thessa Menssen to the post of COO as of 1 January next. The recruitment and selection procedure for the position of CFO is being launched.

Before André Toet joined the Port Authority, he was CEO of the container shipping company Maersk Line for Central Europe. At the Port Authority he is responsible, among other things, for successful cost control when it comes to the construction and maintenance of infrastructure, improving accessibility via, for example, the Traffic Management Company and the ContainerTransferium Alblasserdam, the further development of the port community system (Portbase) and the resources to guide shipping, such as the Traffic Centre Rotterdam, which opened last month.