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WESTON, Conn. – Oct. 19, 2022 – The prestigious SHIPPINGInsight Innovation Award for 2022 was presented on Thursday, Oct. 13 to Secro, the platform for frictionless digitization of cross-border trade documents, at the 11^th SHIPPINGInsight Fleet Optimization & Innovation Conference at the conclusion of SHIPPINGInsight's SHARK TANK. The award is presented annually to honor a solution provider for the successful development and implementation of an innovative initiative that advances the state of the art in ship and fleet optimization goals.  The winner is chosen by the “Sharks” through their “investment” in the various technologies presented in the SHARK TANK

SECEO is a software solution enabling collaboration between traders, ship owners and lenders. Customers can use Secro proprietary technology to digitize their paper-based documents, such as bill of ladings, securely share them instantaneously and improve their working capital cycle.

” We are very honored by the award, and it has been exciting to receive it in front of an audience of maritime companies so much aware of nowadays’ digitization imperatives. We built our product explicitly to address their upcoming needs, in a scenario where the adoption of e-bill of lading is predicted to increase from 1% to 50% by 2030”

“SHIPPINGInsight is proud to attract innovative products and services to its SHARK TANK every year from around the world,” stated Carleen Lyden Walker, Chief Evolution Officer for the company.  “It is exciting to be able to recognize tomorrow’s solutions today through our SHIPPINGInsight Innovation Award.  Many of our contestants go on to be picked up by investors and maritime interests, but only one is recognized with our award.”

This year’s judges (“Sharks”) included Marina Hadjipateras of TMV, Jack Noonan of Binnacle Maritime LLC, Hudson Structured’s Ravi Singh, Jess Hurwitz of dx9 Global, James Thomas from Thomas Maritime, and CIT’s Mickey Belgrod. The SHIPPINGInsight 2022 Innovation Award was presented by Dan Holmes, Business Development Manager, North America of Bureau Veritas.

About SHIPPINGInsight

Originally established in 2012, SHIPPINGInsight has grown steadily each year. Focusing on fleet optimization and innovation, the event provides a forum for shipowners and solution providers to exchange ideas and discuss challenges in facing the transformation of the industry. The 2022 event took place Oct. 11-13 and can be accessed by clicking SHIPPINGInsight 2022.

About Secro

Secro is a US-based technology startup founded in 2021, privately owned and independent. Our team includes industry veterans, former Amazon, AWS, Maersk and MSC executives as well as serial entrepreneurs. Our vision is to deliver frictionless global trade through digitization of manual processes, secure collaboration, and access to data-driven trade financing. More information at https://secro.io

October 24, 2022- New York, NY   The North American Marine Environment Protection Association (NAMEPA) announces the launch of a new book educating children on the maritime industry.  “The Little Bulker”, by Katerina Perganti Shaw, will be featured at NAMEPA’s 15^th Anniversary celebration on Thursday, October 27^th aboard the Hornblower Infinity at Pier 40 in New York.  Ms. Shaw has generously donated half the proceeds from the book to NAMEPA to support its educational programs.

“We are honored that Katerina has selected NAMEPA’s 15^th Anniversary event as the platform from which to launch her delightful tale of a dry bulk ship’s birth in a shipyard to her launch and first transit” said NAMEPA Chairman, Joe Hughes.  “In the process, the young reader learns many of the features of commercial shipping and its value proposition to global society.”

“The Little Bulker” chronicles the construction of the M/V Athena in Japan, accompanied by details on what a dry bulk ship carries, the components of a vessel, its size, and its launch.  Further, it is an “eco” ship, which is a critical feature in the effort to reduce maritime’s impact on the environment.  There is also a QR code for readers to follow the voyages of Athena, which is trading today.

“There are children’s books about trains, and even tugs, but not about the workhorses of global trade,” said Ms. Shaw when asked why she wrote “The Little Bulker”.  “It was my privilege to follow the progress of the M/V Athena as she was being built, so it felt like a personal tribute to the vessel and to honor the maritime industry.”

Born in Greece, Katerina Perganti Shaw is a maritime and real estate attorney admitted to the bars of New York and Athens.  With three children of her own, she recognized the need to communicate an appreciation for the maritime industry at an early age, resulting in “The Little Bulker”.  Ms. Shaw suggested that readers follow the voyages of the M/V Athena to learn about geography, global trade, potential jobs and more.

To order copies of the book, go to The Little Bulker.

The North American Marine Environment Protection Association (NAMEPA) is a marine industry-led organization of environmental stewards preserving the marine environment by promoting sustainable marine industry best practices and educating seafarers, students and the public about the need and strategies for protecting global ocean, lake and river resources. Visit us at: www.namepa.net 

28 October 2022

WISTA International (Women's International Shipping and Trading Association) and the researchers from the Espirito Santo Federal University in Brazil (UFES) ran a survey focused on the impact of the COVID pandemic on women in maritime based on work, family and community life of WISTA members. According to the findings, 61.51% of the participants feel that women showed leadership during the pandemic crisis at work or in their communities. A further key finding was that for the majority of the group (54.81%), domestic activities increased after the start of the pandemic.

Participants' characteristics in numbers:

239 participants worldwide
The average age of respondents is 44
Industry experience, on average, 18 years
9 races/ethnic groups

The survey, conducted by Priscilla de Oliveira Martins and Alexandro De Andrade from the UFES, was completed by 239 participants from around the world, including Europe (128), North America (43), South America (25), Asia (22), Central America (9), Oceania (9) and Africa (3). The majority of respondents are from the USA (43), followed by Greece (33), Norway (25), France (19), Netherlands (18), Sweden (11), Australia (9) and others (81).

Psychosocial indicators analysis considered by researchers in the survey were:

work-family conflict, life satisfaction, work engagement, psychological capital and community engagement.

The research showed that most of the respondents, 61.51%, feel that women exhibited leadership at work or in their communities during the pandemic crisis. Also, for the majority of participants (54.81%) in the group, domestic activities increased after the start of the COVID pandemic, with a family member or a part-time person hired to do the household activities. On the other hand, 42.68% said they had experienced no change and only 2.51% felt that domestic activities had decreased.

Participants ranged from 23 to 68 years old, with an average age being 44. The race or ethnic groups represented were: White (171), Latino (27), Asian (19), Black (7), African (2), Mixed (6), Greek (1), Indian (2), Turkish (1). Years worked in the maritime range between 1 to 50 years, with an average of 18 years of experience in the industry. 

Working remotely with the same salary but more hours

Regarding work during the pandemic period, most survey respondents migrated to remote work with the same salary and saw no increase in responsibility. However, there was an increase in the number of working hours. Most respondents have returned to face-to-face work, but a considerable number are in hybrid work or home office.

Additionally, an interesting finding is that work-family conflict is negatively associated with flexible work culture, life satisfaction and enhanced work in the family:

Psychological capital and enhancement work in the family predict work engagement.
Enhancement of family in work predicts work disengagement.
Flexible work culture predicts life satisfaction.

The respondents generally have a good education, at a master's degree level, earn between 30,000 and 100,000 EUR and are in a mid-level position. In addition, most are married, have children over the age of 10 and are breadwinners in the family.

Psychological capital is a set of resources that help a person succeed and perform at their best at work. It includes four resources: self–efficacy, optimism, hope and resilience.

Volunteer work culture, predicted by psychological capital and flexible work

Other conclusions regarding relationships between indicators show that psychological capital and flexible work culture predict volunteer work culture. Examples of answers on volunteer work include: delivering medicines to older adults who needed to stay in their houses before having the possibility of being vaccinated, volunteering with a community philanthropic group where they assisted with crisis work, donating to different fundraisers and NGO's or just staying home, minimising contact points and got vaccinated.  

Despina Panayiotou Theodosiou, President of WISTA International, states:

"The COVID pandemic was an important and unprecedented event we all experienced across the globe. Understanding the impact it had on women working in the maritime sector was essential for WISTA International, especially as this was the first time there was any research on this from our perspective. I am very grateful for all the work done by the great researchers from the Espirito Santo Federal University in Brazil. The findings are significant and help us better understand the impact on women's well-being, particularly women in maritime, during the crisis."

WISTA International held the Annual General Meeting (AGM), which took place on 26 October in Geneva, Switzerland, and it announced its Corporate Diversity Award winner, which this year is the Grieg Maritime Group.

WISTA International’s Corporate Diversity Award recognizes companies and organizations making significant strides in incorporating diversity throughout their business and are recognized for their contributions and commitment to improving practices and making working environments more inclusive.

Eight companies and organizations were nominated for the Corporate Diversity Award 2022:

• SPI Astilleros (nominated by WISTA Argentina)
• Log-In Logística Intermodal (nominated by WISTA Brazil)
• APL Logistics Chile S.A (nominated by WISTA Chile)
• Grupo Puerto de Cartagena (nominated by WISTA Colombia)
• Maritime NZ (nominated by WISTA New Zealand)
• Grieg Maritime GroupGroup (nominated by WISTA Norway)
• Arkas Denizcilik ve Nakliuat A.S. (nominated by WISTA Turkey)
• Crowley Corporation (nominated by WISTA USA)

Matt Duke, Chief Executive Officer of Grieg Maritime Group declared: “It is humbling to get this kind of recognition. We know we still have a lot more work to do regarding diversity and inclusion. We strive to be better, not to fulfil some KPI or tick a box in the ESG reporting, but because we want the best people to work for us. With that mindset, it would be counter-productive to exclude half the talent pool. Gender equity, as diversity in general, is about having the best team. We are very grateful for all the women and men in our organisation, and together we shall continue to develop our business and drive forwards maritime solutions for a better future.

For us in Grieg Maritime Group, we have strong owners and a board who also passionately believe in the competitive edge that true diversity brings. This means we can lead and commit to concrete targets with their full support. We are immensely proud that the previous Chair of the board, Elisabeth Grieg, was the first woman president of the Norwegian Ship Owners Association. Likewise, Camilla Grieg was the first female president of the Bergen Ship Owners Association. Their personal achievements and commitments to our industry and the wider world inspire us in our work.”

Stine Mundal, President of WISTA Norway: “WISTA Norway is proud that our nominee Grieg Maritime Group is the recipient of the WISTA International Diversity award 2022. Grieg Maritime Group has, over several years, been putting diversity at the top of their agenda into their strategy and today have a structured way of working towards their goals with actions. They publicly reveal their numbers on gender diversity in their annual report and are not afraid to be transparent with their numbers and make bold commitments and goals.

Over the years, they have had executive leaders and chairs of their boards with a visible voice, not only within the maritime industry but within the complete Norwegian business space on the topic of diversity.

Grieg has for many years contributed with mentors to our ‘Maritime meet up’ mentor program in WISTA Norway and when WISTA Norway launched the “40 by 30” pledge earlier this year, Grieg Maritime was one of the first companies that took the challenge and signed the pledge.”

Despina Panayiotou Theodosiou, President of WISTA International added “The Corporate Diversity Award is very important to WISTA International as it embodies our core values. The organisations that receive this award are a bright example of what we, as WISTA, would like to see be the norm in our industry. Grieg Maritime Group has embraced diversity at its heart and has integrated it as part of its culture. We congratulate Grieg Maritime Group!”