Singapore: InterManager appoints used Executive Officers

During this year’s Annual General Meeting in Singapore in October, the InterManager membership appointed new members to the association’s Executive positions and reappointed Gerardo Borromeo to the role of President for a second term.

Mr Borromeo (pic1 below), who will serve until 2016, said he looked forward to continuing the work he has begun, particularly in driving efficiency onboard and ashore, overcoming administrative burdens, emphasising education and training to improve standards and aid recruitment and improving the crew wellness index.

The vote, during the well-attended AGM held at SingTel’s Comcentre, was unanimous and it gives Mr Borromeo the mandate he needs to see through important initiatives currently underway such as promoting industry-wide benchmarking shipmanagement operations; striving to drive more efficiency onboard and on shore while also keeping a keen eye on sustainability.

The AGM also elected five Vice Presidents. They are Ian MacLean (pic2 above) from Hill Dickinson, who will be responsible for legal issues; Rob Grool (3) from Seaspan, looking after the Americas; George Hoyt (4) who will take charge of Special Projects; Bjorn Jebsen (5) from Abojeb who will look after European affairs and Capt Ajay Tripathi (6) from MMS who will act as Treasurer. Addressing the AGM, Mr Borromeo said the challenge of change and of meeting the upcoming demand for shipping services “will be best summed up from the perspective of looking at our people, our global maritime professionals. Undoubtedly it is the human side of shipping that ensures, and will continue to ensure, that shipping services will be delivered as needed, when needed.” He added: “The youth of today is growing up in a highly digitised world, a world characterised by instant gratification and a wired society where the flow of information is instantaneous.

Thinking ahead, in the context of life on shore, what kind of environment onboard will be necessary to attract and retain the kind of talent that will be needed to serve in a dynamic evolving global landscape? “We at InterManager are challenged as an association to promote the continued development of a common platform, in order to project an image of an industry that moves the world.

This platform, which I call the ’Human Side of Shipping’, must support efforts to tackle the ever pressing risks of greater administrative burdens being placed on our officers; ensure the right competencies are being developed; and find better ways to manage the overall wellness index of our crew members,” he said. InterManager members from around the globe met in Singapore for the 2014 InterManager Annual General Meeting AGM Seminar Considers A Wide Range Of Topics InterManager President Gerardo Borromeo, Chairman of Philippine Transmarine Carriers, welcomed delegates to the AGM, which was held kindly hosted by InterManager Associate Member Singtel at its Singapore Comcentre. Promising the day would provide “an inside look at developments in the world of shipping and shipmanagement”, Mr Borromeo told the packed conference room “we live in interesting times”.

Outlining a picture of a vibrant world with constantly developing people, processes and technology, he quoted revolutionary naturalist Charles Darwin, saying: “It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” Mr Borromeo showed the audience two short films, which highlighted the range of career opportunities in the maritime sector and the role of shipping in global trade, and spoke of the need to engage Governments and the general public to enable them to understand the breadth and depth of the shipping industry.

Outlining his goals for the future, the InterManager President highlighted: driving efficiency onboard and ashore overcoming administrative burdens emphasising education and training to improve standards and aid recruitment and improving the crew wellness index Pointing out the anticipated growth in world trade over the next decade, Mr Borromeo said he wanted the shipping industry of the future to be “an industry which moves the world and attracts the best and brightest of the next generation”.

He outlined the dynamic, evolving, global seascape of the future and said the shipping industry must learn to work together to address the challenges of global change collectively. “InterManager is the future – today” he said. In keeping with previous years, the Members-only AGM was preceded by a series of interesting and informative InterManager members from around the globe met in Singapore for the 2014 InterManager Annual General Meeting presentations on a range of topics of relevance to the ship management sector. First to speak was Kevin Campbell of Eurasia Travel who gave delegates the benefit of his many years in the marine travel industry by revealing top tips on how to get the best out of your crew travel plans. He urged delegates to “avoid tunnel vision” when booking flights, advising that the best fare is not always the cheapest fare. Ensuring crew members arrive at their vessel in good time and in a rested condition is the most important factor and crew managers should therefore consider connection times when booking flights, he advised. Mr Campbell said it is important that travel firms build a trusting relationship with clients, stating that key factors in working together are communication, information and education. Experience is essential when trying to take advantage of the way airline booking systems work, he said. He concluded by advising delegates that it was important to make budgets work smarter, not harder.

Questions and comments were then invited from the floor and former InterManager President Roberto Giorgi of V.Ships said he felt strongly that seafarers travelling to and from their vessels should be entitled to use the ‘preferential line’ when transiting immigration. Other discussions considered how high quality crew travel could be used as an employment benefit or recruitment attraction, with delegates suggesting factors like the use of airport lounges. George Hoyt, who was subsequently elected to the role of InterManager Vice President during the Annual General Meeting, then outlined the usedly-published Glossary of Maritime Communication Terms, which has been compiled by the Global VSat Forum, supported by InterManager.

The Glossary comprises a highly comprehensive A to Z of the terminology used on a daily basis by the satellite communications industry in its dialogues with customers in the maritime sector. The Glossary is available in the Resources Library on the InterManager website. The maritime sector has been identified by satellite communications companies as an important growth market, Mr Hoyt advised. This Glossary will therefore prove a valuable tool to InterManager members who are dedicated to investing in “continuous improvement”. An important member of the team behind the Glossary, Mr Hoyt outlined to Members the opportunity which exist for them to benefit from this project, including free training places. Discussions from the floor included the availability of internet and communications systems at sea and whether social media access for crew was a good idea. It was then the turn of used York-based Christina DeSimone of Healthmetrics who spoke about the role of telemedicine in maritime health. Having outlined the benefits of her company’s Futurecare scheme, Ms DeSimone considered the “big challenges” faced when managing the health of our crew. She highlighted the role of preventative treatments and wellness programmes in avoiding vessel deviations and repatriations due to accident or illness.

Healthmetrics is working with US University Yale to analyse seafarer health patterns with the aim of reducing critical illness at sea. Addressing minor medical complaints immediately can avoid critical issues occurring later, she advised. Questions from the floor understandably included the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. InterManager Secretary General, Captain Kuba Szymanski, then took to the stage to give an up to date outline of the InterManager-backed international seafarer fatigue project “Martha”. Capt. Szymanski explained how Project Martha is following on from the excellent work of Project Horizon which identified serious concerns with the 6/6 shift pattern where 50% of participants fell asleep during their shifts and were often surprised to learn from researchers that this had occurred! Project Martha is putting together a Fatigue Risk Management System and will provide fatigue awareness training, fatigue prediction models, fatigue reporting systems and will advise on corrective actions to take to minimise/eradicate fatigue incidents. To take account of cultural differences in crew working patterns, Martha is operating two projects simultaneously in both Europe and China.

Several InterManager companies are taking part in the project by allowing their crew to report findings and wear actiwatch monitors. The presentation attracted many questions from the floor and comments from a number of InterManager ship manager members who were taking part in the study and finding it valuable. Gerd Schneider of SGS then discussed shipping business and environmental regulations: challenges, solutions and services. Observing how maritime regulations are increasingly complex and overlapping, sometimes even competing, Mr Schneider’s presentation examined in detail the challenges faced by shipowners and managers needing to implement legislation such as the Ballast Water Management Convention of Marpol Annexe VI Sulfur Oxides (SOx) Legislation. Speaking from the floor, former InterManager President Rajaish Bajpaee, put forward the suggestion that the maritime sector was being used as the world’s waste manager because, in the absence of agreed minimum clean fuel standards, poor quality fuel is sold to the marine industry and vessel owners are therefore forced to install expensive equipment and disposal systems to clean up the emissions and harmful particles. Security was the next discussion topic. Richard Skinner of Allmode warned that international maritime piracy has not been totally eradicated but is being managed thanks to effective onboard security systems and operatives. He spoke of the need to manage, mitigate and reduce risk, the importance of training, and the need to consider online security requirements as part of an overall safety strategy. Should crew be posting information on social media platforms which identifies vessel docking times and dates or crew transfer information he challenged.

A lively discussion followed when Capt. Szymanski raised the issue of refugees at sea and the impact of such large-scale rescues on the shipping industry. Captain Szymanski then took the microphone again to outline the work of another InterManager-supported project – APRO – which is examining the role of psychometric testing in the maritime sector to identify the key skills exhibited by successful staff in various seagoing and shore-based roles. His amusing presentation outlined some interesting benefits and pitfalls in the use of psychometric testing and led happily into lunch, kindly provided by Singtel. InterManager launches ISSS Delivering the value proposition in today’s global shipmanagement market was one of the key discussion topics at last month’s inaugural International Shipowning & Shipmanagement Summit in Singapore with speakers tackling emotive subjects such as the role of the niche/boutique manager and asking whether global shipping is indeed out of the woods yet? The conference, which was organised by InterManager and Shipping Innovation, the company behind the highly successful London International Shipping Week and European Shipping Week, will be held every year – one year in Singapore, followed by London and then back to Singapore.

More than 140 delegates attended what was a hard hitting day of debate with ship owners rubbing shoulders with the elite in global shipmanagement. And the debate was contentious at times, especially when panellists and speakers started talking about where the next industry leaders were going to come from. The thorny subject of effective succession in shipping and shipmanagement was eagerly debated with mixed views voiced about how and where the next generation of leaders will come from. Delegates attending the afternoon session were lucky enough to hear Peter Cremers, CEO, Anglo-Eastern Group talk on the emotive subject of: is big beautiful? Will 21st century ship management be dominated by the giant management monoliths or is there still room for the small to medium-sized operator? A big thanks must go to Conference chairmen Roberto Giorgi, Capt Marc Nuytemans and Sean Moloney for keeping proceedings running smoothly.
Source: InterManager