Cecilia Eckelmann Battistello died at the age of 73 in Hamburg, after a long illness, on the morning of March 6, 2024. She was the most renowned Italian woman in the global transport and logistics sector. Her career in this field began at the outset, joining Contship in 1973, a company founded four years earlier in Switzerland by Angelo Ravano, who later became famous for creating the Gioia Tauro container port.
Her first assignment was in Marseille, where she managed Contship's traffic operations. This marked the beginning of a globe-trotting career that took her from Rotterdam to Beirut, from Tartous to Damman, and eventually to Great Britain, where Ravano had relocated the company's headquarters in the meantime. She gained international fame not only for her professional skills but also for her initiative to paint the company's container ships, yard equipment, and trucks pink. Her professional life merged with her personal one when she married German Thomas Eckelmann, who now chairs the Eurokai Group, which acquired Contship following Ravano's death.
