As a graduate in commerce from the University of Mumbai with over 25 years of entrepreneurial experience in shipping and extensive experience in all facets of running container feeder services in the Indian sub-continent, Ramakrishnan continues to play an important role in overseeing the company’s daily operations.

Ramakrishnan’s passion for shipping came from his father, who set up Transworld from scratch in 1977. “My father started his career as a stenographer in a shipping company and moved to Dubai in the early 1970s. He saw the potential in the trade route from Dubai to Mumbai, and that is how Transworld emerged,” he explained in an interview with Logistics Middle East.

“At the time, there were fears that the business was going to fail. The market in India was very controlled, which made it difficult for a young company trying to secure business.”

After the death of his father, Ramakrishnan relocated to Dubai to take the helm of the company, and decided to operate the business in a slightly different fashion, which proved extremely successful. Since its inception, TGC has been diversified to provide a range of related services, including ship-owning, shipping agencies, ship management, freight forwarding, logistics, plus marine and container repairs.

Today, the company has more than 20 offices worldwide, and controls 15-20 percent of India’s liner business to any port, with the ship-owning venture growing to cover 18 container feeder ships. That said, Ramakrishnan is confident it is the UAE that lies at the heart of the organisation. “Dubai is crucial to the company for not just business reasons but sentimental ones too, as the company was seeded in the UAE by my father,” he says.