Hans has worked in the transport and logistics sea trade sector for 48 years. He started his career at a shipping agency and having gaining experience in all facets of import and export services, he was appointed to set up the ICT function in the company. He is also one of the gurus on EDI standardization – he joined UN working groups to establish UN/CEFACT EDIFACT messages for the global sea trade industry. Having been general manager ICT within the shipping agency, Hans was asked to join the Rotterdam group of experts for the set-up of the Port Community System in the Port of Rotterdam. Since then he has been working for Portbase Rotterdam until January 2019 when he retired.
The International Port Community Systems Association (IPCSA) has chalked up some remarkable achievements in the past two years. Membership has increased to the point where IPCSA is now active and has members in every continent; IPCSA has continued to increase its influence at the highest levels, and IPCSA membership has expanded beyond port and cargo community systems to include Single Window operators. All of this has been achieved under the dynamic chairmanship of Hans Rook, whose knowledge and expertise of community systems, IT and port logistics, built up over a 50-year career, is unrivalled.
Hans is quite simply one of the visionaries in the development of new services to support the simplification of trade. Hans, retired from Portbase Rotterdam as per 01-01-2019 were he was a senior adviser at Portbase, the Port Community System in The Netherlands. “We have a very broad scope of members, from those just starting out on Port Community Systems to those that have many decades’ experience. IPCSA successfully combines the two, so that members can learn from each other and help each other to facilitate trade”.
Global trade facilitation is at the forefront of everything we do, and costs are being reduced due to the solutions our members develop and provide. As chairman, I am looking forward to moving forward as fast as possible but in a strategic way. IPCSA is respected at the intergovernmental level, including at the UN and the IMO, and many decision makers receive and value our expertise.