IMEC’s 2019 Conference

Capt. Belal Ahmed started his career at sea in 1978 and continued till 2000. Throughout his career at sea he had the opportunity to sail on board ships managed by reputable companies on worldwide trade.

He started his career ashore in 2001 with Western Shipping at Singapore as Marine Superintendent. As a newly formed company, he was involved in setting up the company from starting level to well managed respected tanker management company. In 2002 He was promoted to Fleet Personnel Manager. In 2004 he was inducted into the Board of Directors of the Company. Though his core activity was in the Fleet Personnel area, he was involved in other areas of companies activities such as Financial matters/operational/safety/TMSA and general administration of the fleet and office. In 2010 he was appointed as General Manager and Managing Director of the company overseeing the Overall Management of this reputable ship management company. During 2004 / 2005 period, a crew management office was established in Manila. This was followed by a Training centre. Both establishments were quickly recognized by the industry as a reputable and reliable service providers.

Capt. Belal Has been closely involved with IMEC for over a decade. His involvement includes Pay negotiations with ITF, assisting IMEC Secretariat and various Training initiatives by IMEC. He was closely involved in initial setting up of the IMEC Cadet Program.

Branko Berlan, ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation) Accredited Representative to the IMO (International Maritime Organization).

Branko has a degree in Maritime Studies, Maritime Engineer department
 
He was a seafarer for 15 years, finishing his seafaring career as Chief Engineer.
Branko was Assistant General Secretary of the Seafarers’ Union of Croatia from 1991 until 2013. He represented seafarers of Croatia at the IMO and ILO as a delegate. Then, he joined the ITF in May 2013.

As the ITF accredited representative to the IMO, following the vision of the ITF, he says; “As we demonstrate at the IMO, the ITF has an immense voice for the seafarers in the maritime industry and I look forward to enhancing influence of the ITF in shaping the maritime policies. Our priorities will be better recognition of importance of the seafarers and their safety in the maritime industry, including appropriate training and manning. Furthermore I will pursue more constructive cooperation with governments and the industry partners.”

Further to his role of ITF Representative to the IMO, Branko also have the responsibilities:
* To lead or provide support in any UN, Industry, ITF forum that requires maritime expertise or in matters pertaining to general welfare of seafarers, and
* To undertake all maritime related and technical issues on behalf of the ITF.

Ifor began his career as an airline pilot and specialised in the complex operational management of airline operations. His passion has long been to develop the use of real-time and long-term operational data monitoring in order to provide the right information to drive efficiencies within an operation, whilst also greatly enhancing safety and long-term planning and decisions. This experience is being put to good use in developing the safe operational procedures needed for unmanned and autonomous marine operations.

Dr Malcolm James Cook is a principal engineer. He was responsible for Human Reliability Analysis within a major program and is now seconded to Engineering Assurance. He is a system designer, commercial researcher, academic and project engineer and has accrued over 29 years of experience in a wide range of applications. He has worked on advanced systems interface technology, command and control systems, weapons and targeting, ISTAR, advanced sensing, human reliability in critical systems, anti-fratricidal technology and intelligence analysis.  His work has involved military land, sea and air systems. His role has been as a human factors expert with application of knowledge of situation awareness, mental workload, sensemaking, multi-tasking, multi-sensory interfaces, metacognitive aspects of information processing in command and intelligence. He particularly enjoys taking psychology into the real world in time critical applications with safety critical consequences. He is a joint Goodrich Medal winner for a paper presented at Warship 2017 and was given a patron’s award at INEC/ISCSS in 2018.

Dr Panos Desyllas is Reader/Associate Professor of Strategy at the University of Bath, School of Management. Previously he has held posts at the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Business Research as a Research Associate, the University of Oxford’s Said Business School as a Post-doctoral Fellow and the Manchester Business School as a Lecturer. He has served as a PhD Director at Bath and has been a visiting scholar at HEC Paris, Cambridge University, McGill University and the University of St. Gallen. He was educated at University College London (B.Sc.) and the University of Cambridge (M.Phil., Ph.D.).

His research focuses on (a) understanding how technology companies employ different modes of corporate development – such as Mergers and Acquisitions – to access new knowledge and enhance their innovation and economic performance; and (b) exploring how knowledge-intensive business service firms profit from process, product and business model innovation. His work has been funded by Lloyds of London and the ESRC/EPSRC and has been published in leading international journals.

Dr Earthy has worked for Lloyd’s Register for 27 years.  He is technical authority for human factors (HF) in LR Marine&Offshore, including the R&D programme and the introduction of Ergonomics into Class.  His technical speciality is the assurance of the quality of Human Factors Integration and human-centred design, with special reference to advanced ICT.  His other research interests are: the introduction of human factors into the marine industry, standardisation of human factors, sociotechnical systems, and system resilience.

Jonathan has a BSc from Durham and a PhD from Aston. Prior to LR he worked for BP Exploration. He is founding secretary of the LR Rules Human Factors Panel and was technical supervisor of the award-winning LRF Alert! human element awareness-raising initiative. He attends the IMarEST Human Element Working Group, SIGTTO Human Element Committee, MOD/Industry HFI working group and the Maritime CHIRP Advisory Board. He is an associate professor at the University of Western Norway. He has participated standards development since the mid-1980s and is convenor of ISO TC159/SC4/WG6 Human-centred design for interactive systems.  He is a special editor for the journal Interacting with Computers.

He has written five standards, five journal papers, two book chapters, around 30 reviewed EC deliverables, and more than 40 conference papers and magazine articles.  He has convened or organised fifteen workshops and panels, two conferences and three commercial tutorials.

Ian Edwards joined The Shipowners’ Protection Limited in 1991 as a claims handler before moving to underwriting in 1993. Initially the Underwriter responsible for the Club’s Australian, Middle East, Italian and UK business, Ian progressed to his current position in 2012. He is responsible for the Club’s global underwriting strategy and pricing and is involved in the development of new products and services. This has recently included a new bespoke policy wording for autonomous vessels. The Club is a member of the International Group of P&I Clubs and provide liability cover to over 7,000 owners and operators worldwide. Focusing on smaller and specialist vessels the Club have over 33,000 entered vessels.

Cormac Gebruers is the Head of College at NMCI, the National Maritime College of Ireland. Before his Head of College appointment in June 2018, Cormac was Head of Research & Innovation in the College from 2012. In that role, he oversaw the delivery of more than 30 international projects in the areas of maritime operations and maritime mechatronics, a number concerned with the role of technology in mission critical maritime operations and with future maritime training & education needs.

A professional mariner and computer scientist, Cormac has worked extensively with maritime IT for the last 30 years including seven years with navigation systems multinational Transas (now Wärtsilä) where he delivered numerous Vessel Traffic Services, on-board systems and maritime training simulation solution projects worldwide. Cormac has been involved in technology and maritime research & innovation for almost two decades. He has a particular interest in that messy space where people and technology collide.

As Head of College at NMCI, Cormac is now responsible for delivering the immediate and future maritime education & training needs of those Irish and international maritime professionals who study & train at NMCI, and for continuing to help shape and deliver the strategy underpinning NMCI’s innovative research work in maritime technology and operations.

Oleg Grygoriuk was born in 1983 in Odessa, Ukraine. Before joining and later chairing the seafarers’ wing of the Marine Transport Workers’ Trade Union of Ukraine (the MTWTU), he has gained a considerable seagoing experience as a navigation officer, working on board the foreign-shipowners’ vessels.

In 2008, Oleg Grygoriuk joined the largest maritime trade union in Ukraine, the MTWTU, the only maritime affiliate to the International Transport Workers’ Federation in Ukraine, representing a massive membership of 75,000 maritime transport workers of Ukraine.

In 2011 Oleg Grygoriuk was elected to the position of the First Vice Chairman of MTWTU, and in 2015 headed the MTWTU’s largest organisational unit, the Local Black Sea Trade Union Organization of Seafarers (the LBSTUS), representing the membership of over 45,000 Ukrainian mariners.

Representing the labor interests of Ukrainian seafarers, Mr. Grygoriuk is a chief IBF negotiator at the local all-Ukrainian level, member of the ITF negotiation team at the central IBF negotiations with the JNG; a certified trainer of trainers on MLC, 2006 in Ukraine.

Mr. Grygoriuk’s main course of action is to promote seafarers’ profession, coupled with boosting the number of jobs for Ukrainian mariners, as well as successful implementation of investment and education projects in maritime education and training in Ukraine, development and introduction of strategic programs aimed at strengthening and enlargement of the Union membership, as well as successful implementation of international labor regulations into the national legislation of Ukraine.

Jack’s practice is in marine, trade and energy matters with an emphasis on shipping.

He regularly acts for owners, charterers, managers, P&I Clubs, insurers, banks, brokers and shipyards.

Prior to joining Shoreside Law, he served at sea as a deck officer in the merchant navy, spent five years at an International Group P&I Club and was also a partner at an international shipping law firm.

Given his sea-going experience, Jack has particular expertise in the investigation and handling of high profile marine incidents worldwide and the contractual, third party and insurance disputes that flow from them.

Dr. Max Johns is professor for Maritime Management and Business Development at HSBA Hamburg School of Business Administration. He is also Managing Director of VDR, the German Shipowners‘ Association.

Dr. Johns is from Hamburg, Germany. He holds academic degrees from Universities in Montpellier (France), Leuven (Belgium) and Tübingen (Germany). He worked as a journalist in South Africa and for ten years in leading positions with German broadcaster ZDF, before joining Eurovision in Geneva.

Dr. Johns has been teaching as lecturer for many years at Universities in Tübingen, Mainz, Berlin and Hamburg. In 2016 he was awarded a professorship at HSBA in the field of ship finance, ship management, business development. He also teaches on strategic negotiations and innovation.

Dr. Johns is married and father of a daughter. His preferred pastime is mountain hiking, skiing and climbing.

Jae started his maritime career 40 years ago as an apprentice with British and Commonwealth Shipping, gaining his professional qualifications, resulting in being promoted to master in 1995. In 2006 Jae was offered a position in shore management and became Marine Manager, company DPA and CSO. He was promoted to Operations Manager in 2008, managing the operational expenditure of a fleet of 10 aggregate dredgers, to include engineering, crewing, procurement and IT. In 2012 Jae was subsequently offered a position as Nautical Manager, DPA and CSO for a fleet of cable ships, before joining the MAIB as an Inspector of Marine Accidents in June 2015.

The role of the Marine Accident Investigation Branch is to carry out investigations on UK flag vessels globally, and any vessel in UK waters, to determine the causes of accidents. The aim of the MAIB is to publish reports that include recommendations on improving safety at sea and to increase awareness of how marine accidents happen.

With a doctorate in maritime history, Katrina has worked at the Maritime and Coastguard Agency for over 15 years with a majority of her time involved in audits, including overseeing the monitoring of Small Commercial Vessel Certifying Authorities and Classification Societies.

She moved into the role of Smart Shipping and Automation Policy Officer in January 2018 with a focus on facilitating the MCA’s regulatory response to autonomous shipping. She represents the UK at the IMO’s Maritime Autonomous Surface Ship’s working group, and is working closely with industry as part of the international regulatory scoping exercise.

Katrina is joint-lead of the Maritime Autonomy Regulation Lab (MARLab), an MCA / DfT / NOC collaboration with funding from BEIS to support the UK MASS industry through new approaches to regulation and data sharing.

Capt. Ian Lawrence began his seafaring career as a deck cadet with Norwegian gas shipping company Bergesen, studying at Warsash and gaining his OOW certificate in 2002.  There after he lead something of a journey-man existence in the merchant shipping world, working for a variety of ship owners on RoRo’s, cruise ships, large sailing vessels, superyachts and aggregate dredgers.  Returning to Warsash in 2004 for Chief Mates and 2008 for Masters.  After gaining his Master Mariner certificate, he sailed as Chief Officer with Windstar Cruises before taking up command with Cemex on dredgers.  From there he came ashore as an Assistant Harbour Master & Pilot in Jersey, serving as an authorised Pilot for St Helier and as the ports’ PMSC Safety Management & Training Manager.

During my 3 years in that role he completed an MSc in Shipping Operations with a focus on marine safety management from Solent University. His dissertation examined resilience in port operations and lead to a graduation with distinction in 2014.  Shortly thereafter he moved to the Port Of Southampton where he is now a First Class Pilot.

Adam originally commenced his career in the shipping industry as a Deck Cadet with Cunard Line, while reading for a BSc (Hons) in Merchant Ship Operations at Southampton Solent University.

Upon graduating, Adam commenced his career ashore as a Broker and Operator for a UK based short sea shipping company. He then moved on to the technical team for a leading superyacht management company, specialising in ISM and ISPS.

Adam joined the IMEC in 2010 where he is responsible for the development of the IMEC training programmes. IMEC’s training portfolio in the Philippines includes it’s 700 strong cadet programme at the Maritime Academy of Asia and the Pacific and it’s new Engine Rating course at the Don Bosco Youth Center Tondo. He has also project managed a number training and recruitment initiatives, including the recently launch ‘Engineer Your Career’ campaign to promote marine engineering to high school graduates.

Adam sits on various training committees and is currently one of the co-Chairs of IMarEST’s Marine Autonomous Surface Ships Special Interest Group (MASS-SIG).

Dr Claire Pekcan is Director of Safe Marine, a consultancy specialising in People and Safety Management in the maritime sector and whose mission is to inspire and guide maritime organisations to excel at managing risk through evidence-based management practices.

Formerly a Professor of Maritime Applied Psychology at Warsash Maritime Academy, Claire has helped ship management companies understand the drivers of their safety culture, developed safety management systems for ports, advised on the management of fatigue risk in ship and shore operations, contributed to two major research projects into new technologies on-board ship and collision-avoidance algorithms for Marine Autonomous Surface Ships, and led the development of a Postgraduate Certificate in Maritime Education and Training for IMEC.

Recently she has advised INTERTANKO and OCIMF on the development of a behavioural competency framework for vessel operators as well as assisted INTERTANKO to develop a Human Resource Management Maturity Model.

Claire currently sits on the Maritime Advisory Board of Maritime CHIRP, the Sailor’s Society Advisory Group, is a member of IMarEST’s Human Element Working Group, a regular contributor to the UK’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency Human Element Advisory Group and technical consultant to INTERTANKO’s Human Element Committee of which she was formerly Vice Chair.

Dr Poulis is the General Manager of Epsilon Hellas, the Chairman-Elect of IMEC’s Recruitment & Training Committee and a Senior Lecturer at Middlesex University.

He has a wide research, consultancy, managerial, educational and teaching experience across four countries and in the Maritime, FMCG and Publishing industries. He has taught in various Universities (e.g. Manchester, Essex, Queen Mary, University of London, National University of Ireland, ESCP), acted as Director of PG and UG programmes, assumed key institutional roles in the European and British Academy of Management and been a validator or evaluator for several Universities and publishing houses. He holds a PhD in International Business from Manchester Business School and has also studied in the Athens University of Economics and Business, the University of Antwerp and UMIST.

Jacqueline Smith joined the ITF in October 2014 as the Maritime Coordinator. Prior to joining the ITF Jacqueline had the honour of leading the Norwegian Seafarers’ Union (NSU) and its 11,000 members for almost 8 years.

Jacqueline became an active member of the NSU in 1992 as a shop steward, securing a collective bargaining agreement for concessionaires, a first for the union. In 1998 she was elected as a delegate to congress, then as a deputy on the national board, immediately followed by being invited to be the assistant director dealing with cruise ships in Miami, USA. In 2002 she was asked to stand as elected secretary, so returned to Oslo, Norway. Jacqueline was then elected NSU president in 2006 and re-elected in 2010.

Dr Poulis is the General Manager of Epsilon Hellas, the Chairman-Elect of IMEC’s Recruitment & Training Committee and a Senior Lecturer at Middlesex University.

He has a wide research, consultancy, managerial, educational and teaching experience across four countries and in the Maritime, FMCG and Publishing industries. He has taught in various Universities (e.g. Manchester, Essex, Queen Mary, University of London, National University of Ireland, ESCP), acted as Director of PG and UG programmes, assumed key institutional roles in the European and British Academy of Management and been a validator or evaluator for several Universities and publishing houses. He holds a PhD in International Business from Manchester Business School and has also studied in the Athens University of Economics and Business, the University of Antwerp and UMIST.