Page 24: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (January 2024)

MEET THE CTO s maritime navigates a ment track record and business sense to tasked with future proo? ng a ? eet had future premised on meeting deliver. “So three weeks later, I started never, in fact, sailed onboard a com- and beating decarboniza- here in Antwerp.” mercial ship.

Ation targets, it’s repeated So in those early days, off he went often that no single technology or solu- on a two-week trek onboard a CMB Jumping In tion will serve as the ‘silver bullet’, and Campe admits that at ? rst it was “a container ship sailing to and from St. tapping research and knowledge across bit weird” to be positioned on the tech- Petersburg, where he was able to wit- industry sectors is a must. nical team, and his colleagues cast a ness ? rst-hand the operations, process-

Enter Roy Campe, the CTO of CMB. wary eye, premised on the fact the man es and challenges.

TECH, an industry outsider that has come into the maritime sector at argu- ably one of the most transformational periods in its history. Campe has had a long and varied career, a career with his Masters in Aerospace Engineering from Delft University of Technology as a foundation, and an entrepreneurial career built on research and develop- ment, including a stint working for famed Dutch astronaut Wubbo Ockels plus vast experience in solving all sorts of engineering problems centered on air and ? uid ? ows.

His stint with CMB started as many such positions do: making a career/life decision mixed with a chance meeting.

After 10+ years as ? rst CTO, then

Partner with Acti? ow BV, Campe thought “OK, it’s been 10 years, I’m getting married … what’s next?”

What’s next was short stint at Ghent

University, working for more than a year in an incubator that helped to “People approach us grow technologies centered on offshore and ask ‘can we do a energy, offshore wind and renewable retro? t?’ The answer energy. “That’s how I met the CEO of is ‘no’. the cost of the

CMB [Alexander Saverys], who ex- engineering alone is plained his challenge like this: ‘I have a ? eet of more than 100 ships, and the a big factor, but also majority of them will sail for 20 to 25 the fact that dual years. The energy transition will have fuel is best suited to a big effect on my shipping business; I consider from the want somebody to look into how I can initial stage of the future-proof my ? eet,’” Campe recalls.

design – particularly

And thus was born the matching in 2015 of Compagnie Maritime Belge with hydrogen, as the (CMB) – a traditional, 125-year-old issue is the amount of shipping company with 150 seagoing storage required.” vessels and six divisions – with Roy

Campe, a maritime industry outsider with an ironclad technology develop- 24 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • January 2024

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