FEATURE
WORDS: PETER BARRON
PICTURES: GRAEME ROWATT
Frans Calje recalls the day his father took him,
as a young boy, by the hand and led him
along the slipway of a derelict shipyard in their
Netherlands hometown.
Albert Calje told his son: “Take this in, and never forget it,
because it’s going to go now – it’s going to be demolished.
This is part of your heritage.”
It’s a lesson Frans has never forgotten – heritage matters
because it defines the people of a place, and people are his
priority.
In the 1960s, Schiedam, near Rotterdam, had three
shipyards, employing 21,000 people, building cruise liners,
warships and other vessels. By the mid-1980s, the yards had
all but disappeared.
Frans is now group CEO of PD Ports – a business that’s
synonymous with the Tees Valley – and the parallels
between Schiedam and Redcar or Middlesbrough are clear.
“I remember standing with my father in what seemed
like a ginormous cathedral, and his words stuck with me,”
he says. “That same industrial heritage is very strong here
on Teesside, and although a lot has been lost, the future is
exciting.”
As well as inheriting a healthy respect for heritage and
people, Frans – along with brother Peter and sister Nicoline
– was brought up with an enduring sense of adventure. His
father, a lawyer, and his mother, Coraline, a nurse, believed in
giving their children freedom.
“We were encouraged to explore, and that gave us a
happy childhood,” says Frans. “Life’s like a big wall with lots
of tiny doors, and our parents opened as many as possible
so we could follow our dreams.”
Though Frans admits his interests were “anywhere
but school”, his first dream was to be a vet. “It was only
because I was madly in love with a veterinary nurse at the
local practice,” he laughs. “But I wasn’t smart enough for
veterinary college.”
Instead, he struggled through a business administration
degree at Rotterdam University, where he met the real love
of his life, Marieke, who, ironically, went on to become a vet.
Frans, however, decided he wasn’t ready for work, and
his appetite for adventure proved irresistible when he finally
graduated. With money borrowed from his parents, he
bought an old Land Rover and spent a year driving from
Rotterdam to Sydney.
Travelling through Europe, the Middle East and South
Asia, Frans encountered different cultures and religions, and
soaked up the life experience. “You realise that most people
just want to do the right thing and better their lives,” he says.
After Australia, “the party came to an end”. At 27,
there were debts to pay, a career to establish and a
woman to be loved. However, Frans’ prospects weren’t
great. His qualifications were mediocre, he was older than
his contemporaries, and economic shockwaves were
reverberating around the world after the September 11
terrorist attacks.
But he struck lucky when he was tipped off about
traineeships at the Rotterdam container terminal and the
boss of APM Terminals saw enough at interview to give him
a chance.
“The deal was that if I started at the bottom and was still
there in two years, we’d look at the next step,” he recalls. “I
did all the graveyard shifts and got to know all the ins and
outs of container operations.”
It was enough to earn Frans a head office role developing
container terminals worldwide and he steadily built up an
impressive CV that led to a call from PD Ports 12 years ago,
offering the opportunity to redevelop Teesport’s deep-sea
container terminal.
“The challenge was fantastic, but the personal
circumstances were terrible,” recalls Frans. Marieke had just
given birth to their first child and it would have meant Frans
living away from the family, but she told him: “Maybe this is
something you need to do.”
The challenge was duly accepted, with Frans living on
Teesside during the week and returning to Rotterdam at the
weekends.
“I saw the same problems in the Tees Valley as where I
grew up, but I could also see massive potential,” says Frans.
After two years as projects director, he became managing
director for the container business, then group CEO in 2017.
The family had moved to England in 2010 and there are now
three children, Daniel, 12, Norine, nine, and Julia, six.
Frans’ priority at PD Ports has been to build team spirit by
putting employees at the heart of decision-making.
“Brits are obsessed with school grades, but they don’t
determine where you go in life – it’s all about how you
interact with the people,” he says. “You can be as smart as
anything but if you can’t communicate, there’s no point.”
A flat management structure has been created, and any of
PD Ports’ 1,274 employees can message Frans – directly and
confidentially – through an app.
24 | Tees Business