At the end of December 2023, Forth Ports announced that CEO Charles Hammond OBE would be stepping down, at the end of June 2024, after 23 years with the port group.
His successor is Forth Ports’ current Chief Operating Officer, Stuart Wallace.
“I am extremely proud to take the helm at this brilliant ports business. Charles and I will be going through a detailed transition period until June.
This provides both Forth Ports and our customers with consistency and stability and ensures a smooth handover from one CEO to the next.” Wallace says.
As the incoming CEO, Wallace will be able to draw on a lengthy career with Forth Ports, which began in 2002 when he became Financial Controller of the port group’s Scottish operations.
“The Scottish operation function had only just been established when Charles took over as CEO. I got a real taste for the ports industry in that first year and it has never left me.
“I’m really looking forward to the challenge of leading the group as we look to make a success of our recently shortlisted Green Freeport status in Scotland and, of course, Thames Freeport and to continue to build on our strong customer relationships; delivering the opportunities we have across the group,” Wallace comments.
He has the advantage of having worked in a large number of roles in the organisation over the last 21 years. “This has given me a great understanding of what the business is about and what makes it so unique,” he comments.
A ports business has so many facets to it, Wallace points out. Every variety of commodity and goods, from aggregates and agricultural products to high-value malt whisky goes through the port.
Plus, it now has the opportunity to play a key role in the UK and Scotland’s roll-out of offshore renewables, including the next-generation of floating offshore wind.
“The way in which the ports sector supports UK plc is amazing. Some 95 percent of this country’s trade goes through the ports. They are an absolutely intrinsic part of what this country is and how it operates,” he comments.
One of the astonishing facts about the ports sector is its productivity. Wallace points out that studies show that the sector is 40 per cent more productive versus other sectors.
“The business has changed fundamentally over time. It is clearly not the same industry that it was back in the 1980s and 90s. We’ve seen everything increase in size. The ships are larger, the cranes are bigger and the way we do things has become so much more IT-dependent. This business is constantly evolving and looking for new opportunities and more efficient, low-carbon ways of operating,” he comments.
Amongst the challenges and opportunities that Wallace will have to negotiate in the year ahead are, making the most of the Forth Green Freeport opportunities, and capitalising on the offshore wind roll-out, loom large.
“If you look at the green freeport policy and what it is trying to deliver. The main aim is to boost trade, innovation and growth, as well as bringing high paid, high skilled green jobs to the regions concerned – and indeed, to the wider Scottish economy,” Wallace says.
He explains that this can be achieved through creating the right ecosystem across the Freeport. “We already have sites earmarked for logistics hubs, for advanced manufacturing, for shipbuilding at Babcock, and for offshore wind manufacturing.
“Our advance planning to put in place the ecosystem that we are going to need is going very well, as are our conversations with partners and potential partners,” he comments.
It is all about allocating and developing the appropriate spaces so as to provide room for all the businesses that are going to be part of a successful supply chain for the offshore wind sector and other key sectors as we move towards a just transition to net zero.
However, Wallace acknowledges that there are challenges that the sector as a whole will need to work to resolve.
“We are facing some significant challenges as an industry, particularly as we look to enable the large-scale rollout of floating offshore wind, for example. We need the government to provide clarity on infrastructure and to put in place an efficient consenting and planning system.
“Success will need us as an industry to put the right skillsets in place and to recruit the talented staff that will be needed to fill all the new jobs that are going to be created. This goes not just for us as a port but for ports across Scotland. It will be just as critical for our customers and partners. We are all committed to creating fulfilling jobs with clear career progressions, based around the fair work charter that delivers the freeport commitments,” he comments.
Forth Ports is committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2032 and aims to reach net zero by 2042, a few years ahead of the Scottish Government’s target of 2045. For these goals to be achieved, Wallace says, they have to be constantly front and centre.
“You have to be thinking about energy all the time. How are you working with your suppliers? What can you do to decarbonise further? And when you’ve done all you can do, how do you offset the remaining carbon emissions in ways that align with your organisational goals and commitments?” he notes.
Forth Ports has some key milestones to complete in 2024. It aims to have Scotland’s largest renewables hub at the Port of Leith finished by the middle of the year. It aims to add more warehousing at Grangemouth.
On this front, it is completing a 50,000-square-foot warehouse for one of the port’s tenants and it has approval to build another 200,000-square-foot warehouse this year as well.
Most importantly Wallace points out that Forth Ports and its partners will shortly receive the Scottish and UK governments’ formal feedback on its outline business case for Forth Green Freeport.
“Once we get that feedback, we can start making inroads into the implementation phase.
“We have areas of land that are ripe for inward investment that will focus on the just transition from fossil fuels to renewable power generation, alternative fuels and hydrogen power.
“These are exciting and inspiring times,” he says.
This article was brought to you in association with Forth Ports
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