New president for International Salvage Union

Captain Muller, who has been a member of the ISU Executive Committee since 2008, and vice-president since 2011, succeeds Mr Andreas Tsavliris, who will continue as a member of the ISU Executive Committee.

Mr Tsavliris said: “It has been a great honour to be the vice-president and then president of the ISU and to represent our members as we have worked on the important issues facing our industry. I am delighted to be handing over to Leendert Muller who, like me, comes from a family with a long and proud tradition in towage and salvage. Leendert has much experience of the industry and has demonstrated great commitment to the ISU and to marine salvage and I am sure the leadership of our association will be in good hands.”

Commenting on his appointment, Captain Muller said: “We all know Andreas’ great passion for the traditional salvage business and its heritage and history and I should like to thank him for his hard work during his presidency. Andreas has made the most of his deep understanding of the business to ensure that ISU has maintained a high profile and has been an effective trade association. He has also introduced an ISU Annual Review, a Meritorious Service Award, and enabled us to publish again the annual statistics for our industry.

“For my part it is a great honour to be the president of the ISU and I will do my best to represent our members’ interests as we continue working on the issues we face, engaging with our stakeholders to make sure that this industry continues to provide a vital service to world shipping.”

Captain Muller is joint managing director of Multraship Towage and Salvage based at Terneuzen on the river Scheldt in the Netherlands. The company operates a substantial fleet of modern tugs and heavy lifting equipment and conducts salvage, towage and offshore support services in Europe and the Black Sea.

He started his career at sea and became a captain in tugboats, rising to principal salvage master, and has been involved in many well known salvage and emergency response operations. Captain Muller became Multraship’s operations director and later managing director. He is also a member the Executive Committee of the European Tug Owners’ Association (ETA) and a board member of the Royal Dutch Shipowners’ Association (KVNR).