By: Gary Dixon
Published in TradeWinds + News
What was your earliest memory?
This question has always puzzled me. I am sure it was a light bulb. However, I
would not be surprised if that recognition derives from Gunther Grass’ novel
The Tin Drum.
Did you go through training/university or straight into
work?
As a high-school student, my dream was to study at medical school and become a
chief physician at a large hospital. Instead, my path led me to a master’s
degree in mechanical engineering. After I completed my studies, my father gave
me a wake-up call to enter his company.
Who were your mentors?
Fact is that I neither had any lasting mentorships nor any worthwhile to
mention throughout my career. My ambition was always to seek and learn the
tools which would enable me to form my business to perfection and be
independent.
Ambition or talent — which is more important?
Talent is certainly the seed from which roots can grow. Ambition is what waters
the seed. Sir Alex Ferguson said those without ambition will sit on the
substitutes’ bench. “A wall will never consist of one stone alone.”
What would you have done if you hadn’t gone into
shipping?
A question I never had the chance to think about. I was managing and owning a
Caterpillar dealership, selling and servicing ship propulsion systems, and then
diversified into building ships in 2002, putting them into third-party
management. When the Lehman Brothers crash triggered the crisis, I wished I had
not diluted all my assets into ships and had the cash I used to have in my
account to retire early. However, it was too late. Business as a tanker
owner/operator has no end to its learning curve, and now, with hindsight, I can
say it was fortunate for my career and hopefully that of my children to have
gone into shipping.
What is your biggest extravagance?
Having looked up the meaning of this word.
How do you relax?
The main source is sleeping. I also relax when I come home from work and
sit at the dinner table discussing daily events with my wife. Then there are my
passions. The managers of Lehman Brothers indirectly brought back something to
my life I had forgotten: free time! I have a workshop in our garden where I
restore vintage vehicles, primarily motorbikes. When I have the time, this is
the best means for me to divert my thoughts away from day-by-day business.
What would you like to own that you do not possess?
A large sailing yacht that I could call my second home and discover many
places in the world.
When are you happiest?
When our children, who are studying in Madrid and Philadelphia, join us
sailing in the Greek waters or skiing in Austria. We chat for hours about their
and our lives and experiences.
Is politics important to you?
No — or it is better to say, with growing age and increasing frustration —
less. As someone who has lived most of his life in a third-world/emerging
country, I have seen corruption dominate public life, several coups, human
rights violated, a non-intact justice system, a press that has lost
independence, and the fear that you could be robbed of your assets. Am I
starting to get homesick for the achievements Europe has worked for so hard?
What would you change in shipping?
I would like charterers, the major oil and chemical companies, and traders
not only to demand the highest quality but also to transparently reward
higher-quality operators. Isn’t it gross that as ship operators we see
nightmares where we wish for spills and disasters to give our clients a wake-up
call on quality?
Which four people, living or dead, would you like to
invite to dinner?
John F Kennedy, Helmut Schmidt, Ludwig Erhard, and Mikhail Gorbachev.
What would your 20-year-old self say to you today if you
met?
He would be critical that some of my achievements could have taken place
earlier.
What keeps you awake at night?
If I haven’t solved a technical problem during a restoration of one of my
vintage motorbikes.
What are your favourite song, book, and film?
Fleetwood Mac’s Go Insane; Stiller by Max Frisch; Out of Africa.
What is the most important lesson you have learned?
Resilient behaviour: to try to manage stressful situations with a positive
outcome.
What are your best and worst characteristics?
Ambition. It is my best and worst characteristic.
What is your greatest achievement so far?
To have the loveliest family I could think of.
Your greatest disappointment?
The friction I had with my father in the first years I was together with my
wife Claudia.
What ambitions do you still have?
To become a top-level Champions League player in our business as a technical
operator of chemical tankers.
About Lorenz Weinstabl:
Lorenz Weinstabl is chief executive of Istanbul-based Atlantis Tankers
Group, which operates a dozen 3,446-dwt to 6,416-dwt chemical and clean
petroleum tankers.
Weinstabl’s father came to Turkey during the Second World
War, working for Deutsche Orient Bank, before forming a company to represent
and distribute German machinery. His son took over the business in the 1990s,
eventually selling Caterpillar (MaK) engines for ships. The current group was
formed in 2002 when Weinstabl teamed up with Turkish shipyard executive Mehmet
Aksoy and Dane Kenneth Jan Madsen to build ships under the Armona Denizcilik
banner. In 2009, Armona took over the technical and crewing management of the
Atlantis fleet, and in 2013 the commercial management.
Weinstabl went to school in Istanbul and completed his
master’s in mechanical engineering in Germany. He can often be seen driving to
his office on a 1936-built Norton motorcycle used by the Turkish Army after the
war.
