Recruited at age of 29 to help establish Stena Bulk AB, Ulf Ryder served initially as a Director of the holding company, Stena AB, and as Executive Vice President of Stena Bulk. But his first responsibility was Stena’s Offshore explorational drilling activity including marketing the employment of "Dyvi Stena", a 3rd generation semi-submersible drilling rig. At the time, this was Stena's largest single investment - at US$110 million.
The year was 1982 and little did Mr. Ryder realize that during the next 25 years he would preside over one of the most innovative, quality-driven, customer-focused shipping companies of his generation.
Mr. Ryder does not just preside over Stena Bulk. Indeed, he has been the driving force behind all of Stena’s bulk & tank milestones of the past 25 years. These include the formation and listing of Concordia Maritime AB on the Stockholm Stock Exchange (1984); the purchase of the world’s fifth and sixth largest ships - renamed Stena King and Stena Queen (1988); the purchase of DK Ludwig’s entire VLCC fleet, later known as the “Concordia Class” (1989); the Strategic Marine Alliance with Texaco including the establishment of jointly owned StenTex (1994); Alliance expansion into the merged ChevronTexaco (2001); the shuttle-tanker joint venture with Teekay (1996); and the development, marketing and commercialization of the Stena wide-body concept - the “MAX” series of tankers (1997).
As CEO Ulf Ryder has been the “change agent” for each Stena Bulk investment from deal initiation to consummation and, ultimately, transformation to the Stena image and philosophy. For example, the Ludwig VLCCs had been known as quality built ships but lacked marketing zest. Under Stena Bulk, crew uniforms, hull and funnel paint, and informative brochures created greater market awareness of the build-quality, performance results, maintenance record, 42-man crews and Stena’s business philosophy. The result was an enhanced reputation and improved financial performance.
At StenTex, Mr. Ryder was the working Chairman where he created a professional working environment and inspired a culture of “customer first” - with a mandate to serve customers 24/7. This common sense leadership resulted in increases in both cargo flows and cash flows. Now StenTex is fully integrated in Stena Bulk with offices in Gothenburg. Houston, New York, London, Moscow, Singapore and Beijing.
Prior to joining Stena, Ulf Ryder worked with the Broström Shipping Group (1974-1982) where, in his last position, he was Chartering Manager for Scanscot Freighters, a 20-ship open-hatch bulk carrier pool of 25,000 to 35,000 DWT vessels. Mr. Ryder worked at liner-agent Hagbard Dennel AB (1970-1974) and participated in a work-study program at Wm Brown and Atkinson, Hull (1969-1970).
Mr. Ryder completed the Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Program in Boston (1987) as the youngest attendee of that time and graduated from the Gothenburg Handelsinstitut (1969).
He is actively engaged in the shipping industry and presently serves as President of Skuld A/S Committe, Oslo. Mr. Ryder is a Member of the Board of Lundsbergs Skola. He frequently speaks at shipping seminars and conferences, and previously lectured at the Shipping Education School in Gothenburg (1977 – 1982).
For relaxation, Ulf enjoys tennis, jogging and time with his family at their summer house on Haron Island in the Swedish west coast archepelago. He and his wife, Marie, have three children, daughter Nina 25, son Jacob 22 and daughter Kajsa 17.