InterManager Bids Farewell to Roberto Giorgi

InterManager members attending this year's Annual General Meeting have praised the tireless work and industry-wide campaigning carried out by Roberto Giorgi during his two-year tenure as President.

During his Presidency Mr Giorgi has worked tirelessly to raise the profile of shipping and develop a greater understanding of the ship management industry and to campaign for better treatment for seafarers. In particular he led an industry-wide crusade against the criminalisation of the Master and Chief Officer of the Hebei Spirit. The global support he gathered was instrumental in obtaining better treatment for the two Indian seafarers while they were incarcerated in Korea and then to achieving their release, although Mr Giorgi still remains strongly opposed to their unfair criminal convictions.

In addition Mr Giorgi has been an outspoken opponent of the scourge of piracy and recently attended the high-profile launch of the End Piracy pan-industry campaign on behalf of InterManager. He joined other industry leaders to present a petition to IMO Secretary-General Efthimios E. Mitropoulos calling for co ordinated international action to tackle global piracy.

Roberto Giorgi has spoken out on the world-wide problems of the recruitment and retention of seafarers and has called for greater training initiatives and more cadet berths onboard ships. He is also fully supportive of InterManager's Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Project and is pleased that the association will be announcing significant developments at its AGM.

Thanking Mr Giorgi for his dedicated work, InterManager Secretary General Captain Kuba Szymanski said: "The appointment of Roberto Giorgi was a significant and positive move in the growth of InterManager and we are delighted that he has been able to steer us to new growth and greater international prominence."

Mr Giorgi steps down from the role (all InterManager Presidents serve for two years) at Monday's AGM in Dubai, UAE. He returns full-time to his role as President of V.Ships, the world's largest ship manager.

Roberto Giorgi said: "I have thoroughly enjoyed representing InterManager on the international stage and have worked hard to ensure that the views of in-house and third party ship managers are represented throughout the global shipping industry. And as a former seafarer myself I am pleased to have been able to be instrumental in furthering the cause of seafarers worldwide and to campaign for greater training opportunities and better treatment for them."