People, not technology, will lead maritime into the future, top leaders at ISSS agree

People power will drive the maritime industry through the biggest period of change the sector has ever seen, according to industry leaders who came together at the International Shipowning and Shipmanagement Summit (ISSS) held during London International Shipping Week 2025 earler this month.



As usual, the ISSS, which this year took place at the high-tech London headquarters of Inmarsat and Viasat, involved some of the biggest names in shipping, all keen to discuss the future direction of the maritime industry.



The theme of the discussion was ‘Managing the winds of change in global shipping’. Keynote speakers included Bjorn Hojgaard, CEO of Anglo Eastern; Mark O’Neil, President and CEO of Columbia Group; Luis Benito, CCO of Wallem Group; Sebastian Hardenberg, CEO of BSM and President of InterManager; and René Kofod-Olsen, Chief Executive Officer of V.Group.



Mr Hojgaard started by saying: “I have learned one thing over 30 years; ships may be built of steel but seafaring is built on people. The truth is the winds will change – you can’t control the wind but you can control the sails. We don’t fight with the wind, we work with it.”

He added: “Technology will matter but people will matter more. Data doesn’t keep ships sailing, people do.”



Mr O’Neil echoed these statements, saying: “We need to tear up the rule book and create a much more personalised approach. Everyone is in the same boat.”



Mr Benito emphasised the importance of a common direction, saying: “Shipping adapts to change; we are all here because we can adapt together. We all have to adapt to technological change – safety is not negotiable, everything else is secondary.”



Mr Hardenberg talked about the importance of empowering and treating our seafarers with respect, saying: “We are competing with other industries for new seafarers; first we must be there for our seafarers, to protect them from unfair criminalisation, however long it takes.” 



Mr Kofod-Olsen pointed out: “The only constant in shipping is change. The only way to weather the storm is to embrace the change and rethink the way we work. We cannot ‘silo’ the way we work; that has to change. Scale matters now more than it’s ever done, all the complexities need a scalability.”



A further seminar took place during ISSS, titled 'Digitalisation and AI: Is shipping agile enough to embrace the opportunities?' Keynote speeches were delivered by Marco Cristoforo Camporeale, VP Strategy at Inmarsat Maritime, and Thomas Nordberg, Managing Director of The Swedish Club.



Panellists included Kris Vedat, CEO at Smart Sea; Jeremy Daoust, Vice President, Product Incubation at LR OneOcean; Thomas Nordberg; Marco Cristoforo Camporeale; and Joy Basu, Maritime Digital Transformation Specialist at Smart Ship Hub.


The speakers agreed that the issue was far too big for only one party to tackle alone, Mr Nordberg saying: “If we multiply our resilience across the industry, we can jointly collect our intelligence and not rely on fragmented data.”



“We should not fear the storm, but use the wind to steer new courses,” he added.



Delegates also had the chance to participate in two panel discussions. The first was titled 'Is shipping working in tandem to meet the likely challenges over the next five years?'



Moderated by Raal Harris, Vice President of InterManager, participants included John Denholm, Incoming Chairman of the International Chamber of Shipping; Andrew Cutler, Chairman of the International Group of P&I Clubs and CEO of Britannia P&I Club; Tanuj Luthra, COO of Zodiac Maritime; Angelica Kemene, Head of Market, Climate & ESG Strategy of Optima Shipping; and Nicole Brinkley, Global Head of Sales of Martek Marine.



The second panel discussion (pictured) was moderated by Bob Jaques, Editor of Ship Management International, and tackled the subject 'The Crew Conundrum: Investing in the competent crew of the future.'
    


The panellists were Henrik Jensen, CEO and founder of Danica Crewing Services; Pradeep Chawla, CEO and founder of MarinePALS; Alan Croft, Business Development Manager at ISWAN; Marinos Kokkinis, Managing Director of OneCare Group; Ann Pletschke, Director of Trinity Maritime; Bjoern Sprotte, Chief People and Sustainability Officer at BSM; and Jennifer Harrison, Vice President at ABS Training Solutions.