Speakers 2012

Carla AGUIRRE

Carla Aguirre is the Head of Business Intelligence at VisitSweden, the Swedish National Tourism Organisation (NTO) responsible for the promotion of Sweden as a business and leisure travel destination. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration / Tourism Management from Mid University in Östersund, Sweden. Carla’s research role covers strategy, market and business intelligence, providing support to management for both short- and long-term decisions and disseminating findings both internally and to external partners.
Before VisitSweden, she held a position with the Swedish Tourism Authority (Governmental Tourism Organisation) within research and Meetings Industry and has as well previous experience of nearly 10 years within the Incoming Tourism sector to Scandinavia.
Carla has also been responsible for strategic and tactical work on Climate Change and Sustainability issues during the last four years at VisitSweden.  In addition, she has led on Climate Change issues within the European Travel Commission, where she is an active member of the Market Intelligence Committee and represents Sweden at General Meetings with ETC’s other 33 member countries.

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Dago ANTOV

(dago.antov@connectbaltica.org)
Dago Antov has been born in 1956 and has a MSc in Geo-Informatics and Cartography from Tartu University and DI in civil engineer-road engineering from Tallinn University of Technology. Currently Prof. Antov is Chair of Transportational Logistics at Faculty of Civil Engineering within the Department of Transportation at Tallinn University of Technology. Moreover he works for consulting company Stratum, which is a spin-off of Tallinn University of Technology.

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Jon BOYCE

(seahighways@talktalk.net)
Jon is a qualified naval architect, graduating in 1978 from London University. Following a spell with P&O in London, Jon developed a strong interest in ro-ro design and operation. This became even more focussed when he subsequently lived in Scandinavia, working for several ro-ro operators. Since 1989, his own consultancy company has specialised in the ro-ro sector. Based in London, Sea Highways has been responsible for the design of a number of short sea ro-ro vessels and the study of new routes amd Motorways of the Sea projects.

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Klas BROGREN

Klas Brogren is first and foremost dedicated to passenger shipping as a lifelong hobby.  Not really discovering the border line of a hobby, it became his profession when, in 1977, his first assignment was a project with Tor Line in Gothenburg. That was followed five years later with shipbroking in Stockholm where he was active in S&P and chartering, specialising in passenger shipping. In 1981, Klas returned to his hometown of Halmstad to become a partner in Marine Trading which for many years held the management contract for Prince of Fundy Cruises as well as Scarlett Line. As the need of market information expanded, Klas developed this in his own company Plus 2 Ferryconsultation AB, which later registered ShipPax Information as its marketing name. Apart from the publications, CRUISE & FERRY Info, GUIDE, DESIGNS, MARKET and ShipPax Database, the company is also offering tailor-made consulting or evaluations, and is a co-founder and organizer of the spring-time Ferry Shipping Conference.

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Erik CHILÒ

Erik Chilò is Regional Manager North Europe at Cavotec SA.
His background experience include automation and robotics, telecommunications, intermodal transport and bulk handling.
He works today at Cavotec with focus on airports, ports and maritime terminals, mining and tunneling equipment and general industrial automation.
Mr. Chilò has in the last 7 years been deeply involved in the shore connection implementation in different ports in North Sea and Baltic Sea.
He holds a MSc in Industrial Engineering from Linköping Institute of Technology.

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Johanna DANIELSSON

Johanna Danielsson is COO at Kairos Future, an international research and consulting firm that helps companies understand and shape their futures. Her competence is based on many years of research- and consulting experience for the international tourism industry. Johanna is a member of the World Tourism Organizations (UNWTO) Panel of Tourism Experts and of the European research network Tourist Research Center (TRC). She is also a certified management consultant (CMC).

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Magnus EHRENBERG

Managing Director
•  Born 1964 in Malmö, Sweden
•  Undergraduate studies in Political Science at Lund University
•  During the period 1984 – 1987 Magnus Ehrenberg was Press Secretary to the Mayor of Malmö, and member of the Malmö City Council until 1988.
•  In 1989 he left Malmö to take up the position of Campaign Manager for the local CDU organisation in Hamburg.
•  In 1990 he left active politics and took up the position of Deputy Managing Director of the Swedish-German shipping company Euroway, which operated cruise services between Malmö and Lübeck.
•  At the end of 1992 Magnus Ehrenberg decided to start his own PR agency in Hamburg. Later the business moved to Lübeck.
•  EHRENBERG Kommunikation has offices in Lübeck, Malmö and Copenhagen and several Partner agencies in Europe and South Africa.

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William GIBBONS

(w.gibbons@psa-ace.org)
Williams Gibbons has been director of the Passenger Shipping Association (PSA) since April 1994. Since that time he has worked to actively promote the UK cruising industry to UK holidaymakers and the travel trade, through the PSA’s Association of Cruise Experts (ACE) and the Discover Cruises PR Campaign. Since 2003 the PSA has been coordinating further PR activity, to promote travel by ferry. The PSA is the trade association for both cruise and ferry companies based in the UK. Currently the PSA has 37 (amounting to 43 brands) Cruise, 13 Ferry and 86 Associate Members (the associate scheme being launched in 2004). In 2004 Bill was very involved in setting up the European Cruise Council (ECC). He is currently Marketing Director of the ECC. In 2009 the PSA took on the administration of cruiseBritain with the aim to reinvigorate Britain as an exciting cruise destination. From 1990 to 1994 William was an independent management consultant, working particularly in the ferry industry, whilst also studying for an MBA degree. William previously held the post of general manager of Sealink Isle of Wight ferries, prior to which he was the service manager and then ferry line manager for the Harwich Hook of Holland ferry route. William was previously assistant shipping and port manager for the Port of Harwich and worked on the Channel Island services from Portsmouth. William has two children and lives in London and Dorset. He is also a Justice of the Peace (J.P) in central London.

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Niels HOFF

Project Manager Commercial Areas Scandlines A/S
Responsible for commercial activities at Scandlines routes between Denmark and Germany, including the commercial tire of the 2 new ferries being built at the P & S Werft in Stralsund. This also applies to activities of a commercial nature in port areas and the activities to be initiated in connection with the launching of these 2 new vessels on the route Rostock-Gedser in the spring of 2012.
Earlier in his career, I have been responsible for all catering activities at all Scandlines Ferries.
Represents Scandlines in ECSA since 2010, and during this period worked actively on particular VAT and excise duties
Graduated in Business Administration, marketing, business management and educated as an executive coach training.
Age 45 years, has a wife and 2 children and is very active cycling motionist.

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Simon JOHNSON

(simon.johnson@poferries.com)
Simons’ career has covered operational, sales and marketing roles inside and outside the travel industry.
Outside of travel, he has been the Commercial Director of the London Chamber of Commerce which lobbied and promoted London business.
In 2010, Simon was appointed as the Passenger Services Director for P&O Ferries and is responsible for onboard services, marketing and revenue management. Not adverse to overseeing change within the industry, he was one of the team who implemented a Fundamental Business Review of the business, which helped to turn round P&O’s fortunes in 2005.  He led the introduction of a low-cost pricing model which has helped to boost web bookings to 70% of total bookings and has delivered award winning advertising campaigns for the company.  
He oversaw the design and implementation of the customer delivery on the Spirit of Britain, launched in January 2011. He is preparing for the launch of the second ship, the Spirit of France, which will enter service in September 2011. He is now focusing on devising and implementing the onboard offer across the fleet of 22 vessels, which will appeal to the customer segments and help drive the commercial result.
He will become President of the Passenger Shipping Association Board in 2012 and is a Board member of the Institute of Travel and Tourism.

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Paavo KOJONEN

Paavo Kojonen works as a Products and solutions manager for ABB Marine Advisory Systems. Mr. Kojonen has a master mariner degree (Captain), with a history working onboard tankers from 1998 to 2004. From 2005 he has  been mainly focusing on fuel and energy monitoring and efficiency solutions for marine industry.

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Ronny KRISTIANSEN

Technical Director,Fiskerstrand BLRT AS
Graduated from Oslo College University in 1998,studiesof mechanicalengineeringwithspecialization inoilandgas technology.Post-graduate thesis in collaboration with Kvaerner Engineering.Basic leadership education from the Norwegian Armed Forces.
Started in the ship building industry as a welder, later as an engineer aspirant at the piping department of FiskerstrandVerft AS.Started at the technical department as project engineer in 1999and have participated in totally 25 new building projects, resent years as project manager.
Current position from 2010 as Technical Director for Fiskerstrand BLRT AS.

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Pim de LANGE

Pim de Lange (65) is Area Director North Sea of Stena Line with over 45 years experience in the shipping industry. From 1965 till 1988 he worked in the following positions: As a Marine Engineer on deepsea going vessels from the Dutch company Van Nievelt, Goudriaan & Co.  Shipmanager at the repair yard Niehuis & v/d Berg in Rotterdam and to superintendent at the ferry company SMZ in Hoek van Holland. Since 1989 he has held a number of senior management positions at Stena Line and was appointed Managing Director of Stena Line BV in 1996 and Area Director North Sea in 2000. Over the years he has expanded the Stena Line activities on the North Sea in an extremely competitive market.

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Pierre MATTEI

Was born in 1964. He holds a Masters Degree in  Econometrics  from the University of Aix-Marseille . After graduation from the ESSEC Business School (Paris) he joined Corsica-Sardinia Ferries, first as a Management Controller and then as a Financial Manager. Since 1993, he is the General Manager of Corsica-Sardinia Ferries.  Corsica Ferries is today the leading ferry operator on the routes linking the French mainland with  Corsica – French island - and on  Italy-Corsica routes. Sardinia Ferries is one of the leading private company operating vessels on  Italy-Sardinia routes. The company deploys a total of  13 ships. Pierre Mattei lives in Bastia (Corsica).

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Michael MCGRATH

Michael Mc Grath is a truly international ferry man. Born in the USA, travelled around Europe,  studied at Business School of Economics in Göteborg and is now responsible for Stena Lines Irish Sea operation with his base in Belfast.
After graduation Michael held several commercial and general management positions at TNT Express Worldwide in the transport and logistics industry. He started in the Stena Line Freight organization with business development and later he took up the responsibility as Freight Director. In 2006 he moved to Belfast to be Area Director, Irish Sea with the responsibility for all operations on the Irish Sea. Michael has driven the development of the changes on Irish Sea including the acquisition of two new routes, introducing two new ferries and the creation of a new port and terminal in Scotland.

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Hugo MODDERMAN

As a Swiss university educated economist Hugo, born in the Netherlands, started financing industrial and real estate projects in Dubai in the very early years of development of the U.A.E. in a bank called Oryx Investments, the first merchant bank in the Moiddle East. It was here that he also financed his first ship, the cruiseship “Bon Vivant” for Chandris Cruises. Hugo got his real training in ship finance at Den norske Creditbank, where he was responsible for Continental Shipping from 1983-1988. In 1988 Hugo did a buy-out of the Rotterdam office of DnC and continued under the name Dolfinance, which is still his specialized finance company, now based in Monaco. Whereas Dolfinance is an independent company, it has been working almost exclusively for DVB Bank, the Frankfurt and Rotterdam based specialized transport bank. Since the sectorisation was introduced in DVB Hugo was able to enhance his knowledge of the cruise and ferry market and to develop DVB’s market position therein, providing credit, advice on Mergers and acquisitions and other financial products to the cruise and ferry world. DVB’s cruise and ferry book at present totals over USD 1 bn, i.e. some 7% of the overall shipping portfolio of DVB.

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Henning MOHN

Henning Mohn, Business Development Leader in DNV Maritime Advisory, promotes DNV’s advisory services within energy efficiency and operations. He has for several years been engaged in ship owners’ responses to new environmental regulations and assessments for choosing the right emission strategies.
His recent focus has been on emission abatement measures and documentation of such, and has closely followed the ongoing NOx-reducing campaign in Norway. The use of LNG as fuel is high on his agenda.
From previous employer (Scanship AS) he practical work experience from both new-build and retrofit installations, including installation management, commissioning, training, sales, service and support. Prior to this he focused on water purification and analyses (Norwegian Institute for Water Research, and Eurofins, respectively).
He holds an MSc in Environmental Engineering from University of Washington (1995), and an MSc in Civil Engineering from The Norwegian Institute of Technology (1993). Henning is based at DNV in Oslo.

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Enn PANT

Date of birth:
26.06.1965

Education:
1990    University of Tartu (Estonia), Faculty of Finance Master of Economics
1992    Methodist University (Texas, US), Banking Development Program

Working experience:    
1990 – 1992    Estonian Savings Bank Director of Branch Office
1992 – 1993    Union Baltic Bank Vice President
1993 – 1996    Estonian Ministry of Finance Secretary General
Since 1996    AS Tallink Grupp Chairman of the Management Board

Language skills:    
Estonian; English, Russian, Finnish

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Juhan PARTS

Date and place of birth:
27. August 1966, Tallinn, Estonia

Children:
3 sons and a daughter

Party affiliation:
2002 Pro Patria and Res Publica Union (Isamaa ja Res Publica Liit)

Education:
1991 University of Tartu, law
Employment:
Since 2007 Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications
2003, 2005 - 2007 X Riigikogu
2003 - 2005 Prime Minister
1998 - 2002 Auditor General
1992 - 1998 Ministry of Justice, Deputy Secretary General

Membership in representative bodies:
2003, 2005 X Riigikogu

Languages:
English and Russian

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Bruce PETER

(b.peter@gsa.ac.uk)
Bruce Peter is Reader in Design History and Theory at The Glasgow School of Art. Being half-Danish and half-Scottish, he has been travelling on passenger ships since childhood and has since made modern ship design his long-term research interest. His mission is to document the substantial but often hidden contributions made by modern ships to our experience of the contemporary world of mass production, mass distribution, mass consumerism and leisure.  He has published several substantial books on cruise and ferry design and he contributes regularly to ShipPax publications. His most recent publication ‘Dansk Linjefart’ (Nautilus Forlag, 2011), however, focuses mainly on container shipping. A graduate of the Glasgow School of Art, The Royal College of Art and the University of Glasgow, his PhD examined modern architecture and design in leisure environments. He is also a keen maritime photographer and collector of Scandinavian contemporary art and furniture.

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Roman POERSCH

Born on 22nd April 1972 in the South of Hamburg, Roman Poersch holds a master degree (Diploma) in Economics from the University of Hamburg. He also studied at the Universities of Amsterdam Singapore. Additionally, Mr. Poersch holds a bachelor degree in Geophysics from the University of Hamburg.
Before becoming managing director/ owner of Wilhelm Borchert GmbH, Mr. Poersch worked as senior advisor and member of the management team for the strategic transport consulting company BMT Transport Solutions (2003-2010). Previously, he gained professional experiences throughout the freight forwarding and warehousing industry.
Since early 2000 Mr. Poerschhas been engaged in a number of advisory jobs in transport and logistics. As senior consultant he was responsible for market and business development studies, forecasts, risk assessments, SWOT and other analyses. He gained substantial experiences in project management and (public) finance/ investment support for the transport industry.
Mr. Poersch hasmainly been engaged in Europe; projects also covered the Middle East, China, Southeast Asia, and the US. Amongst his clients have been port authorities, terminal operators, shipping lines,land transport companies, shippers and governmental bodies as well as equity firms.

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Anders REFSGAARD

Vice President, DFDS A/S
After graduating from business school, Anders Refsgaard commenced his career in shipping back in 1990 as trainee at DFDS Liner Agency in Aarhus. DFDS entered the Eastern European market in 1994, and the following year Anders was posted in Klaipeda as Line Manager for the route between Klaipeda and Fredericia/Copenhagen.
In 1997 he joined Scandlines as Business Development Manager and was responsible for the sale of the many vessels made redundant in connection with the opening of new bridges and Scandlines’ new building programme. Within a period of four years, he managed to sell all of the redundant vessels – more than 35 units. At the same time, he was engaged in various ad hoc projects, including closing down the Flying Boats operation between Copenhagen and Malmø.
In 2003 Anders returned to DFDS as Area Manager for commercial operations between Klaipeda and Kiel/Fredericia. In 2006 he was promoted to CEO for the stock listed subsidiary AB DFDS Lisco in Lithuania and was once again posted in Klaipeda. During his stay there he streamlined the company by selling bulk activities and reorganising the organisation.
In 2009 he returned to the headquarters as Deputy Director and coordinator for the Baltic area. In 2010 when the organization was restructured and DFDS Group acquired Norfolk Line, Anders was promoted to Vice President and is currently responsible for the entire Baltic region.

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Johan ROOS

(johan.roos@interferry.com)
Johan Roos is the Executive Director of INTERFERRY’s European Office. Johan represents the ferry industry both in Brussels and with the IMO in London. He is on secondment from Stena Rederi in Gothenburg, where he used to be the Director of Sustainability. Johan holds a Masters Degree in Environmental Sciences from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He has a wide network in the shipping community, having been an active

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Carsten SCHRØTER

After a carrier as ship officer in the merchant navy Carsten Schrøter graduated as Naval Architect in 1991 and has ever since worked with safety related subjects for ship owners.  First as consultancy at the Danish towing tank where he, as technical manager, was specialized in stability including damage stability model test of Ro-PAX and training of ship crew in crises management. He was also deeply involved in EU Project HARDER for harmonization of stability regulations with respect to damage stability as input to the SOLAS 2009 probabilistic damage stability regulations. Secondly as flag state Surveyor for new buildings to Danish flag mainly build in Asia. In 2002 he changed to ship operation and became head of DMI Maritime Service offering weather routing worldwide to improve safe and economical ship operation. After six years he returned to technical work as statutory surveyor in Lloyd’s Register EMEA specialized in stability. Today Carsten is employed as specialist in stability for ship designs and conversions as Senior Naval Architect in Knud E. Hansen A/S.

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Simone SKOOG

Simone Skoog will guide you through the online e-commerce opportunities on this summit. After a graduate in Behavioral Sciences and Business she entered the online industry in 2003 and has stayed there since in various positions.
Before joining Criteo she was the Managing Director for AOL Advertising, one of the world’s biggest media companies. After seven years she joined the French company Criteo, to build and manage the Nordic business. Criteo is a company specialized on personalized retargeting and will be a +2 billion dollar business this year.

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Costis STAMBOULELIS

Costis Stamboulelis is Director Operations, New Projects & Development of Attica Group since the company’s foundation in 1991.
He is in passenger shipping, ship design and shipbuilding since 1981, originally with Royal Cruise Line. He was the project manager of the company’s last newbuilding and joined the new company when RCL was sold.
He has been instrumental in the adoption and development of the SUPERFAST FERRIES concept, has headed all SUPERFAST and later also BLUE STAR newbuilding projects and further worked with the same zeal in designing port infrastructure in Greece, Germany, Finland, Sweden and Scotland for efficient operation.
He is a member of the Hellenic Marine Technical Committee of Bureau Veritas and of the Hellenic Technical Committee of Germanischer Lloyd.
He was elected in the Board of Directors of Attica in 1999 and held his post until 2007 when he resigned.
Once dubbed “business engineer”, he studied naval architecture in England (Sunderland Poly) and the USA (University of Michigan) where he obtained his Master’s Degree in 1976.

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Bo-Lennart THORBJÖRNSSON

(blt@boltconsulting.se)
Bo-Lennart is a Senior Ferry Shipping Adviser. After gaining a B. Sc. in Ba and Econ at Lund University in 1972, he joined Lion Ferry, was promoted to Marketing Manager and became later International Passenger Manager for five European routes and markets.
In 1981, he moved to DFDS Helsingborg as Line Manager and became after two years Managing Director of DFDS in Hamburg, Germany. Continuing with DFDS, at HQ Copenhagen, in 1984, he became Group Director and head of  DFDS Seaways’ six European routes. In the year 2000, he was appointed CEO and Managing Director of DFDS Group Executive Board. After many years working away from his family, he decided to leave DFDS and instead work as a Ferry Management Consultant. His company, BOLT CONSULTING was founded in 2002 and has over the years advised many major operators, banks and ports in the European Ferry shipping industry.  Bo-Lennart has also experience as chairman and board member of several European shipping and travel companies. Finally, Bo-Lennart is the co- founder and organiser of the annual “Ferry Shipping Conference” onboard.

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