Tom Boardley is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Mission to Seafarers and also Vice Chair of Maritime UK, both pro-bono roles. Until 2022, he was Secretary General for Cruise Lines International Association in Europe, based in Brussels, after which he retired from full time employment. Prior to that, he was with UK classification society Lloyd’s Register from 2009 to 2018, first as director of the marine business, responsible for worldwide operations, strategy and business development, and then in external affairs role. Tom started his career in the container shipping division of P&O, which originally traded as Overseas Containers, and subsequently as P&O Nedlloyd. There, he held various management roles in the UK, Taiwan, Korea and Japan before being appointed as director for Australia and New Zealand, based in Sydney in 1996. After leaving P&O in 2004, Tom moved to the Japanese shipping and logistic company NYK, heading its European operation. He was president of the UK Chamber of Shipping in 2015/2016 and served as chairman of the International Association of Classification Societies in 2012/2013. Tom has featured in Lloyd’s List Top 100 most influential people in shipping several times. He is an engineering graduate of Oxford University and is a fellow of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects.

Angela Gillham joined Maritime Industry Australia Ltd, the nation’s peak body representing the Australia’s maritime industry, in 2003 and has recently been appointed organisation’s chief executive officer. Angela has very broad experience in shipping regulation and policy matters, from both an international and domestic perspective, but has specialised in maritime industry sustainability issues throughout her career. She has delivered several shipping related marine biosecurity research and development projects, participated in landmark domestic industry policy reform programs and represents the interests of the Australian industry in international forums, including the International Chamber of Shipping and as industry adviser to the Australian delegation to the International Maritime Organization.

Professor Costas Th Grammenos set up the Centre for Shipping, Trade & Finance at Cass Business School in 1983. The following year, he established the MSc in Shipping, Trade & Finance course which introduced a new approach in shipping and international business in general; in 1997 he established the MSc in Transport, Trade & Finance and in 2003 the MSc in Energy, Trade & Finance. Since then, more than 3700 MSc students have graduated from over 150 countries. Additionally, the centre carries out and publishes research, through its staff and PhD students, in the areas of Shipping Finance, Maritime Risk Management, Commodity Trade and Finance, and Energy. In 2007, to provide a lasting legacy for his lifetime achievements the University renamed the centre the Costas Grammenos Centre for Shipping, Trade & Finance. Costas also established the Piraeus Meetings (1983 – 2000); the Athens Triennial Meetings (2004 – to date); and the City of London Biennial Meetings (1999 – to date). He was made OBE (Hon) by HM the Queen in 1994 for his work in international shipping and finance; in 2008 he was appointed CBE (Hon) for his contribution to teaching and research in the maritime industry; and in 2013 he was made 'Commander of the Order of the Phoenix' by the President of the Hellenic Republic. In 1999 he was awarded the DSc for creating, through his published research, Shipping Finance as a new academic subject. In 1998 he was Seatrade Personality of the Year and in 2011 was included in the Lloyd’s List Top 100 Most Influential People in the Shipping Industry.

Lars Green is partner and chief executive of Green Consulting Group, which focuses on management consultancy and competence development. Lars has a long career in shipping and logistics, including 33 years with the Japanese logistics giant NYK Group in Scandinavia, London and New York. In addition to his consultancy business, Lars is a senior tutor at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg. His book “ATTACC© - a leadership philosophy” was published in 2016. Lars holds a MBA from Stockholm School of Economics.

Caitlin Hardy is the Founder and Managing Director of Ness Sea Consulting. She began her career as a naval architect, focusing on workboats, commercial fishing vessels, sealifts, passenger vessels, and salvage. Utilising her engineering background, she moved into project management roles for new vessel construction. As her experiences shifted from engineering on a single vessel to building a class of multiple vessels, she transferred to the cruise industry to oversee continuous improvement across fleet operations for four operating lines. After completing her MBA, she spent time in two Series A startups focused on different aspects of the maritime and defence industries in cybersecurity and vessel analytics in product and leadership roles. Most recently, she led the US entity of Kongsberg Discovery, focused on expanding the company's offerings across all four product centres in the US, including establishing a US AUV team primarily to serve defence customers. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Naval Architecture from the US Naval Academy and an MBA from the University of Washington, Foster School of Business. Currently, she serves as the Co-Vice Chair on the Board of Washington Maritime BLUE.

Michael Parker joined Citibank in London in September 1977, and was recently appointed chairman of Citi’s Global Shipping, Logistics and Offshore business, having been global industry head since 1997. He has an MA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University, and in 1996 he attended the Stanford Executive Program at Stanford University. Michael has held the post of vice-chairman of Corporate & Investment Banking (Europe. Middle East and Asia), and in 2016, was appointed chairman Corporate Banking EMEA. During his 36 years’ involvement with shipping finance, Michael has been a regular conference chairman, speaker or panellist. Under his leadership, Citi receives recognised industry awards across the different areas of shipping finance and he was named Marine Money’s Dealmaker of the Year in 2012. In March 2015 in New York, he was presented with the Capital Link Leadership Award “in recognition of Michael Parker’s unique and extensive contribution to the shipping industry”. Michael chaired the London Committee of Intercargo for a number of years and is involved in UK maritime matters as they pertain to finance and served on the Expert Panel advising the UK Department for Transport on the UK 2050 Maritime Strategy. In 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2021 he served on the Advisory Board of London International Shipping Week. In 2017 he was appointed to the board of the Global Maritime Forum, plus chairman of the Steering Committee of the Poseidon Principles that were launched in New York June 2019. He was subsequently elected first chairman of the Poseidon Principles Association in 2020.

Amie Pascoe is a director of BLUE Communications. As well as taking a leading role in driving the strategic development and growth of the company, she has overall responsibility for building, managing, and protecting the reputation of her clients. She defines and implements the strategic direction of multiple communications programmes, working in close partnership with organisations, empowering them to build truly sustainable brands in line with the rapid transition of the marine and energy sectors.With 20 years of corporate and B2B communications experience, Amie has managed international campaigns across diverse industries, with the past 13 years wholly focused on marine and energy. This has enabled her to develop in-depth understanding of the issues and challenges that drive these marketplaces, as well as an influential network of stakeholder contacts.Before joining BLUE at the beginning of 2009, Amie worked at brand consultancy Propaganda, developing and delivering strategic communications programmes for clients across the shipping and marine services sectors. She started her career at Citigate Dewe Rogerson.

Rod Riseborough retired from his position as chief executive of Container Trades Statistics in July 2019. When conferences were banned in Europe in 2008, Rod had helped to set up CTS, which manages a global database covering container volumes and prices. Born in South Africa, Rod attended both Natal University and the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He joined Safmarine in Durban in 1977, and subsequently held a number of management roles in the US. In 1988 he moved to London, and joined SafBank, originally as commercial manager and then as managing director. In 1995 he moved to the Southern Africa Europe Container Service consortium, first as commercial manager, and then as chief executive. Rod was appointed managing director of Safmarine UK in 2000. The following year he joined the Far Eastern Freight Conference as secretary, and as chief executive of Conference Administration Services, until the EU outlawed price-setting conferences. He is now a volunteer with the National Coastwatch Institute.

Otto Schacht has over 40 years of international transportation and logistics experience. He was appointed executive vice president of Global Sea Logistics at freight forwarding and logistics giant Kuehne+Nagel International in September 2011 and served as member of its management board until October 2023. Otto was responsible for the company’s Sea Logistics business unit which provides innovative solutions to customers in 100 countries. He retired on October 1, 2023 but is still acting as advisor for Kuehne+Nagel and Kuehne Foundation. As a "climate advocate", he is personally strongly committed to sustainable businesses and was a driver of Kuehne+Nagel's Net Zero Carbon initiatives, supporting the corporate culture of sustainable behaviour within Kuehne+Nagel. At the same time, he encouraged the concept of sustainability to be reflected in transport solutions by, for example, using new digital platforms to emit significantly less carbo dioxide.Before joining the Kuehne+Nagel board, Otto worked for the German container shipping company Hapag-Lloyd in various positions from 1978 to 1997, including three years in the US and as manager of the Asia – Europe trades.

Peter Shaerf is a Managing Director and partner at AMA Capital Partners, New York, one of the leading maritime focused investment banks. Peter started in the industry over 45 years ago and worked for many years as a shipbroker for container and dry cargo vessels through a company he founded, The Commonwealth Group. He also operated a small Caribbean liner service while working for a firm of British shipowners. Immediately prior to joining AMA, he was a co-founder of Poseidon Capital, a specialist maritime “boutique.” A member of AMA since 2002, he has continued developing relationships in the capital markets where he has worked advising both strategic and non-strategic investors. and is actively involved in transaction origination. He has extensive experience in vessel valuations and has performed such work for financial institutions and government clients. He is chairman of Delta Holdings UK, the holding company for asset light ship operator Delta Shipping. He served as a board member and deputy chairman at publicly-listed Seaspan from 2005-2018 and has also served as an independent director (non-executive) of five other publicly-traded maritime companies . Peter also currently sits on the board of dry cargo ship owner Interlink Maritime and the innovative shortsea coastal operator Harbor Harvest . He is Chairman of the New York Maritime Association, a leading not-for-profit trade association, and is also a member of the American Bureau of Shipping and on the shipbuilding/finance committee of the US government's Marine Transport National Advisory Council.

Martin Stopford is non-executive president of Clarkson Research Services and Director of MarEcon, an e-learning business. He is a graduate of Oxford University and has a PhD in International Economics from London University. During his 47 years in the maritime Industry, he has held positions as director of business development at British Shipbuilders; global shipping economist with Chase Manhattan Bank. chief executive of Lloyd’s Maritime Information Services, and executive director of Clarksons and currently Non Executive President of Clarkson Research. He is also visiting professor at Cass Business School, Dalian Maritime University and Newcastle University, and has an Honorary Doctorate from Solent University. Martin’s publications include Maritime Economics, the widely-used shipping text book first that has been translated into Japanese, Greek, Portuguese, Turkish and Chinese. He has also written many papers on shipping economics and ship finance. He was presented with the Lloyd’s List Lifetime Achievement Award 2010; Seatrade Global Shipping Personality of the Year 2013; Onassis Prize for Shipping 2015; and Capital Link Shipping Leadership Award 2016.

Harry Theochari is a shipping and asset finance lawyer, and a Senior Consultant at the law firm Norton Rose Fulbright. He is an expert in all types of financing involving ship and maritime assets including structured financings, capital market transactions, bond financing and private equity. He has also been involved in the restructuring of a number of listed shipping companies. Harry has been named by Lloyd's List as the most influential shipping lawyer in the world. He has also been recognised by Tanker Shipping & Trade as one of the 50 most influential people in the tanker industry, is cited by Chambers Global 2024 as a Senior Statesperson for shipping finance and was named by Best Lawyers as a 'lawyer of the year', 2021. He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2022 for his services to the maritime industry. Harry is currently the chair of Maritime London, the world's largest global maritime professional body, chair emeritus of Maritime UK, and was chairman of International Maritime Industries Forum until its recent merger with Maritime London. He is also chair of the Belfast Maritime Consortium and and sits on the Institute of Maritime Law Advisory Board of the University of Southampton.

Dr Kirsi Tikka has significant shipping and offshore industry experience. For almost 20 years she held several leadership roles at American Bureau of Shipping. She led efforts in a variety of important regulatory and forward-looking technical topics including sustainability and setting the course for a low-carbon shipping future. Prior to joining ABS, she had a combined industry and academic background as a professor of Naval Architecture at Webb Institute in New York and working for Chevron Shipping Company in San Francisco, as well as Wärtsilä Shipyards in Finland. She is currently independent director on shipping and technology company boards. She is actively involved in environmental and sustainability projects. Kirsi holds a Doctorate in Naval Architecture and Offshore Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and M.Sc in Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture from the University of Technology in Helsinki. She is a Fellow of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers and the Royal Institution of Naval Architects. In 2012, she received SNAME’s David W. Taylor Medal, and in 2019 she received the Seatrade award: Integration of Women in Maritime Sector. She has an honorary doctorate from Webb Institute, and she is Foreign Member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. She serves on the UC Berkeley Engineering Advisory Board.

Michelle Wiese Bockmann is a London-based energy commodities and shipping editor/analyst employed as Markets Editor at Lloyd’s List. She has more than 20 years’ experience across three continents covering the global maritime and oil and gas sectors. She provides editorial analysis of the energy commodities and shipping markets for Lloyd’s List and Lloyd’s List Intelligence. As well as writing for specialist maritime news providers, she has led shipping coverage at Bloomberg News, worked as an analyst and editor for oil price reporting agency OPIS, and provided maritime intelligence as senior analyst for New York-based data analytics firm, ClipperData. Before moving to England from Australia, Michelle was a political writer for The Australian, the country’s national newspaper and the Americas Editor for global shipping magazine, Fairplay. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of South Australia. Michelle is the Lloyd’s List staff representative on the Editorial Board.