Denise Bals of shipping company HMM in Antwerp is retiring
After a career of 48 years in the shipping industry, Denise Bals will retire on October 29, 2021. She worked for the South Korean shipping company HMM for more than a quarter of a century, the last thirteen years of which as director of the Antwerp branch.
Denise Bals will officially retire on February 1, 2022, but by mutual agreement with HMM she will resign from her position as managing director on October 29.
From the couch to the current OOCL
In 1974 Denise Bals took her first steps in the maritime sector and they worked for several forwarding agencies. “I previously worked as an interim at General Bank (today BNP Paribas Fortis, ed.) in the ‘documentary credits’ department. That experience came in handy when I was a freight forwarder in the liner shipping industry. I was able to read a documentary credit clearly. I had drawn it up and filled it in myself in the past,” she says.
In the early eighties she started working for the shipping agency Fena, the current OOCL. “This is where I made my big start,” she says. “I started with ‘container control’ (executing the containers). “That was my first assignment. After this I became a dispatch employee for all domestic and foreign transports and I also worked in the inside sales department.”
great love
Her heart was in transportation. “My great love was transport. I have always found it very exciting to look for carriers during very busy periods who could transport a number of containers in a few hours. The contact with the carriers was completely different then. Everything We have also added much more than we have now. gladly did.”
After Fena she started working at Conship as a customer service agent for the Scottish shipping company Ben Line. She took care of all cargo bookings to the Far East for a year. She also gained experience at the port company Van Ommeren, today known as Vopak, as an agent for the shipping company NYK.
people manager
In 1996 Denise joined Hyundai Merchant Marine Belgium (HMM), where she worked until the end of her career. She started as operations manager and was asked in January 2009 to lead the Antwerp office as managing director. “During my first years at HMM, I was mainly an advisor to the director, but it was never my ambition to become an ‘MD’,” she says. “My colleagues urged me to take the offer before,” she laughs. “Team spirit and people management are my number one priority, that is a must. If you are good for you, you will get a lot in return. More than half of our team has been working in our office for more than fifteen, even thirty years There is a certain loyalty.”
perseverance
The port of Antwerp is particularly close to her heart. “HMM originally specified Rotterdam as the first port of call. I have always persisted with the Korean management that the ships come to Antwerp. Our port is much more productive: we are faster and more flexible. In addition to ours, we also prefer Antwerp to customers in Rotterdam. an annual customer event, which was sometimes discussed later.”Now the management itself says to me ‘Antwerp is too important to forget’. I don’t think HMM plans to turn the Antwerp office into a ‘Benelux BV’ for a long time to come.”
men’s world
As a woman she could stand her ground. “As a woman in a man’s world, certainly in the past, you were simply skipped in a meeting. For example, there was an incident where I was not asked anything as a representative of HMM at the terminal,” she says. “If you don’t have a strong backbone and you don’t speak up, then you have nothing more to say. It happened to me once, but not twice. You have to stand your ground, and certainly not feel attacked.”
“I will still follow the port activities from a distance, but now I am going to enjoy the next chapter in my life,” she continues.
In anticipation of Denise’s new successor, Jay Mun, the director of Rotterdam, takes over. The Antwerp team currently has 27 employees.