As a professional and well-spoken, middle-aged white northern European male with an eye for good tailoring, Hugo De Stoop could have come from Central Casting to play the role of a convincing chief executive.
But industry insiders understand that the norms of mainstream business are often adopted belatedly in shipping, and as chief executive of Euronav, the world’s biggest public crude tanker company, De Stoop is the flag-bearer for an emerging breed of professional shipowners’ executive.
