Aker Philadelphia Shipyard names Kristian Rokke new CEO

Kristian Rokke, son of Norwegian billionaire Kjell Inge Rokke, will take over as president and CEO of Aker Philadelphia Shipyard, effective April 5.

Rokke, 27, is currently senior vice president of operations at the Philadelphia yard. He has worked in key operating positions, including as controller, since joining the shipyard in May 2007.

Rokke's father, chairman of Norwegian parent company Aker ASA, engineered the deal in 2001 to take over the former Kvaerner Philadelphia Shipyard, which was in trouble and flirting with bankruptcy.

Kristian Rokke succeeds Jim Miller, who will become executive vice president of Aker Contractors' U.S. onshore engineering and construction business and a member of Aker Contractors' new executive management team.

Miller also has been nominated to be the Philadelphia shipyard's new chairman, succeeding Karl Erik Kjelstad, who plans to resign at the annual meeting April 5 in Oslo, Norway.

In a statement, Kristian Rokke said he was "looking forward to working together with the strong management team" and with the Philadelphia Metal Trades Council, which represents 11 unions, "to meet the challenges going forward." He was unavailable for an interview.

Rokke, a U.S. citizen, majored in economics and mathematics at Colby College in Maine, and studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science and the Norwegian School of Management.

He comes from a shipbuilding background. His father owned successful shipyards in Europe before becoming majority owner of Kvaerner shipyard, now Aker, in the early 2000s.

Kjell Rokke began his career as a deckhand on a fishing boat in Alaskan waters and went on to build a successful 17-vessel fishing fleet.

The elder Rokke at one time owned more than half the shares in a $6 billion empire with 40,000 employees engaged in shipbuilding, engineering, fishing, real estate, satellite launching, and other endeavors, according to a published report in The Inquirer.

As CEO, Kristian Rokke will lead the transition of the shipyard to win new orders to build oceangoing commercial vessels under the U.S. Jones Act, particularly container ships, dry cargo vessels, and barges "which are expected to be key future markets," the company said.

The 90-year-old Jones Act requires U.S.-made and -operated vessels to transport goods between U.S. ports.

"Kristian Rokke has been instrumental in the successful construction and delivery of the 12 product tanker series," Miller said. "We know each other well and we will work together to ensure a smooth transition."

Gov. Corbett last month approved giving the shipyard $42 million in tax money to keep it operating and build two more ships on spec.

Under the terms, Aker ASA committed $210 million to complete the two oil tankers, even though no buyers are lined up, through its own equity and private construction financing.

Without the financing, the shipyard might have closed by July.

Aker, which once employed more than 1,000 at the Navy Yard, has laid off nearly 700 workers since July. In February, about 400 remained on the payroll.

Aker has built and sold 15 oceangoing commercial vessels. The 16th ship, which has a buyer, will be completed in May. Because of the economy and a downturn in shipbuilding, it has no new orders.