WISTA Sweden takes a seat in the ExCo
October 19, 2021
For the first time in ten years, WISTA Sweden is represented in the ExCo of WISTA International. It is Sofia Fürstenberg Stott – of 43 years, living in the south of Sweden and WISTA member since 2013 – who takes the seat, elected at the AGM in Hamburg.
“WISTA is a completely unique organization. Nowhere else you find representatives from the whole shipping business and from the whole world. I feel an enormous responsibility and a great eagerness to get going with the ExCo work. This is a phenomenal opportunity to create added value for our industry”, says Sofia Fürstenberg Stott.
Sofia Fürstenberg Stott holding her thumbs (i.e. crossing her fingers in the Swedish way) before results of the ExCo votes were presented.
She runs Fürstenberg Maritime Advisory together with her husband Conor Fürstenberg Stott and is an innovation and sustainability consultant with a maritime focus. She has just moved to her home country Sweden after many years in Norway and Denmark, where she worked with innovation at Maersk and as a consultant for Nor-Shipping, where she has been involved in developing the concept Disruptive Sustainability and arranged Open Oceans Conference 2018. She has a master’s degree in engineering from Lund University and an MBA from Copenhagen Business School.
Sofia Fürstenberg Stott believes that her special competence will fit well in WISTA ExCo.
“During the pandemic, I am probably not the only one who asked myself the question of what really counts and where I should spend my time. When my husband and I decided to focus on our consulting business, it also became clear how I can contribute to WISTA and the ExCo. With the climate crisis in its sights, shipping is facing its greatest challenge to date. This at the same time as the pandemic has created manning crises and exposed the increased vulnerability experienced by many women and men at sea. Climate issues are my specialty. Linked to my understanding of the system and my solid experience as a moderator and storyteller, I hope to develop an even more dynamic discussion within and outside WISTA, which can help drive the industry forward”, she says.
Sofia Fürstenberg Stott wants to contribute to the strategic development so that WISTA as an organization can benefit even more from the gathered knowledge and wealth of ideas that the organization and its members possess.
“The fact that WISTA has reached the consultative status in the IMO is a major breakthrough. It opens up opportunities to contribute in the broad perspective, with female leadership and global insight. WISTA sits on a huge knowledge pool and a worldwide network. That potential is waiting to be fully exploited, and that is something I want to contribute to.”
Sofia Fürstenberg Stott with Nazli Selek of WISTA Turkey, the two new names in the ExCo.
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Photos by ©Anna Janson, the Swedish Shipping Gazette. All rights reserved.
