Erik Mohn

Director of Crewing at Stödig Ship Management

Speaker

Erik Wesenberg Mohn has spent most of his professional life somewhere between ships and shore, a place where logistics, people, and the unpredictable nature of the sea meet in equal measure. With a background of nearly two decades in the Royal Norwegian Navy, including service both at sea and ashore, he learned early the value of calm in rough conditions, clear communication, and a well-timed sense of humour.

Today, Erik works in ship management, where he focuses on crewing: the business of finding, developing, and supporting the people who make ships run safely and efficiently. At Stödig Ship Management he has been involved in everything from digitalisation of crewing systems to training initiatives, welfare programs, and compliance with an ever-growing list of international regulations. The work requires an unusual mix of structure, empathy, and stamina, traits that seem to have followed him from his Navy days.

Erik has a soft spot for cadets and young officers finding their sea legs, literally and otherwise. Having lived through the handover from one generation to the next himself, he’s spent plenty of time comparing notes between Gen X captains and Gen Z cadets, and has landed on the view that the gap is smaller than the headlines suggest. He’s more interested in what each generation can teach the other than in refereeing the argument.

He’s also developed a genuine, not performative, interest in doing right by the seafarers a company like his depends on: men and women recruited from Manila to Gdańsk to Bergen and everywhere between. To Erik, ethical recruitment isn’t a compliance exercise to tick off; it’s the actual job. He’ll happily make the case that playing strictly by the book on manning, wages, and welfare isn’t just an added cost. It’s a real competitive edge, since crews treated fairly tend to stay longer, perform better, and recommend the company to others.

Outside work, the sea remains the common thread. Erik and his wife spend summer days on their small leisure boat, a world away from engine rooms and crew lists, but close enough to remind him why he got into maritime life in the first place. It’s also where his three sons occasionally remind him that not every leadership lesson was learned in the Navy.

Those who know him describe a mix of professionalism and dry, understated humour: someone who believes in preparation, but just as firmly in coffee, good conversation, and keeping perspective when the tide turns.

In short, Erik Wesenberg Mohn is a maritime professional who traded the Navy uniform for the complexities of modern ship management, but still approaches both the sea and its people with the same steady curiosity, a strong sense of what’s right, and a healthy dose of humour.