August 29, 2016
“I’ve always enjoyed being involved in things that make a big difference.”
“I’ve always enjoyed being involved in things that make a big difference” says Stewart Andrade, VP of Strategy and Business Development at Teekay Tankers.
He had little knowledge about shipping and took the opportunity to do a deep dive into understanding the business.
Stewart was born in Jamaica but moved Canada with his family in the mid-1970’s. He began his career at Teekay leading a team implementing commercial software for the chartering and post fixtures group. However, as is the case for many people joining the industry, he had little knowledge about shipping and took the plunge into learning and understanding the business.
“I came to really love the conventional tanker business.”
“At the time, Teekay was purely an Aframax tanker company so I learned about it and came to really love the conventional tanker business.” Stewart used his business and accounting background to further develop the financial and performance metrics for the commercial team. His role then morphed into financial analysis of deals, project development and long term corporate planning which served as the foundation for his current role.
Stewart’s role is to make decisions that help guide the future of the company.
In simple terms, Stewart’s role is to make decisions that help guide the future of the company. Because of this, he always keeps a long term focus in every decision he takes. “We look forward and see what sort of businesses should we be in, when should we buying assets, when should we be selling assets and determining how to analyze different projects and opportunities.”
“You can never know that you’re making the right decision but you can know for sure that you’ve been diligent and you’ve done everything you can to try and make the right decision.”
“A good business decision in the tanker space requires a solid understanding of tanker market fundamentals, sound financial analysis, and a good understanding of what others market players are doing.” Stewart is never on his own and relies on a global team to ensure he has every tool and piece of information to make a decision. “One way or another, things will work out.” Stewart is optimistic and is certain that every decision is done diligently. As he puts it: “You can never know that you’re making the right decision but you can know for sure that you’ve been diligent and you’ve done everything you can to try and make the right decision.”
