Retired former Clarksons shipbroker Roger Hadden has died in Australia aged 82.
“Roge” or “Lord Hadden” as he often signed off, had worked in shipbroking for 43 years when he stepped away from Clarksons-controlled Austral Chartering in 2002 at the age of 60.
A Londoner by birth, Hadden began work in 1959 as an office boy at Matthews, Wrightson, and Burbidge in the UK capital.
He shifted into the company’s tanker department and never left the sector.
He moved on to work at other companies in London and New York before finally settling in Melbourne, Australia, where he worked with Elder-Austral Chartering which was later acquired by Clarksons to become Austral Chartering.
Debra Hampton, who Hadden hired in Australia and went on to become a director of Clarksons in Singapore, described her one-time boss as “a legend in his era as a shipbroker”.
“Roger, through personality and a lot of hard work, managed to develop a thriving tanker market,” Hampton said.
“Travelling the world building relationships and just being his natural larger-than-life personality who everyone wanted to know and deal with.
“He gave a female a chance, some 37 years ago, again way ahead of the curve,” she added, recalling Hadden’s love of brightly coloured shorts, T-shirts, golf and stories — most of which, Hampton said, should never be printed.
Top teacher
Braemar Asia Pacific managing director Vaughan English’s first job after university was working with Hadden at Austral.
“He was an amazing character who said things that most wouldn’t and 99% of the time got away with it,” English said, adding quietly that some of the funniest stories came from the 1% where he was caught out.
“A wonderful teacher — there are current and retired shipping professionals who owe ‘Uncle’ Roger for the wisdom of his experiences. He was a taskmaster in the office and the life of the party out of it,” English said. “He’ll be sadly missed by many.”
Affinity (Shipping)’s Mike Rudd was about seven years old when his father — then with SSY — brought the young Hadden home.
Rudd remembers “a tall loud fellow that liked to laugh”.
Today, a slightly older Rudd, recalls — with some affection — “an all-rounder, who would use his charm and entertaining skills to get cargoes and fix ships. People liked dealing with and being out with him,” he said.
Expressive
Former shipbroker Keith Amato said: “Roger was not only a great friend for over 40 years, he was a special and unique person in the competitive world of shipbroking.
“He had this wonderful gift with words and expressions that would make an insult sound like a compliment. That was an attribute we all loved and to be honest, will miss.”
Hadden was a regular in Singapore and well known in the local shipping and tanker community there.
His colleagues there famously presented him and the Austral team with T-shirts emblazoned with a TradeWinds article featuring them, which he proudly sported on a visit to the island republic.
Shipping industry friends and associates have kindly sent in a host of the one-liners Hadden was so well known for, sadly all of which are unprintable.
This publication can also reveal Hadden as TradeWinds’ “undercover” photographer who took an iconic shot of a young, then camera-shy Idan Ofer eating a banana leaf curry.
‘No bar too far’
Hadden bought a small farm to the north of Melbourne in Sugarloaf Cree for his retirement keeping cattle — some allegedly named after shipping acquaintances under his sponsor-a-cow scheme — and a host of other animals.
After retiring, he went on tour, taking in Clarkson’s 150th birthday celebrations in London, and Posidonia in Athens where decked out in pirate’s attire he was put in charge of the brokerage’s hospitality boat.
As he neared the end of his career, Hadden and some close industry friends formed the Melbourne Gentleman’s Club (MGC) — which has proved a regular excuse to gather for broking and owning names and associates. The MGC’s motto — “no bar too far, no beach out of reach”.
Hadden had been battling cancer for some time but suffered a fall a week ago for which he underwent surgery. He died on Sunday 6 October.
He is survived by his wife Geraldine, children Todd and Abby and grandchildren Zara, Ava, Dillon and Max.
