SAAM Towage managing director appointed as CEO of SAAM

Sociedad Matriz SAAM’s Board of Directors has appointed Hernán Gómez Cisternas as its new chief executive. 

Mr Gómez is replacing Macario Valdés Raczynski, who will become a member of SAAM’s Board of Directors and the chief executive of Quiñenco, the holding company that controls 66% of SAAM.

Mr Gómez will start his new duties on 1 February. He is an industrial engineer with a specialisation in transport engineering from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and has an MBA from the University of Chicago. He has led the company’s towage division (SAAM Towage) since 2020. Under his management, the division has doubled in size through mergers and acquisitions to become the third-largest operator in the world.

The soon-to-be chief executive joined SM SAAM in 2016 as chief development officer, before becoming chief financial and administrative officer. Before joining the company, Mr Gómez was deputy development manager at Quiñenco, which hired him in 2015 after he completed his studies in the US.

SAAM’s Board of Directors said it thanks Mr Raczynski "for his considerable contribution to SAAM’s development, his vision, his innovative spirit, his ability to form strong teams and his upstanding character".