Teekay Corporation has announced that its president and CEO Bjorn Moller is set to retire in the spring of 2011, after more than two years of service with the company.

Mr. Moller plans to remain on Teekay's board of directors.

Since he became CEO in 1998, Teekay has grown from a regional operator of Aframax tankers with $1.5 billion in assets to a global marine midstream service company with approximately $10 billion in assets providing a broad service offering to its customers in the oil and gas industry.

The board has appointed Teekay's chief strategy officer and executive vice-president, Peter Evensen, 52, as CEO-elect to succeed Mr. Moller. Mr. Evensen joined Teekay as chief financial officer and senior vice-president in 2003 after 25 years in shipping, finance and banking. He was appointed to his current role of chief strategy officer in 2006.

Today the company is the world's leading operator of shuttle tankers; a leader in harsh weather floating production, storage and offloading units (FPSO); the leading operator of medium-sized crude oil tankers; and the third-largest independent owner of liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers.

Teekay's fleet of more than 150 vessels, operated from 16 countries worldwide, carries approximately 10 percent of the world's seaborne oil and a growing volume of its LNG.

Sean Day, Teekay's chairman said: "Bjorn has been an exceptional and visionary leader of Teekay during his time as CEO. He has done a superb job of developing and implementing the strategies that have transformed the company into a world leader in the marine energy industry over the past decade."

Mr. Moller said: "The economic downturn led us to reduce our growth ambitions over the past couple of years in favour of strengthening our financial condition."