Future of Ships, Shipping and Environmental Sustainability Conference

Sahan Abeysekara IEng IMarEng MIMarEST

Principal Specialist - Environment, Technical Directorate, Lloyds Register

Sahan is an experience Marine professional with extensive experience on marine environmental technology, marine engineering and marine strategy development. He represents IACS at IMO for Marine Biosecurity.  LR representative to Global Industry Alliance of IMO-GEF-UNDP GloFouling partnership-. Sahan is an author and speaker representing LR in various conferences and workshops. Sahan is leading Environmental policy at Lloyd’s Register’s Technical Directorate. Responsible for strategy and implementation for future environmental regulations, provide ‘thought leadership’ to the industry. He was a senior marine engineer sailing on board ship before join LR. Sahan is a Fellow at Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers, Engineering council and member of IMarEST. Sahan holds Master’s degree from City University, London.

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Dr Richard Bucknall

Head of Mechanical Engineer, UCL, Maritime Research and Innovation UK

Professor Richard Bucknall’s career has been spent in the marine industry and academia.  He began his career at BP Shipping and subsequently with Ministry of Defence before joining UCL as a Research Fellow.  At UCL he led the Marine Research Group (2008-2014), became Director of Research for Mechanical Engineering (2014-2019), Vice Dean for Research (2019-2023) and Head of Department for Mechanical Engineering (2022-now).  His research focus has spanned several areas of maritime engineering science but more recently decarbonisation of the maritime sector.  He has graduated 28 PhD students from across the world, has over 250 published articles, and has been awarded the IMAREST Danny Medal twice.  He is an honorary member of the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors, past editor in chief of the Journal of Marine Engineering and Technology, and is currently a Visiting Professor at three internationally leading universities.

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John Chudley FIMarEST

Chair, Engineering Council

No bio provided

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Dr Andrea Coraddu

TU Delft

No bio provided

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Alan Crowle FIMarEST

Researcher, University of Exeter

Alan Crowle is a naval architect studying for a masters by research,(at the University of Exeter), into the installation of floating wind turbines. He has a BSc in naval architecture and shipbuilding from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (1974) and MSc in engineerng for marine professionals at the University of Plymouth (2020). He has over 53 years experience in the design, construction and offshore installation of marine structures. His work includes jackets, modules, FPSOs, loading buoys, LNG terminals and nearshore pipelines. He has installation design experience of fixed offshore wind turbines and high voltage direct current platforms. He is a fellow of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects, the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology and the Society of Consulting Marine Engineers and Ship Surveyors, plus a member of the Energy Institute.

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Kevin Daffey FIMarEST

VP Governmental Engineering, Rolls-Royce Solutions

Kevin Daffey is a Director at Rolls-Royce Solutions UK and Servowatch Systems Ltd, a Chair of Board of Trustees at the IMarEST, a former Chair of the Marine Electrical Control Systems Safety (MECSS) SIG and was the 118^th President for the IMarEST. 

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Niru Dorrian CSci CMarSci FIMarEST

Co-Chair Marine Mammals SIG, IMarEST

Niru is an offshore ecologist and marine mammal specialist with 20 years of experience over multiple international marine projects specialising in ecological project management, mitigation & monitoring, wildlife surveys, fauna rescue and conservation. He is also a Co-Founding Director for the not-for-profit marine conservation and education organisation Whalefish and has served on the Executive board of the MMOA since 2015. Niru has contributed extensively to marine fauna mitigation guidelines and protection plans, rescue and disentanglement protocols and science communication through multiple publications and media projects.

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Simon Graves CEng CMarEng BEng(Hons) PGCert MIMarEST

Inspector of Marine Accidents, MAIB

Simon joined the MAIB as an inspector in 2021, transferring from an assistant director role at the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) where he was responsible for technical services (operations). Simon holds an honours degree in engineering from Newcastle University, which he studied for after qualifying as a chief engineer.

After a long career at sea serving on a wide variety of ships, ultimately as chief engineer on cruise ships, Simon joined the MCA as a surveyor. He moved with his family to New Zealand for a position in ship management before joining Maritime New Zealand, dealing with the operational port and flag state aspects of the organisation. Simon returned to the UK, and the MCA, in 2010, where he progressed to a principal surveyor role before promotion to assistant director.

With the arrival of COVID-19 Simon was faced with managing risk while developing and implementing a regulatory framework to keep UK ships trading under the most trying circumstances. He was also part of the multiagency team that developed the roadmap for returning the cruise industry to service after the dark days of the pandemic

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Stephen Hall FIMarEST

Head of Partnerships, The Nippon Foundation & GEBCO Seabed 2030

No bio provided

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Dr Anand Hiremath

Head of the SSOR, GMS

No bio provided

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Mohammad Hoque

Fleet Manager (Technical), Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics

No bio provided

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Anthony Linden

Area Manager, DNV

A British national, Linden gained a BSc (Hons) in International Transport from Southampton Institute. He spent his early career working for CP Ships UK Ltd for 10 years latterly as Trade Director working in the UK, Hong Kong, and India. Following that he spent three years as Asia-Europe/Mediterranean Product Management Director, for Hapag-Lloyd (Asia) Pte Ltd in Singapore. He was then appointed President of UASC (India) Pvt Ltd, based in Mumbai and responsible for all United Arab Shipping Co activities in India. Linden returned to Singapore in 2011 to take up the role of Director, Container Ship - Operations & Logistics with DNV.

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Bev Mackenzie CSci CMarSci CMarSci(Oceanography) FIMarEST

Head of intergovernmental Engagement, BIMCO

No bio provided

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Paul Marshall MIMarEST

Engineer, Maritime Industry

No bio provided

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Kenny McElroy MSc CEng FIMarEST MAPM RCNC

Director Future Submarines Barrow, Babcock International

No bio provided

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Tobi Menzies

Director - Business Development, Core Power Energy

No bio provided

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Ashley Noseworthy

President / CEO, Edgewise Environmental Ltd

No bio provided

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Helen Oldridge CMarEng MIMarEST

Head of Scientific Engineering, National Oceanography Centre

Helen is the National Marine Facilities Head of Scientific Engineering, at the National Oceanography Centre. She is responsible for the operation and development of the National Marine Equipment Pool, the technicians supporting the delivery of the research expedition programme, and co-author of the Technology Roadmap. Her background is in systems and design engineering, with 3 years in the commercial design and manufacturing sector, and 12 years as marine engineer in the Royal Navy

Reece Oliver MIMarEST

Experimentation Plans Team Leader – NavyX, Royal Navy

No bio provided

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Richard Partridge FIMarEST

Chief of Naval Systems, Rolls-Royce Naval

No bio provided

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Philip Parvin FIMarEST

Vice Chair of council, IMarEST

No bio provided

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Alina Prylipko SIMarEST

Lecturer, World Maritime University

No bio provided

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Professor Ralph Rayner FIMarEST

Professorial Research Fellow, Grantham Research Institute and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Co-chair IMarEST Operational Oceanography SIG

Ralph is a Professorial Research Fellow in the Department of Statistics at LSE as well as holding a position with The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.  He is a fellow of the Institute for Marine Engineering, Science and Technology, the Society for Underwater Technology, the Marine technology Society, the Royal Meteorological Society and the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.

Ralph’s academic background is in ocean science and technology.  Throughout his career he has worked at the interface between the public and private sectors in meeting the need for monitoring of the ocean environment in support of understanding climate change, the use of ocean resources and the protection of the marine environment.  He is a former chair of the IOC/UNESCO Global Ocean Observing System Steering Committee and currently serves on the advisory bodies of a number on leading ocean science research organisations, including Plymouth Marine Laboratory and the Schmidt Ocean Institute.  He is Editor in Chief of the Journal of Operational Oceanography and is a founding trustee of the Rising Seas Institute.

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Jake Rigby

Global Head of Innovation and Research, BMT

Jake Rigby is the Global Head of Innovation and Research at BMT, responsible for the portfolio management of internal research projects. He is a chartered engineer and Member of the Royal Institute of Naval Architects originally training as a Naval Architect specialising in ship signatures before his current role in Research and Development. Jake is also responsible for Academic Engagement at BMT. In recognition of his work to progress Academic Engagement in the maritime sector he was recently awarded the title of Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Exeter.

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Claudene Sharp-Patel CMarTech FIMarEST

Global Technical Director, Marine and Offshore, Lloyds Register

Claudene joined the marine industry over 30 years ago, having wide experience in maritime, shipping, salvage/MCI, upstream oil and Gas, and wind installation/MWS, Terminal operations, assurance and Oil and Gas/renewable industries in various roles and senior management positions. Claudene started her career as a sea-going Marine Engineering with BHP on dry-bulk carriers, ROROs, Container Vessels and Chemical tankers, transferring onto Oil and LNG vessels with Shell UK and primarily with BP Shipping. However, never one to stop during leave periods continued building experience on General cargo vessels and passenger ships.  Although holding a Bachelor of Technology (Marine Engineering) and Combined Chief Engineer (Motor and Steam), Claudene continued studying obtaining an MBA in Maritime Law and Logistics Management. 

Although Claudene’s background is technical, her training in her shore career in Shipping companies and Oil companies support the understanding of shipping, terminal operations/activities and marine activities, has assisted seeing these operations holistically and impactfully.  Claudene’s more recent roles as Global Technical Director Lloyd’s Register, and Shell Australia Prelude (Prelude Marine Terminal Coordinator) further adds to her understanding of current Marine and Offshore roles, activities and operations.  Claudene’s current role as Global Technical Director for Lloyds Register allows an input in the strategy and technical requirements for the industry both legislated or required through IMO/IACS and also supporting customers and the industry find safe technical solutions within Decarbonisation, Digitalisation, Marine safety assurance and Offshore Safety Assurance.

Claudene is a Fellow of IMarEST and served for 6 years as Vice President and culminating as Vice Chair of Technical Leadership Board of IMarEST.  Claudene was previously a registered consultant to IMO, and has been continuously active within OCIMF in several groups/working groups including Representative at GPC, Vice Chairman of OCIMF Technical Group, and member of SIRE Focus Group.  These experiences bringing a wide understanding of incidents, consequences, legislation, regulations and implementation.

Professor Adam Sobey

Program Director, Turing Institute

Professor Adam Sobey is Programme Director of Data-Centric Engineering at The Alan Turing Institute and Professor of Data-Centric Engineering in the Maritime Engineering group at the University of Southampton. He is also a Non-Executive Director at Theyr Ltd, a MetOcean and Voyage Optimisation Software provider, and at AQ, provide tools for Digital Assurance.

He completed his degree in Astronautics at the University of Southampton in 2006 and his PhD in the Maritime Engineering group in 2010 using AI in the design of leisure boats. From 2009 he managed the Lloyd’s Register/Ministry of Defence Centre of Excellence in Marine Structures at Southampton, developing new techniques to model damaged ships. This research was incorporated into Lloyd’s Register’s design guidance and in 2015 he was awarded the Royal Institution of Naval Architect’s Jeom Paik Award for stochastic analysis of ship structures. In 2014 he became a Lloyd’s Register Educational Trust funded Research Fellow with 50% of his time seconded to the Institute of High Performance Computing in Singapore, developing novel algorithms in Evolutionary Computation. In 2015 he was a co-Investigator for the University of Southampton Lloyd’s Register Foundation University Technology Centre in “Ship Design for Enhanced Environmental Performance”. He became a lecturer in the Maritime Engineering group in 2018 and was asked to start a theme in Marine and Maritime within the Data-Centric Engineering programme at The Alan Turing Institute in 2019 with Gabriel Weymouth. He became the first Professor in Data-Centric Engineering in 2022 and Programme Director for Data-Centric Engineering in 2023.

He is an Executive Editor for the Data-Centric Engineering journal and Ships and Offshore Structures. He has generated a range of products from his research, mainly focused on decarbonisation in Shipping.

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Wouter Vuikj

Business Manager Sustainable Transport, Port of Rotterdam

No bio provided

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