The departure of Jakob Strausholm, who took the role as chief finance, strategy and transformation officer in December 2016, comes after Maersk decided to separate the finance role from its IT and digital transformation function, the company said.

The change comes amid a major restructuring and digital drive which Maersk hopes will simplify the process of moving goods around the world.

"Digitalisation is changing our business model and the way in which we drive and implement our strategy. With this organisational change, we expand our management capacity within digitalisation to accelerate the transformation," Chairman Jim Hagemann Snabe said in a statement.

Maersk did not say who would head the two functions.

After after Strausholm's departure on March 31 the executive board will consist of CEO Soren Skou and Vice-CEOs Claus V. Hemmingsen, Vincent Clerc, Soren Toft and Morten Engelstoft, Maersk said.

Maersk shares were down 2.9 percent at 0900 GMT.

(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, editing by Louise Heavens)