Blue MBA appoints new ambassador for China/Hong Kong

 

Shipping industry virtuoso Henrik M Christensen is to take on the role of Ambassador in the China/Hong Kong region for the world-renowned Blue MBA – the Executive MBA in Shipping & Logistics at Copenhagen Business School.

 

Mr Christensen has built an enviable reputation in his 40 years in the shipping and supply chain industries. He is chief executive of Corporate Capital Consultants, founder of Guinea Shipping Corporation, a director of Global Logistics Shield, founder of China Logistics Club, leads many other logistics operations, and is prominent in business networks. He joins the two first Blue MBA Ambassadors, appointed earlier this year: Erle Kristin Wagle, Oslo-based manager of environmental performance at BW Fleet Management; and Capt Michael P Elwert, Singapore-based director of group strategy, human relations and support at Thome Group. Mr Christensen will advocate in the bustling Chinese economic sphere and beyond the educational mission of the Blue MBA, and serve as leader and liaison for his fellow alumni of the programme.

 

Irene Rosberg, programme director for the Blue MBA, said: ”Mr Christensen with his extensive business experience and wide range of contacts throughout the maritime and logistics sector is ideally placed to be an Ambassador for the programme. He took time out from 2003-2005 amid his intensive array of international business commitments to graduate in this demanding course, and now we are delighted that he will continue to help advance the programme and familiarise shipping companies and their executives in China, Hong Kong and elsewhere with its benefits to the industry and to personal professional development.”

 

Ms Rosberg continued: “While in practice all of our graduates are our ambassadors, the formal appointment of Blue MBA Ambassadors to different regions is reinforcing the value of the offering to the widest global audience.”

 

Starting as an apprentice in 1971 with Larsen & Rastorp (later Speditioncentret A/S) in Copenhagen, Mr Christensen moved three years later to Kuehne & Nagel, Bristol, UK. In 1978 he was assigned to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to work with the K&N agent there, later opening the group’s own representative office. He pioneered a transport route between Tanzania and Malawi financed by the World Bank on behalf of the Malawian government. He returned to the UK in 1988 and two years later co-founded Spedition Services, which became one of the main transport operators from the UK to the former Soviet Union. In 1996 he moved to Hong Kong to promote business between Hong Kong and Russia, and to act as an independent mergers and acquisitions consultant. In 2005 he launched China Logistics Club to help smaller and medium sized freight forwarders develop business with China. The Logistics Club concept has expanded to include presently some 420 members from 89 countries through African, European, Americas and Indian Clubs – together with CLC Project, CLC Yacht, CLC Courier, CLC Household and Relocation, and CLC Training. China Logistics Club became the first network to mandate professionally underwritten GLShield Payment Monitoring and Freight Payment Protection.

 

Mr Christensen has a leading role in Guinea Shipping Corporation, a joint venture with the Republic of Guinea to carry 50% of the country’s imports and exports, including bauxite, alumina and iron ore. Among many other responsibilities, Mr Christensen has worked as a consultant on oil and gas projects in Nigeria and Ghana.

 

Since 2001, the Blue MBA, which has accreditations from top educational bodies, has graduated more than 120 executives from 35 countries.