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Displaying items by tag: New Chairman

The trade association representing the worldwide ferry industry, Interferry has announced Brittany Ferries CEO Christophe Mathieu as the new chair of its board of directors.

According to LloydsLoadingList, he was elected at the association’s annual general meeting earlier this week - held virtually due to COVID-19 travel restrictions - in succession to John Steen-Mikkelsen, former CEO of Denmark’s Danske Faerger.

Mathieu, an Interferry board member since 2010, joined the French ferry operator in 1992 and worked in a wide variety of roles - including finance, operations, marketing and strategy - before becoming CEO in 2016.

Interferry paid tribute to Steen-Mikkelsen - currently chairman of Samso-Linien and a former CEO and director in various Scandinavian ferry companies - “for his strategic insight during 12 years as an Interferry board member, which under his leadership included Interferry’s support for members against the devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic.”

The meeting also acknowledged the service of three outgoing board members, including Janette Bell, former CEO of P&O Ferries.

Published in Brittany Ferries

#NewChairman - Belfast Harbour has a new chairman, David Dobbin, who has been on the port's board from 2012, made his first statement since his appointment last month.

Taking the helm of the harbour's new pilot boat, built by local boat builder Red Bay Boats, Dobbin took the opportunity to set out his vision for the business.

"Belfast Harbour is first and foremost a major port which makes a vital contribution to Northern Ireland's economy handling almost three quarters of all of Northern Ireland's sea borne trade. As the incoming Chairman I am committed to ensuring that Belfast continues to be the most modern and efficient port on the island. With over 23 million tonnes of cargo and 1.4 million ferry and cruise ship passengers passing through the Port annually, it is Northern Ireland's primary gateway to rest of the world.

To read more of his statement, click here.

Published in Belfast Lough

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.