Who’s Who: Maritime Movements for May/June 2022

WORK BOAT WORLD:

Oceanographic and hydrographic sensors manufacturer Mind Technology has announced that Alan P. Baden and Nancy Harned have been appointed to its Board of Directors effective May 2, 2022.

Harned retired in 2020 from a 34-year career as a civilian employee of the US Department of Defense. She served from 2007-2020 in various Senior Executive Service positions (equivalent to general officer or flag officer rank in the US Armed Forces). From 2015-2020 she was the Executive Director for the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command, responsible to man, train and equip the Navy’s 19,000-plus Expeditionary Sailors.

Her other Senior Executive assignments included the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics and Technology), the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, and Deputy Director for Programming on the Chief of Naval Operations staff, responsible to develop the annual US$125B US Navy budget.

From 2001 to 2007, Harned served in a variety of positions on the Chief of Naval Operations staff, and from 1993 to 2001 she led sonar research programs at the Office of Naval Research. She began her career at the Naval Air Warfare Center, developing sonar signal processing techniques for anti-submarine warfare. She has her bachelors and masters degrees in electrical engineering.

Baden is a retired corporate finance and securities attorney. He practiced law in Ohio, Texas and New York.

From 2014 to 2021, Baden was a partner and then counsel in the firm of Thompson and Knight, which merged with Holland and Knight in 2021, where he was a consulting counsel until his retirement in 2022.

Prior to joining Thompson and Knight, Baden was a partner in the Houston and New York offices of the law firm of Vinson and Elkins, where he practiced for over 35 years.

Baden is a graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a BS in Economics degree and Case Western Reserve Law School with a JD degree.


Matthias Pahnke has been approved as a Director and Co-President of worldwide ferry operators’ association Interferry. He will serve in these two roles through to the end of this year’s conference.

Pahnke is currently  the CEO of Seattle ferry operator FRS Clipper.


Emanuele Grimaldi, President and CEO of Finnlines, has been elected as the new Chairman of the Board of the company.

Grimaldi succeeds Jon-Aksel Torgersen, the longtime Chairman of Finnlines’ Board of Directors. Torgersen will continue as a member of Finnlines’ Board of Directors. Diego Pacella has been elected as Vice Chairman of the Board.

Grimaldi served as President and CEO since 2013. His replacement in these dual roles is Tom Pippingsköld, who assumed responsibility on May 5, 2022.

Thomas Doepel, currently Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Finnlines, has been appointed Vice President and Deputy CEO as of May 5, 2022. Both Pippingsköld and Doepel have been members of Finnlines’ Executive Committee since 2013.

The Board of Directors has made the following appointments in Finnlines’ Executive Committee with effect from May 5, 2022:

Merja Kallio-Mannila, currently Deputy Head of Group Marketing, Sales and Customer Service

Marco Palmu, currently Head of Passenger Services

Mervi Pyökäri, currently Head of Legal

Torkel Saarnio, currently Line Manager Hansalink, Rostock and Aarhus traffics and Head of Truck and Trailer Segment


Naval architects BMT has appointed Graeme Nayler as its Asia Pacific Regional Business Director.

Nayler joins BMT from Environmental Group, where he is a Non-Executive Director, and Silentium Defence, where he was the Chief Strategy Officer. Prior to joining Silentium, he held senior executive roles in both Nova Systems and Babcock, and for over 15 years was an officer in the Royal Australian Air Force.


BW Ideol has announced its first strategic hire in Southern Europe with the appointment of Alberto Peña Sicilia as the Head of Development for the region.

He served for nearly two decades with Siemens Gamesa, where he held various sales and project development positions. During the last five years, he was the Corporate Head of Project Development of the onshore wind business unit, leading both greenfield and co-development activities.

Prior to the Siemens Wind Power and Gamesa merger, he served as Head of Sales for Southern Europe, overseeing wind turbine and services sales across Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Greece and Turkey.

He holds an Industrial Engineering degree from the University of Zaragoza,a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering fromthe University of Glasgow, and an Executive MBA.


CrewSmart, the end-to-end management system for compliant, effective maritime operations, has hired Commercial Director Anna Saunders to support the global rollout of its software platform to maritime businesses.

Saunders joins CrewSmart from offshore energy support vessel (OESV) operator Seacat Services (Seacat), where she led the company’s crew management team.


Schottel USA is strengthening its sales team with the appointments of J. Gaston Doucet and Karl Hanson.

J. Gaston Doucet

Doucet has a naval architecture educational background and a wealth of business and management skills acquired from various shipyards and capital equipment suppliers. His area of focus will be in servicing Schottel’s clients on the Gulf Coast and on Inland Waterways.

Karl Hanson

Hanson is an experienced marine professional and will fill his new position with core competences in project management, engineering expertise, and technical leadership in the field of maritime applications from shipyards and naval architects. He will focus on serving Schottel customers on the US West Coast.


The Board of Rauma Marine Constructions has appointed Mika Heiskanen as the company’s new CEO and President.

Heiskanen has an extensive track record in the shipbuilding industry, including leadership positions at Meyer Turku and Royal Caribbean Cruises’ new construction programme in Finland and Germany. Most recently, he was responsible for production as an Executive Board Member at Meyer Turku in Turku, Finland, leading the company’s hull production, design and engineering from 2016 to 2019.

Prior to Meyer Turku, Heiskanen worked in an international role at cruise ship giant Royal Caribbean Cruises, where he was responsible for newbuilding projects in Papenburg, Germany.

Heiskanen is a graduate of Aalto University, where he studied naval architecture and industrial engineering. He started his career at STX Finland as a sales project engineer and as the main designer of TUI’s cruiser prototype. He has also led the boards of two network companies, Shipbuilding Completion and Technology Design and Engineering.


Iridium Communications has elected Kay Sears to the Iridium Board of Directors, effective May 17, 2022.

Sears currently serves as Vice President and General Manager of Autonomous Systems for the Boeing Defense, Space and Security (BDS) unit of The Boeing Company, which she joined in February 2022. Prior to this, Sears held senior positions with Lockheed Martin Space, Intelsat General Corporation, PanAmSat Corporation and has been a member of the President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee since 2009.


Sonar manufacturer FarSounder has confirmed that Matthew Zimmerman, the company’s former Executive Vice President of Engineering, has been appointed as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The former CEO, Cheryl M. Zimmerman, is continuing her role as Chairman of the Board as well as taking on the position of Market Development Strategist.

Zimmerman is one of the co-founders of FarSounder. He has been involved in all aspects of the company including technical sales, marketing, and product development.


Naiad Design has appointed Chris Howard as Design and Systems Manager.

Howard brings more than 20 years of experience to Naiad, including as Chief Naval Architect for the Royal New Zealand Navy. He is a chartered professional engineer with broad maritime experience, both with the UK Ministry of Defence and as a Defence civilian in New Zealand, having emigrated to NZ in 2005.

Howard recently earned a Strategic Studies Master’s Degree from Victoria University of Wellington.


Star of the South, Australia’s first offshore wind project, has appointed Charles Rattray as Chief Executive Officer. He will assume his new role in August 2022.

In his most recent role as Managing Director for Nexif Energy, Charles oversaw energy projects through all stages of the project lifecycle including the Lincoln Gap Wind Farm and Snapper Point Gas Peaking Plant.

He has previously had a long career in the banking and finance sector, in both principal investment and lending for energy, infrastructure and mining.


Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) has named Brandi Smith as vice president of the Columbia-class program at the company’s Newport News Shipbuilding division. Smith will succeed Charles Southall, who will retire July 1 after more than 35 years of service.

Smith began her career at Newport News in 2002 as an engineer in the carrier overhaul program. She has held positions of increasing responsibility throughout her career, including interim director of construction engineering for the Ford-class aircraft carriers, engineering lead for Integrated Digital Shipbuilding, director of quality control responsible for all nuclear, non-nuclear, and non-destructive testing inspectors and most recently serves as Columbia-class construction program director.

She earned a mechanical engineering degree from North Carolina State University and an MBA degree from The College of William and Mary.


Engine manufacturer Cox Marine has confirmed four new appointments to its leadership team.

David Gilbert has been appointed as Cox Marine’s new Chief Commercial Officer and Marcus Randall as its Head of Marketing and Communications, while Paul Cavander joins as Head of Industrial Strategy and Heinz Stalhammar is the new Chief Engineer.

Gilbert joins from McLaren Automotive, where he spent over 10 years in roles including Director of Strategy, Managing Director for EMEA, and lastly Commercial Operations Director. He has also previously worked for Element Six, Volkswagen, PA Consulting and Accenture. He will be joining Cox Marine’s executive committee.

Cavander has joined from GKN Aerospace where he was Projects Director, overseeing the operational strategy of the Special Products Group business globally on multi-million pound projects spanning several sites and countries. Prior to this he was a Site Manager, managing a team of 260 people.

Cavander previously held senior operations and management roles at Rolls-Royce Bentley and In2Tec.

Stalhammar has more than 40 years’ experience working on automotive, marine and competition engines. He has joined from another engine manufacturer where he has spent the last ten years engineering diesel engines for marine use.


Jörgen Holmgren has taken over as the new CEO of Swedish marine trim control system supplier Zipwake, with effect from June 1, 2022.

Holmgren became Zipwake’s CFO in 2020. His prior experience includes stints in business and strategy development positions for the Volvo Group and Volvo Penta among others.

Holmgren is also a former naval officer.


Spanish marine engineering firm Sener has appointed Roberto Fernández Pascual as Director of the Group’s Marine Division, Sener Marine.

As Director of Sener Marine, Fernández is responsible for leading the Marine Business Unit, the Operations Department, and the Marine Engineering Department at all Sener centres linked to the marine sector.

Fernández has a Master’s degree in Naval Architecture from the Higher Technical School of Naval Architecture of the UPM (Polytechnic University of Madrid) and a Master’s degree in Comprehensive Project Management from Comillas Pontifical University ICAI-ICADE. He has also completed an Executive Development Program (EDP) at IESE Business School (University of Navarra).

Before joining Sener in 2006, he was Director of Engineering at Aries Industrial y Naval. He has taken up a variety of roles at Sener, including Marine Projects Manager, Head of the Marine Section, Head of the SW FORAN Section and Head of the Advanced Digital Environments Hub (ADE), until his current appointment as Director of Sener Marine.


Job Volwater

Netherlands-based C-Jobs Naval Architects has announced some changes to its executive leadership team.

Job Volwater will move from his position as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) to his new position as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Previous CEO Basjan Faber will take up the position of Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Further, Jeroen Liesveld has been appointed as Chief Operational Officer (COO).

Wouter den Boer, a recent new hire, will take over as CCO from Volwater.


Jōb Industrial Services, an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company serving the oil and gas, power, materials and chemical industries, has named Scott Stenberg as chief financial officer (CFO).

Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, Stenberg previously held the role of Jōb’s director of finance. As CFO, he will continue to oversee the financial and administrative functions of Jōb, but will be increasing his interaction with the other executive team members and focusing on strategic planning.

Stenberg is a Licensed Certified Public Accountant with the Utah Association of CPAs (UACPA) and American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). He holds a master’s degree in accounting from Webster State University, Utah.


SHIP WORLD:

Marine surveying and consultancy company TMC Marine, a company under the Bureau Veritas Group, has appointed Simon Burthem as its new Chief Executive Officer.

Burthem takes over from Stephen Tierney, who is retiring from his full-time role after 32 years with TMC Marine.

Burthem is promoted to CEO after four years as chief operating officer. A degree qualified naval architect, he joined TMC Marine in 2010 and previously held the post of managing director of TMC’s Singapore operations for eight years before being appointed COO.


Van Ameyde Marine, the Netherlands-headquartered marine surveying, consultancy, and loss prevention group, has appointed Robert Chesters as its new Global Business Development Manager.

Chesters has more than twenty years’ business development experience in the maritime services sector, having held senior positions with Wilhelmsen Ships Service. He joins Van Ameyde Marine from Oceanic Technical Solutions.


Lomar Shipping, the shipping subsidiary of the Libra Group, has announced the appointment of Dennis Psachos as Chief Financial Officer. He will replace outgoing CFO Manos Kouligkas who has been promoted to a new role within Lomar’s parent company, the Libra Group.

Psachos joined Lomar as its Deputy CFO in mid-December, and will now lead a financial team based at its London, United Kingdom headquarters and in Bremen, Germany.

Psachos is currently based in Athens, but will relocate to London to join the Lomar team at its headquarters in Belgravia. He has 12 years of experience in shipping and was previously the CFO of Prime Marine, an Athens-based shipping company that invests in and manages oil tankers and LPG carriers.

Earlier in his career, Psachos was the Financial Controller of OceanFreighters, a Piraeus-based bulk carrier owning and operating company. Prior to that, he was an External Auditor in the Shipping division of Ernst and Young’s offices in Athens and Oslo.

Psachos is a qualified Chartered Accountant with the Association of Chartered Accountants (ACCA). He holds a MSc in Shipping from the University of Piraeus and a BSc in Economics from the University of Athens.


Höegh LNG Holdings has confirmed the appointment of Erik Nyheim as new President and CEO effective from mid-August this year.

Nyheim comes from the position as Partner of the Boston Consulting Group’s Norwegian office where he has successfully led their maritime practice since 2019. Prior to this, he worked for more than 15 years with the Wilhelmsen Group.

Nyheim holds a BSc Economics and Business Administration from the Norwegian School of Business and Administration (NHH) in Bergen.


Odfjell’s Board of Directors has appointed Harald Fotland as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

Fotland comes from the position as Odfjell’s Chief Operating Officer. He assumed the CEO position on May 6, 2022. He succeeds Kristian Mørch, who announced in March that he wished to step down once a suitable successor had been identified.

Fotland joined Odfjell in 2010 as Chief of Staff. He was appointed Senior Vice President of Odfjell Tankers in 2015, and took the role as the Company’s first Chief Operating Officer in 2018.


Shipbrokers Simpson Spence Young (SSY) has confirmed that Head of Dry Cargo Stanko Jekov will be taking over as Senior Partner following Mark Richardson’s announcement that he will retire at the end of this year.

Stanko, who has been with SSY since 2002 and was made Partner in 2010, has led the Dry Cargo department since 2016. Over the last six years the department has seen significant growth with expansion into new offices including Dubai, Copenhagen, Varna, Geneva, Sao Paulo and most recently Athens, which opened in January 2022.


Palau International Ship Registry (PISR) has announced the appointment of Captain Georgios Tsouris as its Chief Operating Officer.

In this newly created role, Tsouris joins as the senior executive of the company. A master mariner and senior executive, he will operate from PISR’s headquarters in Greece. He will be responsible for the overall daily operations of PISR.

Tsouris has a career spanning almost three decades. He graduated from the Merchant Marine Academy of Oinoussae (Chios) in 1983. This was followed by 13 years’ service at sea as Master Mariner.

He obtained his Master Class A’ Cert in 1996, sailed as Master Mariner and joined as Port Captain in the Operations Department of the Messrs J. Xylas Group in 1997. He also served as an Operations Manager and Deputy DPA-CSO for a number of shipping companies.

Tsouris is a Clinical Professor of Industry at the University of Piraeus in Greece, lecturing in the MSC in Shipping Management, and a member of the Disciplinary Committee of the Merchant Marine.


Toll Group has confirmed that John Mullen has decided to retire from the Toll Board at the end of June 2022. Toll’s Managing Director, Thomas Knudsen, will transition to the role of Toll Chairman. Alan Beacham, currently Toll’s President Global Forwarding, will succeed Knudsen as Managing Director.

The appointments will take effect on July 1, 2022.

Mullen joined the Toll Board as Chairman in December 2016. Following his retirement as Chairman, he will continue to advise the Toll Board as a senior advisor.

Beacham joined Toll in 2018. Prior to Toll, he has had a successful 20-year career in a wide variety of senior managerial roles across Europe and Australia in the aviation, automotive, and rail industries.


Customs clearance solutions specialists Clarksons Port Services (CPS) has appointed Graham Cross as business development manager in a newly-created role.

Following more than 40 years within the freight forwarding and logistics industry, working for both large and small organisations, Cross set up his own business in December 2002, starting as a sole trader.

In 2016, he became involved in securing a warehouse and distribution facility, close to the port that provided storage for clients primarily involved with the importing of goods from around the world, prior to despatch to the end users in the UK and Europe. In addition to this service, the company developed a pick and pack operation, catering for the supply of PPE, chemicals and retail products, both locally and nationally.

Boasting previous roles as chairman of the Hull and Humber Chamber of Commerce, Shipping Committee, and chairman of the Institute of Freight Forwarders (now BIFA), Cross is actively involved in the Chartered Institute of Logistics as a fellow member and represents CPS on the BIFA Freight policy group.


Navigator Holdings, the owner and operator of the world’s largest fleet of handysize liquefied gas carriers, has confirmed the appointment of Mads Peter Zacho as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective September 1, 2022.

Zacho has worked in shipping for almost 20 years, most recently as the Head of Industry Transition at the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping, since November 2020. From November 2016 to August 2020, he was CEO for J. Lauritzen and was also CFO for Torm from September 2013 to November 2016 and CFO for Svitzer between 2010 and 2013. He was also Deputy Head of Treasury for A.P. Møller-Mærsk between 2004 and 2010.

Zacho spent the first 10 years of his career in the financial industry in Denmark and the United States and brings shipping experience from several shipping segments, namely the gas tanker, dry bulk, product tanker, container and towage segments.

He has an MSc in Economics from the University of Copenhagen and an MBA from the International Institute for Management Development, Lausanne.


As of August 1, 2022 Markus Lindbom, presently Chief Commercial Officer at Stena Line, will take up the role of CEO Stena Rederi and Head of Shipping. He replaces Carl-Johan Hagman who has chosen to move on to opportunities outside of Stena.

For the last 17 years, Lindbom worked in different companies and roles within Stena. Prior to that he served as seagoing officer.

Hagman will remain Chairman of the Board of Concordia Maritime and remain at the Board of Stena Glovis and NMT.


Associated British Ports (ABP) has appointed Bryan Davies as the Divisional Ports Manager for the North-West region.

A strategic ports sector leader, Davies is currently Managing Director of UM Terminals, where he manages eight bulk liquid terminals across the UK, offering comprehensive services for diverse sectors from food to fuel. He brings 30 years of experience from roles with Peel Ports, Quality Freight (UK) and Frank Armitt and Sons.

Davies will have overall responsibility for leading the strategic development, stakeholder management and operational delivery of these ABP’s four North-West ports to meet business objectives.

Davies will take up his role on July 11, 2022.


The board of the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has appointed Emanuele Grimaldi, President and Managing Director of Grimaldi Euromed, as Chairman of the Board.

Grimaldi, a former president of both Confitarma and European Community Shipowners Association (ECSA), was formally voted in as chair by the ICS Board of Directors, following the announcement of his nomination last year. He succeeds current chair Esben Poulsson, Executive Chairman of ENESEL, who has served as ICS Chair since 2016, and who steps down after serving three terms of office.


Shipmanagement company OSM Maritime has hired Svend Anthonsen for the position of Managing Director of OSM Copenhagen.

Anthonsen has prior experience working with Navig8 Chemical Tankers, having joined the company in August 2019. Previously, he was the vice president of the technical department in Eitzen Chemical and later Team Tankers International for five years.

Anthonsen had also held a position as CTO/General Manager in Ultragas/Ultrabulk for nearly five years where he was responsible for the technical operation and the newbuilding program of both gas and bulk carriers. Prior to that, he was employed in Eitzen Group for 11 years where he held a number of positions ranking from Technical Superintendent, Technical Manager and Technical Director in the ship management division of the company.
Anthonsen has education as a Marine Engineer from the East Asiatic Company (ØK) and has been sailing for almost 10 years in both EAC and Torm.


FISHING BOAT WORLD:

Aidan Cotter has been appointed as Chair of Board Iascaigh Mhara (BIM), the Irish state agency that helps to develop the domestic seafood industry by providing technical expertise, business support, funding, training, and promoting responsible environmental practice.

Cotter will serve in the role for a period of three years effective from May 17, 2022. He was appointed as chairperson of the Seafood Task Force in March 2021. The Task Force examined the implications of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation agreement for the Irish fishing industry and to make recommendations. Implementation of many of the approved schemes and initiatives recommended by the Task Force is now being undertaken by BIM, working closely with the department.

Cotter previously served as CEO of Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board, from 2004 until 2017, having earlier served the organisation in Dusseldorf and London. He also served as Chairman of Slaney Foods, a joint venture between the ABP Foods Group and the Fane Valley Group, from 2017 to 2021 and currently Chairs the Plastics Action Alliance. He is also a practicing barrister.


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