The Lloyd’s List Podcast: Can diversity-linked loans close shipping’s gender gap?

SOMETHING ground-breaking has happened in shipping. Navigator Gas, best known for owning and operating the world’s largest fleet of handysize gas tankers, this month revealed that they had done something no other shipowner has done before. The US-listed LPG carrier have taken out the industry’s first ever gender diversity-linked loan. In another words, they’ve drawn down on a $200 million loan facility agreement that has its interest rate based on whether the company meets targets to increase the number of women they have in leadership roles. One of the key performance indicators is linked to environmental sustainability and the other to getting 35% of women in the company in leadership roles in the next five years. Given that none of the company’s current C-suite roles are held by women, and only one of the seven board members is female, this represents a bold move on the part of Navigator management. So the Lloyd’s List Podcast invited Navigator Gas chief executive Mads Peter Zacho to talk to markets editor Michelle Wiese Bockmann this week to discuss the challenge he has set himself and why he believes it is important to change working culture and address shipping’s gender diversity gap.