Chairman’s Profile

Glory Maritime is managed by John Koo, a third generation member of the Koo shipping dynasty family in Hong Kong. His father was shipping magnate, Koo Kou-ming (KM Koo), who founded the bulker and tanker company, Valles Steamship Company (“Valles”). KM Koo was also the last elder figure of the Koo-Tun-Peng shipping dynasty, which is linked to some of the region’s most famous shipping names, including Tai Chong Cheang Steamship (TCC), Orient Overseas Container Line, Island Navigation and Chinese Maritime Transport.

As one of the last of generation of shipowners from Shanghai and Ningbo in Hong Kong, KM Koo was the eldest son of Ningbo-based CS Koo, who started to provide cargo liner services along the Yangtze River and the northern coast of China in 1910 but fled in 1949 as the Communists took power. KM Koo restarted the Valles name in Hong Kong in 1950, following on the shipping line founded by his father CS Koo in Shanghai in 1910. His brother, Koo Kou-hwa took over Tai Chong Cheang Steamship after their father died in 1972. KM Koo was an uncle to former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa, whose mother was Koo’s elder sister. She was married to Tung Chao-yung (1912-1982), founder of shipping giant Orient Overseas Container Line.

John Koo joined Valles in 1992 as a manager and became the Managing Director and COO of Valles in 1997. Under John Koo’s leadership, the company disposed of its older tonnage and placed new building orders with major Japanese shipyards, putting the ships on long-term charters to various oil majors including Exxon Mobil, AGIP, Chevron Texaco, Shell, Total and Teekay. John Koo has worked in the shipping industry for over 30 years, starting as a cadet, and has a comprehensive understanding of shipping including sale and purchase, operating, chartering, technical management, insurance, claims, financing and trading. He is also sitting on the DNV committee and is also a member on other various related committees. He has established close business relationships with other shipping companies, cargo owners, banks and underwriters.

John Koo established his own shipping business in 2001 where he acquired tonnages. He had built up to a fleet of 15 owned vessels and bareboat chartered-in (BBCHP) vessels, all of which were sold in 2008, peak of the dry bulk market. Glory Maritime is keen to re-enter into the dry bulk and oil tanker shipping markets in view of attractive vessel prices and a somewhat volatile but recovering bulker market. Glory Maritime had recently entered into contracts with Chinese shipyards for the construction and purchase of 10 Ultramaxes and one VLCC 300dwt, all to be delivered from 2022 onwards.