A master mariner and a committed proponent of the maritime users’ perspective, Rear Admiral Nick Lambert concluded a long naval operational career as the UK National Hydrographer in December 2012. He advises on a wide range of maritime issues including the growing potential of the blue economy concept, the importance of spatial data infrastructures and hydrography for maritime economies, the evolution of eNavigation and GNSS vulnerability, near or real time situational awareness (especially that derived from space based assets and applications), human factors, and training and education in the maritime sector. He has a particular interest in the Polar Regions and is also engaged in a variety of situational awareness, marine autonomous systems and vessel efficiency projects.

André Simha is Global Chief Information Officer of MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A since 1994.

Born and raised in Geneva, Switzerland, he joined MSC in 1987 and has been responsible for implementing and developing the complex data flow between the company’s headquarters and its agencies worldwide.

Between 2000 and 2014, André also served as a Director of the world’s largest multi-carrier ecommerce network for the ocean shipping industry, INTTRA.

He is currently spearheading an initiative to centralize MSC’s detailed Information Systems. The OneVision program sees André leading a team of experts – based around the globe – in standardizing processes and management information.

MSC is a privately owned shipping line, founded in 1970. It is now the world's second largest container carrier and employer to more than 60,000 people.

Giampiero Soncini started his maritime career in 1971 by joining the Italian Navy. Promoted officer in 1972, he then graduated in Electrical Engineering at Pisa University with the second ever thesis in Italy on Optical Fibers, in 1979. From 1979 to 1985 he was involved in the construction of the “Maestrale” Class Frigates, the first Navy ships in the world to have a fully computerized Machinery Control Room. He served on one of the vessels as Chief Engineer/Electrical. In 1986 he left the Italian Navy to join NATO Undersea Research Centre, dedicated to Anti-Submarine Warfare. He was involved in the construction of RV Alliance, nicknamed “the ship of silence”, at the time the most advanced and quietest ship ever built, and the first one in the world to have a commercial GPS and a fully Integrated Navigation System.

In 1989 Mr. Soncini became responsible for the technical management of the vessel, until 1998, when he resigned from NATO to become the Managing Director of SpecTec Italy.

Between 1998 and 2005 he opened or managed several South European offices, as VP South Europe; he later became VP Sales worldwide. In 2005 he became CEO of the SpecTec Group. From 2005 to 2012, he managed the Group growth from 9 offices and 135 employees, to 26 offices in 19 countries and over 330 employees. In 2011 he received a Honoris Cause degree in Public Administration by the US Massachusetts Maritime University. In 2012, Volaris Group of Canada bought SpecTec Group. In 2016, Volaris decided to further invest in the Marine IT business and created a new Marine Division, with Mr. Soncini as Managing Director.

Experienced Area Sales Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the telecommunications industry. Skilled in Negotiation, Marine Electronics, Operations Management, Freight, and Sales. Strong sales professional with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) focused in Shipping from ALBA Graduate Business School.

Dan Rooney is the EMEA/Russia Maritime Line of Business Director for Iridium. Operating in the maritime industry since 1999, he has been worked with several providers (Speedcast & Globe Wireless) delivering prominent products to the satellite sector. Dan also worked as a Fleet IT Manager for a major Norwegian shipping company, managing a team implementing IT & communications improvements across 53 vessels..

Drew Brandy was appointed Senior Vice President Market Strategy for Inmarsat Maritime in January 2015. He is currently responsible for setting the strategy for the business unit with regards to vertical segmentation, all marketing programmes, and the development of the partner channel.

Since joining Inmarsat in 2005, Drew has held a variety of positions, principally focused on delivery of the broadband portfolio across the Enterprise verticals while rolling out new products and services to drive significant growth across the land-based business.

Previously, he gained extensive experience working in both North America and Europe, holding positions with Bell Canada, British Telecom and Cable & Wireless ranging from business development to corporate strategy.

Drew holds an undergraduate degree in sociology and communications from York University in Canada and an MBA from Henley Management College.

Jon graduated at the ripe old age of 22 with a Bachelors in Telecoms Engineering, choosing to join the Navy and venture out into the world wide-eyed and bushy-tailed. The next 12 years would prove to be an absolute adventure, taking Jon to the far corners of the globe and at times bordering on becoming a Pirate. He eventually drew breath and joined the new build team for US based companies, Renaissance Cruises and thereafter Disney Cruises as lead project manager for onboard Entertainment and Communication Systems.

Jon’s life has always been intertwined with the Maritime World, during the past 20 years he has been particularly passionate and focused on the continuously evolving Satellite Communication business. Today he is a proud and privileged member of the Intellian family, serving as Vice President of Global Satcom. Intellian bring energy, innovation and market defining products to the Satellite industry. Jon recently completed an MBA and also leads the Intellian EMEA team as General Manager.

Rob O'Dwyer, Editor of Digital Ship, has been a maritime IT journalist since 2005. He has a Master's degree in business and law from University College Dublin and was previously a commercial writing consultant in Seoul, South Korea.

Rob was also previously Editor of Port Finance International.

Panagiotis Falidouris is Head of Marlink Cyprus & Greek (CG), responsible for the development of business in Greece & Cyprus for Marlink, the global innovative provider of satellite enabled solutions.

Panagiotis is well-respected within the maritime IT and Satcom industry, having over 21 years’ experience in the satellite sector. He began his career with Elkco Marine Consultants, a distributor of Telenor & SpecTec and then as Sales Manager of Xantic Hellas – a former ST12 mobile satellite operator based in The Hague, The Netherlands. During his time there, Panagiotis was responsible for sales of Mobile Satellite Systems to the maritime industry in Greece and Cyprus.

In 2007, Panagiotis joined SRH Marine Electronics (Radio Holland Greece) specialised in the supply, installation and service of marine electronics and representing France Telecom, the mobile satellite operator based in France. He more recently joined as head of Marlink’s Hellas operations to enhance sales efforts within this key region.

Panagiotis has a degree in Programming and Analysis and integrated several commercial and finance topics through various positions in his career.

For almost two decades, David Tropp Hag has been closely engaged with KVH’s maritime customers, solving maritime IT and communications challenges. Today, in the role of Regional Sales Director, he is heading the Eastern/Southern European sales and account management team, providing daily support and finding new solutions for KVH expanding customer base in the region. With a background in electronics, and a professional degree in business administration, David sits right in the cross field between technological challenges and business requirements, allowing him to understand the customers situation from both sides.

Julian Crudge joined Telenor Satellite in 1998 and is currently the Director of our Datacomms Division, responsible for VSAT services to land and maritime based customers in Europe, Middle East and Africa on C, Ku and Ka band. In particular, he is commercially responsible for Telenor’s Ka band HTS satellite, THOR 7. Prior to this, Julian held a number of finance roles within Telenor Satellite, and worked in the leasing industry for 9 years.

Julian has a BA Econs (Hons) degree and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) in 1989.

Nabil Ben Soussia is the Managing Director of IEC Telecom Middle East. Armed with years of experience and a track record of proven performance, he is responsible for providing the vision, overall leadership and strategic management for the company as well as long-term relations with the key clients.

Ben Soussia is known for his global expertise in leading complex turnarounds. His industry experience spans across advanced satellite telecommunications integration and deployment. A high-performance leader with extensive MENA region experience, Ben Soussia joined IEC Telecom Group in 2008 as Director of Technologies and Operations. In 2011, Ben Soussia held the title of the Managing Director at IEC Telecom’s Abu Dhabi, where he played an instrumental role in its opening. In 2013, Ben Soussia became Managing Director of IEC Telecom Kazakhstan and was responsible for the business development in this fast-growing sector. Ben Soussia helped develop the Maritime sector in Kazakhstan contributing to the increase in business sales, which resulted in the company’s recognition as the Best Performance Maritime by Thuraya award in 2014. He was the first who introduced YahClik, a new service by Yahsat, to the group which also resulted in the receipt of the YahClik Service Partner of the Year award.

Ben Soussia holds a Master’s degree in Satellite Communication Systems and Telecoms and an Engineering degree in Telecommunication. He is fluent in English, Arabic, French, and Russian.

Geoff Allsop joins the marine antenna manufacturer with immediate effect.

Marine antenna manufacturer Intellian has named Geoff Allsop as its new European sales director.

Allsop, who has a wealth of experience in the maritime satellite and mobility sector, will be based at the company’s UK facility in Southampton which, together with Intellian’s European distribution centre in Rotterdam, provides the European market with products and support.

In his new role, Allsop will be responsible for enhancing the sales and marketing capabilities of Intellian’s European sales.

Mr P. Stavropoulos is an ICT engineer started working for major infrastructure brands, installing Ericsson products as a field engineer and as presales later in IBM, before moving to software sales and soon after in satcom maritime industry as a sales & account manager since 2008. His insight evaluation of various aspects is highly appreciated by several customers in Greek maritime market that even trust him to design and implement their future Japanese new buildings' ICT infrastructure or to be the first worldwide to try new technologies, such as dual GX antennas.

Experienced management consultant and project manager with extensive knowledge of strategic planning and financial analysis, market analysis and forecasting, and investor relations support.

Mr. Zghoul has founded JiBe after identifying a deep gap in the approach shipping companies experience in IT compared to equal size enterprises in the corporate world. The rapid success of JiBe confirmed the expansion of the trend into web-based fully integrated ERP systems, machine learning and later into crypto payments and information sharing. Prior to founding JiBe in 2013, Mr. Zghoul was the Co-Founder and President of SeaChange Maritime. SeaChange has developed a fleet of over 20 vessels and has built an end to end ship management company in Singapore. Prior to founding SeaChange, Mr. Zghoul worked for Ofer family in both Singapore and later in the US as part of an acquisition team in the offshore terminal segment. Prior to that, in 1999 Mr. Zghoul founded and headed Synergy Ventures, a New York based Venture Capital fund, focused on business to business web applications and Enterprise Software.

Mr. Zghoul has an L.L.B. Degree in Law, graduated 1998, as well as an MBA from the Stern School of Business, New York University graduated 2002.

George Demetriades is born in Athens in 1964. Holding an MSc in Information Systems Management, is an experienced professional in Digital and Information Technology Services, having more than 26 years of experience working in large national and multi-national organizations, out of which 20 years have been spent in managerial positions such as COO, CIO and Executive Director.

Mr. Demetriades has a track record of success in establishing and organizing IT Shared Services organizations as well as IT Departments and Sectors of large financial institutions both domestic and international having worked in Greece, Central and SE Europe and the Middle East.

He adopts international best practices and ensures that the organizations he works for as well as his work colleagues obtain all the necessary and appropriate certifications.

Since 2014, Mr. Demetriades leads the IT&T Business Unit of Athens International Airport, working with a group of 52 highly skilled IT professionals.

The Unit is a one stop shop for IT & Telecommunication services for the airport community acting at the same time as a consultant and provider of IT&T solutions for external businesses such as other airports, insurance companies, shipping companies etc. both in Greece as well as abroad. Since Mr. Demetriades’s joining, the Unit has been awarded with 17 prizes for innovation and customer service as well as entrepreneurship.

Athens International Airport IT&T Business Unit has been certified by ISO 9001 since 2007 and ISO 20000 since 2015. The Unit supports 17,000 users and has over 300 customers from whom it generates revenues of EUR 8 Million (2017), contributing thus positively to the Airport Company’s P&L statement.

IT&T Business Unit : https://youtu.be/3AsX4XAhNRY
LinkedIn profile : https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgevdemetriades/
Success Story : https://youtu.be/0i8V9jbwpd4

Experienced IT executive with a demonstrated history of working in the maritime industry. Skilled in Business Planning, IT Strategy, Data Center, Management, and Project Portfolio Management. Strong consulting professional with a PhD focused in Operational Research, Strategic Reengineering of Business Processes from National Technical University of Athens, and an MBA from Imperial College, London.

A senior Information Technology professional with experience on multiple platforms.

- SAP R/3 System & Security Administrator

- Lotus Domino Application Developer & Database Administrator

- Microsoft Exchange 2003,2010,2013 Administrator

- Database Administrator on DB2, Oracle & MS-SQL

- IBM AS/400 Developer.

Katerina Raptaki is the IT Manager of Navios Group of companies, including 4 NYSE-listed companies, with branches in cities all over the world, owning and managing more than 150 vessels. Katerina is also the former president of AMMITEC, the Association of IT Managers in Shipping. She graduated from the National Technical University of Athens with a degree in Naval / Mechanical Engineering and has 28-years’ experience in IT and Communications.

With more than 16 years of experience in Shipping, having deep knowledge in Marine Satellite systems, vast experience in shipping software and Project Management, Katerina has been holding Managerial positions in various companies allowing her to have a full understanding of technical issues and operational procedures. Her excellent people management skills include the ability to transfer her expertise in technical systems delivery, business analysis and the management of cross-functional business projects and project teams.

Tasos Makris is an Information Systems & Usability specialist. He holds a BSc in Physics and a Masters of Computer Science. He has worked in the Health sector in the U.K. and in the Greek Industry Automation Sector (Hercules Cement Corp./Amber) before joining the Maritime Sector in 1993 where he worked for Gourdomichalis Maritime as Information Systems Director.

He has been involved with issues in Human Computer Interface and Software Usability principles since the mid ‘80s, as a means to improve the quality of software and human productivity. He applied extensively these principles during his career in software development and maintenance as IT Manager and has presented his work and ideas in various maritime conferences and has given yearly lectures to students of the Faculty of Communication & Media Studies of the University of Athens on Usability and UX topics on their importance and application in our everyday life.

He is a founding member of the group which organizes every year the celebration of World Usability Day in Greece since 2008 and has been a member of its organizing committee since then (usability.ntlab.gr).

He is a founding member and member of BOD of AMMITEC (www.ammitec.com) since 2005 and a member of the Usability Professionals Association (UXPA) and ΕΕΔΕ (Hellenic Management Association). He has also been a member of the BoD for the ACM Greek SIGCHI (the Special Interest Group of ACM on Computer-Human Interface) since 2011.

Biography pending.

IT Dpt. Manager Project Manager in IT Projects, WEB applications, IT Security.

Matina Boufi is a member of ICT Dept. of Eletson Corporation since 1998. Mainly responsible for the administration, maintenance, improvement and integration of Enterprise modules for office and vessel installations. In the past she has worked as software developer and as responsible for European Commission projects in National Book Center of Greece. She holds a Computer Science degree from Sussex University and she is the mother of two teenage boys.

Biography pending.

Biography pending.

Biography pending.

Biography pending.

Biography pending.

Biography pending.