When Şadan Kaptanoğlu was elected President of BIMCO – the world’s largest shipping association – back in May 2019, she knew that the tectonic shifts in shipping would mean a busy agenda.

A year into her tenure grappling with shipping’s response to the environment, security and digitalization, she now has the added burden of how to lead through a global pandemic that’s wiped over a billion tonnes of trade off the forecasts and created a crewing crisis with tens of thousands of seafarers being left stranded at sea as governments struggle to stabilize in the wake of an economic and social tsunami.

Sadan talks to Lloyd’s List Editor Richard Meade about shipping’s new normal, how shipping can better communicate both internally and externally and what the global economic turbulence means for shipping over the coming years.