To solidify its long-term commitment to the vital Greek shipping hub, Anglo-Eastern Univan Group has permanently relocated its VP of Business Development, Martin Rowe, to Athens to work alongside Hellas Managing Director Evangelos Kartimpelis. This strategic leadership expansion builds upon the successful integration of Euronav Ship Management Hellas, seamlessly combining Anglo-Eastern’s massive global technical scale with deeply rooted local market relationships.
Athens and Hong Kong | May 19, 2026 – Anglo-Eastern Univan Group (Anglo-Eastern), a Tier-1 global leader in independent ship management services, has executed a definitive strategic expansion within the Greek maritime sector. This high-level capital and leadership commitment marks a significant milestone in the Group’s long-term commercial strategy, targeting one of the world’s most dominant, liquid, and competitive shipping hubs.
By restructuring its local leadership, anchoring a key global executive permanently in Athens, and leveraging the technical infrastructure acquired via Euronav Ship Management Hellas, Anglo-Eastern is aggressively positioning itself to capture a larger share of the elite Greek shipowning market.
The Strategic Catalyst: Leadership Relocation & Institutional Alignment
At the core of this operational ramp-up is a critical executive deployment. Martin Rowe, Anglo-Eastern’s Vice President of Business Development, has permanently relocated from the Group’s global headquarters in Hong Kong to Athens. The move is designed to inject top-tier corporate development expertise directly into the local market, facilitating high-touch, face-to-face engagement with Greek shipowners who traditionally favor relationship-driven, long-term partnerships over purely transactional frameworks.
Rowe’s deployment is highly synergistic, directly complementing the existing leadership of Evangelos Kartimpelis, who is serving as the Managing Director of Anglo-Eastern’s Hellas Office since September 2025.
Executive Profiles & Operational Synergy
- Martin Rowe (VP of Business Development): Brings over 30 years of commercial maritime experience across Hong Kong, London, and broader European jurisdictions. Notably, Rowe possesses deep cultural and historical ties to the region, having lived in Greece for nearly a decade during his formative years.
- Evangelos Kartimpelis (MD, Hellas Office): Provides the essential, deeply rooted local market intelligence, operational oversight, and continuity required to navigate the distinct regulatory and cultural landscape of Greek shipping.
Technical Integration: The Euronav Hellas Legacy
Anglo-Eastern’s current footprint in Greece is underpinned by its April 2024 acquisition of Euronav Ship Management Hellas. Over the past 24 months, Anglo-Eastern has engaged in a meticulous, non-disruptive integration strategy.
Rather than imposing a rigid corporate template, the Group’s priority has focused on a hybrid model: incorporating the Hellas Office into Anglo-Eastern’s global ecosystem of proprietary operational systems, data-driven software, and international scale, while strictly preserving the local office’s inherent strengths:
- Agile, practical decision-making tailored to volatile market cycles.
- Granular local market knowledge and deeply entrenched counterparty relationships.
- A specialized cultural approach that aligns seamlessly with the traditional Greek style of conducting maritime business.
Strategic Impact: This calculated integration has fundamentally upgraded Anglo-Eastern’s global technical capability in the high-spec tanker segment, utilizing the legacy Euronav asset as a center of excellence for liquid bulk management within the Mediterranean and global trade lanes.
Executive Commentary & Market Philosophy
The leadership team emphasizes that success in the Hellenic market requires a balance of global scale and localized agility.
Niraj Nanda, Chief Commercial Officer at Anglo-Eastern, stated:
“Greece is a market that rewards competence, consistency and judgement proven over time and under pressure. We have focused on listening first, integrating carefully, and earning credibility through delivery.”
Evangelos Kartimpelis, Managing Director of the Hellas Office, commented on the leadership expansion:
“Martin’s relocation adds further strength to a strong team already deeply rooted in the local market. Greek owners rightly expect speed, flexibility and solutions tailored to the specific requirements of each fleet. Our role is to understand each owner’s operating philosophy and support it with the scale, systems and experience of a global ship manager. That balance, local insight supported by international capability – is what I believe defines Anglo-Eastern’s presence in the Greek market.”
Martin Rowe, Vice President of Business Development, reflected on his return to the region:
“Returning to Greece now, to work closely with Anglo-Eastern’s Hellas Office, feels less like a relocation and more like a second homecoming. It brings together my professional experience with a market that played an early role in shaping how I still see shipping today: not as a transactional business, but one built through long-term partnerships.”
The Athens Technical Summit
Underscoring Greece’s elevated status within Anglo-Eastern’s macro strategy, the Group selected Athens as one of just four premier global locations to host its inaugural series of Technical Summits.
Held from 4-5 May 2026, the Athens Technical Summit convened senior international maritime leaders to dissect and address systemic challenges facing contemporary ship operations. Key agenda items centered around navigating an increasingly complex geopolitical environment, managing fragmented trade routes, ensuring crew safety amidst regional conflicts, and implementing decarbonization/energy-transition workflows to meet stringent environmental compliance mandates.
By deploying permanent executive assets to Athens, Anglo-Eastern connects the Greek market directly to an expansive, asset-light maritime infrastructure:
Anglo-Eastern Asset Matrix
- Total Fleet Under Full Technical Management: 700+ vessels.
- Total Fleet Under Crew Management: 500 additional vessels.
- Newbuilding Supervision & Project Management: 1,000+ newbuildings and conversions.
- Global Footprint: 30 locations spanning Asia, Europe, and the Americas.
- Human Capital: Approximately 39,000 active seafarers and 2,350 shore-based employees.
- Institutional Training: Supported by wholly-owned Anglo-Eastern Maritime Training Centres (AEMTCs) and the specialized Anglo-Eastern Maritime Academy (AEMA).
As geopolitical shifts and evolving green fuel mandates increase compliance demands, Anglo-Eastern’s localized, executive-led infrastructure in Athens is positioned to deliver institutional-grade solutions directly to the heart of the Greek shipping cluster.
Souce: Anglo-Eastern Univan Group