Anybody can hold the position at the helm of affairs when the sea is calm, but it takes a smart sailor to be on the top when the sea is stormy. K.M. Sheth, Executive Chairman, Great Eastern Shipping Company Limited, is one such individual who has weathered many a storm during his decade-old service.

A firm believer of hard work, Sheth has steered the shipping company by sheer determination and guts. He has helped the company tide over several problems confronting the India’s largest private shipping company. As the steward of the shipping company, Sheth knows which direction the wind will blow and accordingly he has been strategizing the company’s policies from time to time.

Born in 1932, Sheth completed his B.Com from the Sydenham College of Commerce, Mumbai. In fact, Sheth's association with the Great Eastern Shipping began way back in 1952. Scaling greater heights in the company, he became the Chairman and Managing Director in 1992. Now as the Executive Chairman of the Company, Sheth has been playing a crucial role in its strategic and decision-making processes. He has salvaged the Company several times, whenever it has been in troubled waters.

In the shipping sector, Sheth has been holding several important posts including that of chairman of the South Asian Committee of Lloyds Register of Shipping and the Indian National Committee of Det Norske Veritas, apart from being a director on the board of the Indian Register of Shipping.

A recipient of the prestigious Varuna Award, the highest award in maritime sector recognising the unique and sustained contribution to Indian shipping industry, Sheth has been an outstanding professional in his own individual rights. He has contributed immensely towards the development of shipping industry and allied services in the country.

It was under Sheth's stewardship that the Great Eastern Shipping Company scripted many a success story in the realm of the Indian shipping industry. From pioneering Indian tramp shipping to private sector participation in offshore oilfield services, Great Eastern's near-60-year history is a saga of enterprise and leadership.

Few people know that GE Shipping Company is the first Indian firm to start a liner cargo service from the west coast of the US and Canada to India. No wonder, behind such successes were people like Sheth, who have overcome fiercest of the storms and have sailed the company near the safer shore.