The judges for The Sustainable Shipping Awards 2009 are: Niels Bjørn L. Mortensen, Head of Marine, BIMCO; John Vidal, Environmental Editor, Guardian Newspaper; Vaughan Pomeroy, Technical Director, Lloyd's Registe; Jan Otto de Kat, Head of Innovation, A.P. Moller-Maersk; Natalie Bruckner-Menchelli, Senior Editor, Sustainable Shipping; Dr Simon Walmsley, Head of Marine, WWF UK.
Neils is the Head of the Marine Department, BIMCO. His
seagoing career spanned from 1971 to 1983, mostly in General Cargo, Containers and Bulk, and included several trips to Greenland and to the Antarctic. He gained a Master’s certificate in 1979.
He commenced studies at Denmark’s Technical University in 1983, graduating as Naval Architect in 1987. From 1987 to 1996 he worked in the Basic Design Department of Burmeister & Wain Shipyard and became head of department in 1994. During that time a large number of tankers, OBOs and bulk carriers were designed and built at the yard. Since 1996 he has been employed by BIMCO as technical consultant and from 2002 as Head of the Marine Department.
BIMCO was founded in Copenhagen in 1905 and its 950 shipowner members control 620 mill. DWT, equivalent to approximately 65% of the world’s ocean going merchant fleet. BIMCO is an accredited NGO at IMO and the Marine Department attends most of the meetings relating to Safety and Environmental Protection.
John Vidal is the Guardian's environment editor. He joined the paper in 1995 after working for Agence France Presse, North Wales Newspapers and the Cumberland News. He is the author of McLibel: Burger Culture on Trial (1998) and has contributed chapters to books on topics such as the Gulf war, new Europe and development. In 2008 John brought the debate on shipping emissions into the mainstream media with the front page publication of the article 'True scale of CO2 emissions from shipping revealed'
Vaughan Pomeroy is Technical Director of Lloyd’s Register, responsible for External Affairs, Technical Policy and Strategic Research. He joined Lloyd’s Register in 1980 after working in the aircraft industry and with mechanical and electrical engineering consultants, initially to work on engineering research and specialist projects. He has held management positions within Lloyd’s Register since 1987, successively responsible for marine machinery, pressure equipment and, from 1992 on appointment as Deputy Chief Engineer Surveyor, all HQ engineering activities. After a short spell managing the marine consultancy business he took over responsibility for the marine research and development programme and the global naval business development of Lloyd’s Register. He is a Chartered Engineer, a Vice President and Fellow of the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology, a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects and a graduate of the University of Cambridge.
Jan de Kat has been working as Senior Director in the Technical Organisation of A.P. Moller-Maersk in Copenhagen since January 2007 and he is Head of the Innovation department. This department is responsible for initiating and coordinating new technology developments related to the APMM shipping entities (with focus on container vessels, tankers and supply vessels). Innovation areas include energy efficient design and operation, environment and safety.
From 1989 through 2006 he worked at the Maritime Research Institute Netherlands, Wageningen; since 2000 he was responsible as R&D manager for MARIN’s longer term research projects covering ship resistance and propulsion, manoeuvring, seakeeping and offshore structures. In the early 1980s he worked for three years as research engineer at Det Norske Veritas in Oslo.
Currently he is chairman of the International Standing Committee of the International Conference on Stability of Ships and Ocean Vehicles (STAB). Other positions held include: chairman of the Cooperative Research Ships (CRS) forum, chairman of the Cooperative Research Navies Dynamic Stability Project (CRNAV), and chairman of the IMO Working Group on Revision of the 1966 International Load Line Convention.
He received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in naval architecture and ocean engineering from the University of California at Berkeley with specialization in ship hydrodynamics and dynamic stability in waves, and his B.Eng. degree from the University of New South Wales, Sydney.
Natalie Bruckner-Menchelli is Senior Editor for SustainableShipping.com. She has worked as a News Editor, Features Editor, reporter, and freelance journalist in print, broadcast, and online media for over 12 years for organisations including The British Broadcasting Corporation and Newsquest Media Group. Throughout her international career, she has been based at a number of offices, including the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, the US, and now Canada.
With a keen interest in environmental issues, and academic experience in coastal management and alternative energy, she began specialising in environmental journalism in 2003. In 2007 she gained industry recognition for her reporting on the environment when she won Environmental Journalist of the Year, 2007 at the EDF Energy Media Awards.
Natalie has also been awarded Feature Writer of the Year three times by EDF Energy and BT Media Awards. Having joined Sustainable Shipping in May 2008, Natalie is responsible for ensuring that the editorial content of Sustainable Shipping continues to drive the agenda of shipping and the environment and provides readers with information that empowers them to make critical decisions in today’s challenging climate.
Dr Walmsley's area of expertise and responsibility at WWF cover shipping, oil tankers, marine legislation and bio-diversity. He graduated in 1988 with a degree in Environmental Biology specialising in salt marsh ecology/biomonitoring and microbial ecology before going on to do a Phd at Hull University in Marine Biomonitoring and Ecotoxicology, looking at biomonitoring tools such as indicator species and the genetics of pollutant tolerant populations. Simon has also carried out research followed with the British Antarctic Survey and at the Institute of Coastal and Estuarine Studies and worked as a Health and Safety consultant specialising in hazardous chemical assessments, before joining WWF in 1999.
