The Schulte Group, a leading global maritime solutions provider, recently released a new corporate film. Told through the perspectives of representative Schulte family members, it vividly illustrates how this century-old shipping dynasty has consistently navigated by its unwavering compass—“family values”—over five generations, sustaining a legacy of resilience and enduring vitality. In a recent interview with China Ship Survey Magazine, Sebastian von Hardenberg, Chief Executive Officer of Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM), elaborated on how these century-spanning family values permeate the company’s ship management operations.
△Sebastian von Hardenberg, Chief Executive Officer of Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement(BSM)
Sebastian von Hardenberg took the helm as CEO of BSM in early 2025. Since joining the Schulte Group in 2005, his career has taken him to key global shipping hubs, including Germany, Hong Kong, Cyprus, and Singapore. He has excelled in senior roles within the Group, such as Executive Assistant to the CEO, Head of Controlling, Financial Director, and Director of Business Risk. With over two decades deeply immersed in the maritime sector, his career reflects a profound connection to the industry, and his management philosophy is imbued with the Group’s core ethos.
Our conversation revealed that the development of BSM, as a core division of the Schulte Group, is fundamentally shaped by its family enterprise DNA. Sebastian von Hardenberg detailed his approach to steering this premier global ship manager: integrating over 140 years of maritime heritage with an agile strategy to reinforce its unique competitive edge, thus navigating a steady course through industry transformation and future challenges. Keys to this are developing fuel-agnostic capabilities for diverse decarbonisation pathways; leveraging digital tools to address increasingly complex compliance demands; and upholding the long-term perspective inherent to the family enterprise’s stability. These insights underscore BSM’s emphasis on safety, people, and responsibility, showcasing its forward-looking vision in embracing transformation and offering a tangible model for the evolution of ship management.
Q: Having joined the Schulte Group in 2005, you have held multiple executive roles and served as Vice President of InterManager before being elected its President this year. How have these extensive career experiences shaped your priorities as BSM’s CEO and the company’s strategic roadmap?
A: Having joined the Schulte Group in 2005 and held various executive positions within the company, my leadership is deeply shaped by a comprehensive understanding of the maritime value chain This background ensures that BSM’s strategic roadmap remains client-centric, balancing operational excellence, asset value preservation, and sustainable growth.
Shipping is inherently global, uniting diverse talent across regions and cultures. My international experience has given me a clear understanding of our global crew and clients' fundamental expectations: paramount are vessel safety, asset preservation, and vessel availability, supported by a significant emphasis on talent development and customer retention.
My presidency at InterManager reinforces this perspective with a global view on industry-wide issues—from crew shortages and talent retention to complex decarbonisation regulations like EU ETS and FuelEU Maritime. These insights strengthen our commitment to proactive collaboration and long-term resilience.
Under my leadership, BSM will focus on three core priorities. Decarbonisation: Leveraging our Fleet Performance Centre (FPC) and alternative fuel expertise to support regulatory compliance and emissions reduction. Talent acquisition and retention: Investing in our global Maritime Training Centres (MTCs), the Smart Academy, and initiatives like Diversity@Sea to ensure a skilled and motivated workforce. Digitalisation: Driving efficiency and transparency through tools like smartPAL and LiveFleet, ensuring real-time data-driven decision-making.
This vision ensures that BSM remains a trusted partner in building a safe, sustainable, and digitally enabled maritime future.
Q: You stated that you look forward to “driving BSM’s strategy forward during a time where transition and constant change are essential.” What emerging industry dynamics underpin this commitment? What are BSM’s transition targets, and what concrete measures will be implemented to ensure progress?
A: I would say that the significant developments that affect the shipping industry are war and conflict, sanctions exposure, many new rules and regulations—including those related to decarbonisation and policies from the USTR—alongside digitalisation and the need to keep attracting new talent into maritime careers.
We invest in expert teams, systems and technologies required to help our shipowners navigate the increasingly complex shipping ecosystem. BSM’s global scale allows us to understand all those exposures, employ expert teams needed to assess current conditions such as security situation and regulatory requirements, and invest in the necessary IT infrastructure to develop solutions, and ultimately ensure personnel safety. This involves proactive engagement with regulators to help improve the rules, substantial investments in our fleet performance and expert teams including carbon accountants and environmental specialists, and dedicated resources for IT and systems like MariApps and smartPAL to enhance operational efficiency and decarbonisation management.
The maritime sector is undergoing a structural shift driven by decarbonisation regulations, geopolitical instability, and digital disruption. BSM is responding by developing resilient operations built on safety and data transparency, leading in decarbonisation through digital tools and advisory, and empowering talent via structured training and global crew strategies. Concrete measures include regulatory forecasting tools, fuel transition support, and ongoing investments in human capital and digitalisation—all ensuring BSM remains adaptive, competitive, and aligned with a net-zero future.
Q:In a market characterised by volatility and uncertainty, how does BSM build its differentiated competitive advantages to achieve greater strides forward?
A: BSM is part of the Schulte Group, which is looking back on 140 years of heritage and is 100% family owned by shipping professionals who value safety and good brand reputation first and foremost. This provides a stable platform capable of retaining high quality people, resulting in an exceptionally high average tenure among our leadership team. It also allows for a long-term-oriented strategy spanning decades rather than quarters, enabling pioneering investments in critical areas such as maritime IT and digitalisation. We founded our dedicated IT arm, MariApps Marine Solutions, 15 years ago; it now employs 1,300 professionals globally, delivering premium maritime IT ecosystems for BSM and external clients.
These elements collectively shape BSM’s unique competitive edge. We stand out by combining the stability of a family-owned company with over 140 years of maritime heritage and an agile strategy anchored in digitalisation, decarbonisation, and people. We invest heavily in proprietary platforms like smartPAL, which integrates technical management functions and automates compliance and performance tracking. Our Fleet Performance Centre transforms operational data into actionable decarbonisation insights, helping clients minimise carbon liabilities and optimise fuel efficiency. As the world’s largest third-party manager of LNG fleet with a portfolio of more than 70 vessels and with ongoing projects in relation to methanol and ammonia, BSM leads the energy transition with practical expertise and a fuel-agnostic approach. This is matched by our robust crewing strategy and six global MTCs, ensuring continuous crew development and retention.
By aligning advanced digital tools, alternative fuel expertise, and a strong seafarer focus, BSM offers resilient, forward-looking solutions amid market uncertainty.
Q: Future fuel choices are critical to shipping’s decarbonization. Could you elaborate on the specific aspects of BSM’s “fuel-agnostic” capability?
A: Alternative fuel choices pose significant challenges for shipowners and making decisions on the strategy forward is no easy task. Therefore, the industry has been closely monitoring developments at the MEPC meetings to gain better insight into upcoming emission reduction regulations. From a ship management perspective, whether at BSM or other global third-party ship managers, the challenge is that we must be ready to provide management services adapted to whichever pathway our clients choose. “Fuel-agnostic” means we are ready for whatever the future holds. From LNG to methanol and ammonia, we do not bet on one fuel — we prepare for all. This mindset ensures flexibility and future readiness without locking clients into a single fuel path.
BSM has established robust foundations for the energy transition: we manage the world’s largest third-party LNG fleet, with methanol projects well underway and the first methanol dual-fuel vessel set to join our managed fleet this year. We actively contribute to ammonia safety protocol discussions while building system readiness and dedicating resources to analyse decarbonisation regulation impacts via our Fleet Performance team.
Critically, this capability is underpinned by the research done by the dedicated team of the Maritime Energy Centre and our network of six Maritime Training Centres, where crews are trained on the latest fuel systems and safety protocols, with evolving curricula for alternative fuels. The training for alternative fuels ultimately means the safety of our seafarers and vessel integrity. Operational excellence hinges on crew competence – they must be safe, confident, and well-trained. While the revision of STCW still takes time to come, BSM is already heavily invested in developing methanol as well as ammonia training courses. We are accelerating this effort, expanding curriculum coverage such as specialised firefighting for hard-to-detect fires, thereby enhancing competency and ensure operational and personnel safety.
Q: With the FuelEU Maritime regulation, effective January 2025, and the IMO Net-zero Framework approved by the IMO MEPC 83, how will BSM support customers in meeting increasingly stringent compliance requirements?
A: BSM takes a proactive, tech-driven approach to regulatory compliance. Through the smartPAL platform and our Fleet Performance Centre, BSM can provide multi-level compliance services. First, we can track real-time fuel consumption and emissions data for vessels and generate automated reports, supporting shipowners in efficiently and conveniently fulfilling the requirements of the IMO DCS and the EU MRV regulations. Second, for regulations such as the IMO CII and the EU FuelEU Maritime regulation, we offer compliance scenario simulations under different operational models to help clients understand the conditions required to achieve compliance goals, enabling them to plan ahead and continuously improve operational strategies. Additionally, we have launched a customised FuelEU Maritime simulator that predicts potential penalty risks and supports clients in developing cost-effective fuel strategies, achieving compliance while reducing operational costs.
Beyond digital tools, our MTCs deliver specialised training on decarbonisation practices, including handling alternative fuels and regulatory reporting. By merging compliance technology with skilled human execution, we turn regulatory complexity into a competitive advantage.
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