CECILIA Eckelmann-Battistello, one of the most high-profile women in shipping and a pioneer of containerisation, has died.

Her family announced she had passed away on Wednesday morning.

A genuine trailblazer, Battistello brought colour and glamour to the industry but was nevertheless a tough businesswoman who rose up through the ranks to become managing director of Contship Containerlines in 1988. At that time, there were very few women working in the industry, and she has spoken frankly about succeeding in a man’s world.

When the company was sold 10 years later, she focused on the ports sector, becoming chairman of Contship Italia whose portfolio at the time included the Mediterranean transhipment hub Gioia Tauro. The company continues to operate La Spezia Container Terminal plus other port facilities and logistics activities.

She was married to Thomas Eckelmann, head of Europe’s largest container terminal operator Eurokai, which is now run by his son Tom, Battistello’s stepson. Battistello, who remained involved in the business, was on the management board.

Colleagues remember her with deep affection as a one-off, someone who was absolutely unique, combining charm with a first-rate business brain, and who regarded ships and cranes as in her blood. 

Born in Vicenza near Venice in 1950, Battistello was the second of eight siblings which, she always claimed, gave her the perfect start to her career as she learned to take responsibility at an early age by helping her mother care for the younger children.

After finishing school and secretarial college, she joined Contship in 1973 when containerisation was in its infancy, learning about the practical side of an industry that was still evolving.

Her mentor was Angelo Ravano, who had founded the line a few years earlier when he decided to convert the family’s traditional shipping company into a fully containerised operation.

“I had the privilege and chance to grow with the developing world of containers,” Battistello told Lloyd’s List when she was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by Containerisation International in 2015.

“It was a huge evolution in the shipping industry. We had to invent systems to manage the line.”

Battistello smashed through many glass ceilings as she became the first woman to take up numerous appointments, including chair of the India Pakistan Bangladesh Shipping Conference, the oldest conference in the world.

She admitted she was not surprised there were so few women in leadership roles in shipping.

“I think it is women who feel inadequate in a man’s world more than men creating obstacles,” she once said.

But neither those perceived barriers, nor other conventions, held her back.

Battistello is probably best remembered in the wider shipping world for painting several ships in the Contship fleet vivid colours. One, Contship Germany, was shocking pink, while Contship Singapore was a bright yellow hue. Another was turquoise, all attracting attention wherever they called.

Battistello herself never lost her Italian flair for style, and wouldn’t think twice about wearing high heels to visit a port.

She also had an enormous sense of fun, and loved socialising with colleagues and their families, whom she would regularly invite for barbecues in her back garden when living in the UK while running Contship. A book on Contship’s history is filled with pictures of those parties and other social occasions.

But in one notable photo, Battistello is wearing black and looking uncharacteristically solemn. That was taken at the signing ceremony for the sale of Contship to CP Ships, after which Battistello said she “cried so much the Thames would have overflowed.”

She remained an Anglophile all her life, saying in an interview at the time of her award that: “I think and speak in English — I think England is the best country in the world.” 

At the same time, she spoke openly about corruption in her home country and would bravely confront the challenge of the Mafia and how it had become so integrated into the business world.

In recent years, she divided her time between homes in Hamburg and Cyprus and remained as busy as ever, working alongside her husband with whom she shared such a passion for shipping. The pair would talk endlessly about work “in the shower, over breakfast, on the plane”, she once quipped.

In her autobiography published in 2019, Battistello said she hoped Contship would keep growing well beyond its Italian home base.

“My dream is that this company will have a future after me, where everyone can find the energy and the strength needed to continue to believe in it and help it to advance. The truth is that in the future, there won’t be a Cecilia. Rather, there will be Tom and Katja, my husband Thomas’ children,” she wrote.

Battistello had been ill for a few weeks after being diagnosed with cancer.