Judging Panel

Nicholas Fairfax (Lord Fairfax of Cameron)

Nicholas Fairfax (Lord Fairfax of Cameron) has been a Director of Sovcomflot and a Member of the Sovcomflot Executive Board since 2007. He was Managing Director, PL Ferrari London Office between 1997 and 2005. Prior to this, he was a Director of Sedgwick Marine & Cargo Ltd with responsibility for Sedgwick Group Marine Business in Russia/former Soviet Union. He served as a Director of Thomas Miller (managers of the UK P&I Club) from 1981 to 1990.

Tetsuya Kinoshita

Tetsuya Kinoshita, a veteran of 32 years’ experience, Mr Tetsuya Kinoshita has been with Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (ClassNK) throughout his career in various capacities and currently he is the Regional Manager for Europe and Africa, stationed in the ClassNK Regional Office in London. He graduated from Kobe University of Mercantile Marine and thereafter joined ClassNK in 1978. After stints at Nagoya and Nagasaki branches of ClassNK, he was deputed to Japan Atomic Energy Agency in 1987. He took up the post of General Manager of NK Sydney Office in Australia in 1995. He was the General Manager of External Affairs Division in Tokyo before taking up the current position in 2008.

Jan Kopernicki

Jan Kopernicki is a member of the Shell Trading Executive Committee and a Director of Shell International Trading and Shipping Company. He is responsible for Shell’s international shipping activities. His global team manages Shell’s oil tanker, LPG and LNG vessel portfolio, provides maritime services to all Shell businesses, advises on safety and environmental aspects of shipping, provides ship management for the Shell fleet and joint ventures, and manages nautical, off shore and LNG technical developments - including the design and construction of vessels and floating structures. Mr Kopernicki became President of the UK Chamber of Shipping in March 2010.

Ravi Kumar Mehrotra

Ravi Kumar Mehrotra, founder and principal shareholder of Foresight Limited and the Foresight Group, began his career in 1963 with The Shipping Corporation of India. Following the Iranian Revolution, he served as Principal Adviser to the Government of Iran and its Ministry of Trade in particular, and was put in charge of expanding that nation’s fleet. He founded Foresight, a shipowning group, in London in 1984. Today, the Group established by Mr Mehrotra now encompasses companies in Nicosia, Cyprus, Mumbai and New Delhi in India, Sharjah in UAE and Shanghai and Beijing in China. He was awarded CBE from Her Majesty The Queen in 2007.

Stephen Meyer

Stephen Meyer has been the UK’s Chief Inspector of Marine Accidents for some 8 years. Prior to taking up this post, Stephen spent 34 years in the Royal Navy. As a specialist navigator, Stephen spent over half of his career at sea, commanding six warships, from an Omani Patrol Craft to the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious. He also served as the Royal Navy’s seagoing Admiral. His many shore appointments ranged from the specialist training of deck officers, to running the overseas deployments of British forces from all three services post 9/11.

Efthimios Mitropoulos

Efthimios Mitropoulos, Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organisation, is a graduate of the Aspropyrgos Merchant Marine and Piraeus Naval Academies. He started his career as a Merchant Navy Officer and, since 1962, as a Commissioned Officer of the Hellenic Coast Guard. He studied shipping economics in Italy and marine technology in the United Kingdom. Between 1966 and 1977 he attended various IMO bodies and the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea as representative of the Greek Ministry of Mercantile Marine. He was Harbour Master of Corfu between 1977 and 1979.

Masamichi Morooka

Masamichi Morooka was named Representative Director, Senior Managing Corporate Officer for Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha in Tokyo earlier this year. He is also Chief Executive, Technical Headquarters and Executive Chief of Environmental Management, effectively the head of NYK’s Tokyo-based technical and environmental divisions. Mr Morooka served as Chief Executive Officer of NYK Group Europe Ltd., starting April 2007. He also served as Head of NYK’s global liner division and as a Director of Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha.

Hamish Norton

Hamish Norton is a Managing Director at Jefferies & Company, Inc. and is Global Head of the Maritime Group. He is known for creating Nordic American Tanker Shipping and Knightsbridge Tankers, the first two high dividend yield shipping companies. He recently advised Arlington Tankers in the merger with General Maritime and has been an Adviser to U.S. Shipping Partners. He also recently advised New Mountain Capital on its investment in Intermarine. Prior to joining Jefferies in 2007, Mr. Norton ran the shipping practice at Bear Stearns since 2000.

Irene Rosberg

Irene Rosberg holds two important positions with Copenhagen Business School, one of Europe’s leading institutions of its kind. In addition to being the Director of the Doctor of Business Administration department, Irene is Director of the Executive MBA in Shipping and Logistics (The Blue MBA). She has a fundamental role in building global relationships and networks within the maritime industry on behalf of CBS. She also promotes research, identifying challenges and future issues for the maritime industry as a whole. Recently she was elected Chairman of the Scientific Papers Review Committee for the International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME 2010).

Mohammed Sharaf

Mohammed Sharaf has served as Chief Executive Officer since the formation of DP World in 2005 and as a Director of the company since May 30, 2007. He joined DPA in 1992 and became Managing Director of Dubai Ports International in 2003. He began his shipping career at Holland Hook terminal in The Port of New York/New Jersey and has more than 20 years’ experience in the transport and logistics business. He is also Chairman of Tejari World FZ LLC.

Maurice Storey

Maurice Storey qualified as a Naval Architect and Chartered Engineer, during a decade with Swan Hunter Shipbuilders, where he started as an apprentice. He then gained wide-ranging experience across a variety of shipping companies – Shaw Savill, Kuwait Oil Tanker Company, Sea Containers and Stena Line – over a 30-year period. From 1998-2003, he was Chief Executive of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, tasked with merging two former agencies. He is currently Honorary Chairman at Evergreen Marine (UK) Ltd. and a Director of James Fisher PLC. He is a former President of the UK Chamber of Shipping.