Sense & Nonsense about Fuels

Since 2013 Harilaos N. Psaraftis is a Professor at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Department of Technology, Management and Economics, Management Science Division. He has a diploma from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) (1974), and two M.Sc. degrees (1977) and a Ph.D. (1979) from MIT, USA. He has been Assistant and Associate Professor at MIT from 1979 to 1989 and Professor at NTUA from 1989 to 2013. He has participated in some 55 research projects, including 25 from the EU. He has coordinated 3 EU projects including project SuperGreen on green corridors. He has been a member and chairman of various groups at the International Maritime Organization (IMO), and has also served as CEO of the Piraeus Port Authority (1996 -2002). He has published extensively and has received several academic and industry awards. His latest book is Sustainable Shipping: A Cross-Disciplinary View, Springer (2019).

Nick started his career with a major shipmanagement, shipowning and shipping services group in Hong Kong. Today he works in Paris for the Marine & Offshore Division of the Bureau Veritas Group. Founded in 1828 as a marine classification society, Bureau Veritas is a leading global provider of testing, inspection and certification services - with more than 78,000 employees in 1,500 offices and laboratories world-wide.

George D Pateras, born in London UK and the father of 3 adult children, is the Deputy Chairman, Contships Management Inc. and since 2016 the Chairman of the Hellenic Chamber of Shipping.

He studied Engineering and Economics and holds a BSc in Marine Engineering from Newcastle University, MS in Marine Engineering and Naval Architecture from MIT and a PhD from Plymouth University.

He is a Board member of the Hellenic War Risks Association and the Bahamas Shipowners Association, Chairman of the Hellenic Shipping War Risks Insurance S.A., Vice Chairman, NATO, PBOS now TG(OS) (2000-) and permanent advisor (AMSCC) of the Hellenic Ministry of Defence.

Dr Pateras has also served as the Chairman of the Bahamas Shipowners’ Association (2011-2015) and as a Board member of the Hellenic Seamen’s Pension Fund (1984- 1993), Olympic Aviation (1991-1993), the Hellenic Chamber of Shipping (1986-2015), the Union of Greek Shipowners (1983-2004), HELMEPA (1996-1998) and BSA representative on International Chamber of Shipping (2011-2015) and Managing Director of Aegeus Shipping S.A. (1981 - 2018)

Mireille Tirel is the Director of Paris’ office for the marine and transport insurance broker Groupe Eyssautier, which she join in 2000. She previously built her experience and relation as marine and energy insurance broker at the Office d’Assurance Aérienne G. de Cugnac, Alexander Howden and then Aon.

At Groupe Eyssautier, Mireille is in charge of developing the international book of business and is mostly involved on the Greek market, where over the years, she built trusted and long lasting relationships with the most prominent Greek ship-owners. In the same time, Mireille is developing partnerships with the French, Greek and Scandinavian Marine Insurance Market, while also being accredited Lloyd’s Broker giving her a global overview of the insurance market and of the shipping industry.

CEO of LNG PRO Bunkers Holdings and the architect of the probunkers project. Prior to founding probunkers, he served Mamidakis Brothers Group as a senior executive, leading all of the Group’s Shipping, Bunkering and Aviation activities, through its respective companies: JetOil, JetTank and STYGA Compania Naviera. Mr. Prokopakis has over 20 years of professional experience in commercial leadership positions, over which he has attained deep knowledge and expertise mainly in the industry of shipping and bunkering. He is a Graduate of St. John’s University with an MBA in Executive Management and holds a BSc Degree in Business Management from the State University of New York.

Gust is a seasoned International maritime- and ship finance professional. He has had an
international career in the field spanning over 3 decades in both commercial- and risk
management roles, based in the Netherlands, Greece and Hongkong. As from 2008, Gust served as Global Head and Managing Director Transportation Clients for ABN AMRO bank, one of the leading ship finance franchises in international banking.

Gust left banking in 2018 to focus on developing financing solutions and new business models
for investing in clean / alternative fuel propulsion, a.o. benefitting from his experience from
his involvement with the Sustainable Shipping Initiative, the Climate Bond Initiative, and
several other “green” projects and initiatives.

Gust is based in Rotterdam and holds a Master’s degree in Business and Economics from
Erasmus University in Rotterdam (1989), completed an executive MBA at CEDEP in
Fontainebleau, France (2007) and graduated from INSEAD’s International Directors
Programme in September 2019.

Maarten is a financial expert with a solid background as a graduate economist and is a qualified registered accountant. He finished his MBA Executive Program at Harvard Business School while working at Rederij Spliethoff where he was responsible for corporate finance

Andrew Wilson is the Head of Energy Research at Barry Rogliano Salles (BRS) shipbroker in Paris, France. Although he coordinates the company’s research across the whole energy spectrum, his specialties are oil and tanker markets. He is the editor of Alphatanker, a suite of weekly and monthly publications jointly produced by BRS and AXSMarine. Before joining BRS in 2016, Andrew was a Senior Oil Market Analyst at the International Energy Agency. There he was co-author of the Agency’s benchmark Monthly and Medium-Term Oil Market Reports. During this time he was responsible for the prices, crude trade and oil inventories analysis in these reports while also being the IEA’s expert on tanker markets, midstream infrastructure developments and bunker fuels with a particular interest in the Former Soviet Union. Andrew began his career in 2005 as an analyst at BP. He is regularly quoted on newswires and in international trade publications and is a regular speaker on oil and tanker markets at international conferences. He holds a doctorate from the University of Exeter, UK.