Danish shipping and oil company A.P. Moller-Maersk has appointed Trond Westlie from Norwegian telecom group Telenor as chief financial officer.

Westlie, who has been executive vice president and CFO of Telenor, will join the group on Jan. 1 and become a member of the executive board, A.P. Moller-Maersk said in a statement on Monday.

In May, Maersk said finance director Soren Thorup Sorensen would step down for health reasons after three years in the role.

Before joining Telenor in 2004, Westlie was executive vice president and CFO for several years at Norwegian engineering group Aker Kvaerner, now called Aker Solutions, Maersk said.

He has experience from asset intensive industries and has worked with the offshore and energy sectors as well as shipbuilding and the maritime industry, A.P. Moller-Maersk chief executive Nils Smedegaard Andersen said in the statement.

From Jan. 1, the executive board of the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group will consist of Andersen, Westlie, Claus Hemmingsen, Eivind Kolding, Soren Skou and Jakob Thomasen, the company said.

(Reporting by Mette Fraende; Editing by Dan Lalor)