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uS
Fritz Heidenreich
a program for success
Tanker pool heir Fritz Heidenreich opted to turn his attentions to technology
A SELF-PROFESSED computer geek who was born into a blueblooded
shipping family has done what might appear to be
the obvious thing – established himself as a shipping software
expert in charge of a pathbreaking online service.
However, Fritz Heidenreich has done this the old-fashioned
way, through hard work, independent thinking and with the
courage of his own convictions.
As a youngster, Mr Heidenreich spent summers working in
Heidmar, the tanker pool owned by his father, Per Heidenreich.
He learnt about chartering and operations “on the ground
floor”.
However, a fascination with computers and a passion for
programming, built upon a natural affinity for mathematics,
science and outer space, led to an aerospace engineering
degree. He never took over Heidmar itself. Instead, he and
his team masterminded the Q88.com website for the tanker
industry in the late 1990s.
Mr Heidenreich came to head Heidenreich Innovations, an
arm of the parent, in the early 2000s. After his father sold the
company to Morgan Stanley – which in turn sold half of it to
George Economou – Heidenreich Innovations spun itself off in
2008.
Today, it counts Heidmar merely as one of its 800-odd clients.
His company and its Q88 offering, meanwhile, have already
revolutionised life for charterers, vetting personnel, operations
folks and owners, and today boasts a suite of 770 questionnaires.
Of course, life for Mr Heidenreich has had its share of bumps.
A dry bulk variation of Q88, Baltic99, was started with high
uS
Volckert van reesema
Finding strength in family ties
Volckert van Reesema coined a plan for Mid Ocean Marine with his father, Nickel
A YOUNG man who began as a Pepsi management trainee,
doing jobs that included operating forklifts, has established
an unusual niche – as an owner focused on US-flag and Jones
Act shipping, and, through his wife’s side of the family, on
international offshore activities.
Volckert van Reesema says Pepsi co-founder Don Kendall,
who himself started off driving trucks, instilled a work ethic
into him, for which he is still grateful.
Software for shipping:
Fritz Heidenreich
hopes in 2008, but the market collapse immediately thereafter
meant that it has elicited only a handful of clients so far.
Undeterred, Mr Heidenreich and his team recently launched
Milbros, a specialist information portal focused on liquid
chemical transport. In contrast with dry and wet bulk, not all
chemicals move by sea alone.
“We are excited about adapting our skills to an entirely new
area,” Mr Heidenreich says.
Over the past four decades, his father, the indefatigable
Dutch-American entrepreneur Nickel van Reesema, has
established a name as a US-flag shipowner. Mr van Reesema
cut his shipping teeth in Strong Vessel Operators, the liner
company half-owned by his father. The two of them co-founded
Mid Ocean Marine in 2007.
Mid Ocean last year snapped up a 70%-built state-of-theart
Jones Act product tanker, originally ordered for $124m by
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