The final countdown to change
Six candidates had been nominated by their Governments for the position of Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
Andreas Chrysostomou
ANDREAS Chrysostomou spent 10 years representing Cyprus on every committee that met at Albert Embankment and is seen as a strong political debater who knows the IMO and its conventions to the letter.
He has been chair of a number of the IMO’s committees and there is no doubt that most of the members and secretariat know Andreas Chrysostomou.
He admits there is a need to change the work load within the IMO. This is best seen in some of the committees, with an ever increasing number of submissions and political debates with a resulting headache for a secretariat that is expected to keep up with its members’ expectations.
Today Mr Chrysostomou is most widely known as the chair of the maritime environment protection committee, and particularly for his handling of some very sensitive and contentious topics in recent years.
Jeffrey Lantz
Mr Lantz,who will be 59 years old in September, is the US Coast Guard’s Washington DC based director of commercial regulations and standards and has been a regular face at IMO meetings for the last decade.
He was appointed IMO council chairman from2010 and, if successful, would be the first American appointed as IMO secretary – general.
Mr Lantz already demonstrates an adeptness at managing awkward questions and tricky situations.
He believes the secretary-general is there to guide others. “For instance, if it’s an issue where the IMOis locked up and can’t do anything, and the secretary general has a personal view of what the way should be, he should put that forward as a solution for the IMO,” he said.
“The worst thing that can happen at the IMO is that it fails to decide and it fails to take action and then entities around the world take regional action. That is so detrimental to shipping on an international basis.”
Neil Ferrer
It would represent a logical step, following four years chairing the IMO’s senior committee, the Maritime Safety Committee. He was the first Asian elected to that role since the committee was established in 1959.
Mr Ferrer also gained compliments for his role as chair of the Diplomatic Conference in Manila in June 2010 that agreed major amendments to the STCW Convention.
He is a career diplomat who chose to specialise in the maritime sector and has been actively involved in these matters for the past 20 years, including the law of the sea.
A swell as his role at the IMO, Mr Ferrer holds a position in the Philippines government as executive director of the Ocean Concerns Office at the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila.
From2003 to 2009, he was alternate permanent representative of the Philippines at the IMO.
Mr Ferrer is a Chevening Scholar of the UK Foreign and Common wealth Office and has a masters degree in International Boundaries from the University of Durham in the UK.
Representing the leading supplier of seafarers to the international market is another factor in his favour, as the interests of seafarers have moved up the agenda. Indeed, the Philippines president has endorsed Mr Ferrer’s nomination.
He is the only candidate from a developing country, although there are two other candidates from Asia.
Esteban Pacha
Capt Pacha has a career-long background in the maritime industry. In fact he is the only one of the six candidates with a professional maritime education and seagoing background achieving the rank of Master onboard Spanish merchant vessels.
He has a Master’s Degree in Maritime Transport and is a Fellow of the Nautical Institute and Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology.
After coming ashore he was appointed by the Spanish government to various senior maritime administration roles, including regional director of the ministry of public works and transport. He became Spain’s permanent representative at the IMO in 2000.
At the IMO Capt Pacha has acted as auditor of the flag state audit scheme, vice-chairman of the IMO Flag State Implementation sub-committee and is a governor of the World Maritime University. He has held several leading positions in other international maritime organisations. Since 2007 he has been director general of the International Mobile Satellite Organisation and was reelected for a second term.
Koji Sekimizu
JAPAN’S Koji Sekimizuis one of the front runners for the IMO top job and undoubtedly the shining star of its secretariat.
The 58 year old has been working in the IMO for 22 years, and in the past seven as director of the maritime safety division. For four years previous to that he was director of the marine environment division.
The list of accomplishments on his curriculum vitae highlights the impact this Career bureaucrat has had on the workings of the various IMO divisions he has been involved in, and are too long to list in this brief description of his candidacy.
He began his career in the maritime industry studying shipbuilding and engineering at Osaka University before working in Japan’s ministries of transport and environment in the 1970s and1980s.He movedtoLondonin1987 to become a technical officer within the maritime safety division of the IMO.
Chai Lee-Sik
Mr Chai is a distinguished academic who has devoted a long career to the study and improvement of maritime law. Since 1994, he has attended IMO meetings as a member of the South Korean delegation.
He served as chairman of the IMO’s legal committee from 2005 through 2010. Prior to this he was the legal committee’s vice-chairman. As a member of the legal committee, he participated in several milestone IMO diplomatic conferences, including the International Convention on Liability and Compensation for Damage in Connection with Carriage of Hazardous and Noxious Substances by Sea – also known as theHNS Convention – in 1996, the Bunker Convention in 2000, the Athens Convention in 2003, and the Wreck Convention of 2007.
Mr Chai has also played an important role in meetings of the IOPC Funds, serving as chairman of the executive committee from 1999 through 2000.
Mr Chai studied law and public administration at Korea University Law School, earning his law degree in 1871.He earned a separate degree in maritime law at the London School of Economics in 1980.He qualified as barrister in England & Wales, as well as qualifying in South Korea.
In the private sector, he served as an external director to Hyundai Merchant Marine from1996 to 2004.He has had manyother affiliations and appointments, including a part time stint as special legal counsel to the South Korean coast guard.
