Celebrating International Women's Day 2022

08/03/2022

Anne-Sophie Tinsfeldt

Senior Chartering Manager, Singapore

Anne-Sophie has worked in NORDEN for 12 years, beginning her shipping career in Operations, before moving to Chartering. She has spent the last four years living in Singapore.

“When I first started in chartering there were no female leaders, so it was hard to find to find role models to look to. I was a bit insecure, and I felt do they want me?”

Anne-Sophie refused to let her doubts hold her back, and has embraced life at the front-line of shipping, holding roles in Copenhagen before moving to NORDEN’s Singapore office four years ago.

“I love what I do. It’s about finding smart solutions in an ever-changing environment, working with people and creating strong relationships with them. It has been inspiring to see skilled women take on leading roles in our chartering teams not only being great colleagues but also role models to me.”

Anne-Sophie pinpoints one of the major barriers to women developing in the profession as the 24/7 nature of the job. “I have seen women take a step back when they had kids because they want to make a day-care run, and that might not be compatible with trading a ship. But I believe the industry has come a long way and awareness has increased.”

In NORDEN having a global team with offices around the world means that colleagues can cover all time zones which helps to allow people to embrace family life alongside a shipping career.

“It’s not only women who value flexibility in their jobs – it’s men too. Companies are realising that if you have happy employees who can balance their work and private lives, they will bring more energy to their work,” says Anne-Sophie.

To any women considering a shipping career, she adds: “I would say go for it. It’s fun, it’s international and there are so many opportunities Don’t let your gender stop you and don’t be afraid of chasing your dreams. As long as you have the right mindset people will respect you.”

 

Mette Hahn Conradsen

Laytime Lead, Dry Operator, Copenhagen

Mette spent six years studying to be a chemical engineer before landing a job in shipping. Today she leads a team of eight people across three global locations

“I first joined NORDEN in 2005 and was promised I would never be bored..that turned out to be very true!”

After leaving her job to start a family a few years later, Mette was given offer she couldn’t refuse to re-join NORDEN again.

“My boss knew that I had a small child and he asked me ‘how much do you want to work?’ So, I worked 30 hours a week at first. It was the perfect work-life balance for me at that time. I believe it’s so important for companies to offer flexible opportunities like that.”

Starting out in her shipping career, Mette says she often encountered prejudices from being a woman in a male-dominated world.

“At the beginning I often felt like I was treated like a little girl. Once a broker visited and brought me a jar of honey because he said I was ‘sweet as honey’.  Thankfully I these attitudes have changed over the last 10 years..”

Today, Mette is Laytime Lead, managing port stopovers for all NORDEN dry cargo vessels and leading a team of eight people across Copenhagen, Brazil and Singapore.

“When I took on the role, I was the only female team in Operations, so I had no role models around me. When you’re in this position it’s so important to have a network to reach out to. I’ve joined some women in leadership organisations, and I’m very lucky to have good female colleagues I trust in this company that I can bounce ideas off.”

Mette admits that while she never had ambitions to be a leader, she loves the job now. “I think as a woman you often feel you should tick all the boxes before you apply for a role. But my attitude to that has completely changed. I have grown into this role, it’s very exciting to be there when the big decisions are taken. I’ve realised that women need to be better at putting themselves out there.”

Her advice to anyone looking to take on a career leap is to remember this quote from Pippi Longstocking: "I have never tried that before, so I think I should definitely be able to do that!"