Captain Moin Ahmed is the Director General of the

International Mobile Satellite Organization (IMSO). He

holds a Certificate of Competency as Master Mariner

and MSc in Shipping Management (Technical), and

was educated on maritime satellite navigation and

communication systems. In his maritime professional

career of more than 40 years, he spent 10 years at sea

and 30 years in shore establishments with senior

appointments in technical, operational, commercial,

training of maritime personnel, maritime safety

administration and in the UN system as a senior

international civil servant. In the UN system, he served

at the highest professional category at the IMO

Secretariat on Technical Cooperation, Maritime Safety

and Member State Audit. Prior to joining the IMO

Secretariat, he represented Bangladesh to IMO and

several other international meetings, and has

contributed to the promotion of maritime safety and

protection of the marine environment. He brings with

him a wealth of global experience and is known as an

organizational leader in setting standards of

excellence. He demonstrated his leadership role as the

Chairman of the IMO Technical Co-operation

Committee, IMSO Assembly, several international

expert groups, President of the World Maritime

University (WMU) Student Council and also as a

Governor of World Maritime University Board. He had

been a visiting faculty member of the IMO International

Maritime Academy and currently at WMU.

Captain Moin Ahmed

Director General

International Mobile

Satellite Organization,

IMSO

Mr. Edwin Thiedeman was serving as the United

States Coast Guard’s Search and Rescue Satellite

Aided Tracking (SARSAT) Program Specialist at

USCG Headquarters Office. In additional to providing

technical and program management support to the

SARSAT program, Edwin also serves as the Office of

Search and Rescue representative for all search and

rescue systems and advises on the integration of C5I

& IT technology in the search and rescue mission.

Edwin received a bachelor’s degree in Electrical &

Electronics Engineering from the United States Coast

Guard Academy and a master’s degree in Electrical &

Electronics Engineering from Purdue University. As a

commissioned officer, Mr. Thiedeman served at

various Coast Guard field units, the Maintenance and

Logistics Command Atlantic, and at Headquarters

managing, acquiring, and supporting a wide spectrum

of C5I and navigation systems.

Retiring after 27 years of active duty with the Coast

Guard, Edwin became an independent consultant and

support contractor, assisting commercial industry with

Coast Guard acquisition programs and supporting the

U.S. Long Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT)

program. He returned to Coast Guard service as a

civilian in 2013.

Mr. Edwin Thiedeman

SAR System Specialist

United States Coast Guard

Mr. Dikko Tahir Bala was born on the 15th of July,

1960. He was appointed the Nigerian APR to IMO and

the London Representative of Nigerian

Maritime Administration and Safety Agency on 22

November 2015. He chaired the credential committee

of IOPC funds meetings of 25th/ 28th April, 2016,

also chaired the drafting committee to come up with of

Marine litters LC/LP 19th /23rd IMO meeting of

September, 2016.

Before Mr. Bala's appointment, he was the Special

Assistant (Marine Operations, 2011-2015) to the then

Nigeria's Minister of Transportation. He holds MSc in

transportation, MBA in general management, Advance

Diploma in Public Admin, HND in Purchasing and

Supply. He has attended several courses both locally

and internationally to mention a few, e.g. Anatomy of

Shipping in Cambridge, Workshop on Search and

Rescue Operation (IMO/ ICAO) Amsterdam, Offshore

Reception and Oil Spillage Management (Malmo),

Marine Casualty and Incident Investigation (Ghana).

He is happily married with three Children.

Mr. Dikko Tahir Bala

Alternate Permanent

Representative of Nigeria to

IMO

Nigeria High Commission

Dr. Heike Deggim joined the International Maritime

Organization in September 1993, having worked in the

naval shipbuilding industry and later in various

positions in the German Maritime Administration after

graduating from Rostock University in 1983 with a

Masters degree in marine engineering, followed by a

PhD. Having been in charge of IMO’s Sub-Committee

on Flag State Implementation for several years, she

later took over the Sub-Committee on Ship Design and

Equipment, dealing with matters related to ship

structure and design, hull construction, machinery and

electrical installations of all types of ships, vessels and

craft covered by IMO instruments. In 2010 she was

promoted to Head of IMO’s Marine Technology Section

and in 2013 she was appointed as Senior Deputy

Director in IMO’s Marine Environment Division, as well

as being majorly involved with the running of the Marine

Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) and the

Sub-Committee on Pollution Prevention and Response

(PPR). In 2018 she took over the post of Director of the

Maritime Safety Division (MSD) and Secretary of the

Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) with overall

responsibility for the management of the Committee as

well as the three Subdivisions of MSD, dealing with

operational safety and the human element; marine

technology and cargoes; and maritime security and

facilitation.

Dr. Heike Deggim

Director of Maritime Safety

Division

International Maritime

Organization

Captain Esteban Pachá is currently serving as

Transport & Infrastructures Attaché, Spanish Embassy

in London, after having completed 8-years term of

office as Director General of IMSO. Major project

undertaken in this period was the implementation of the

LRIT system. Captain Pacha held various

responsibilities as Harbour Master and Regional

Director of the Ministry for Transport. In 2000 became

Representative of Spain to IMO also serving as

Governor of the World Maritime University. He is

involved in the work of UN bodies, such the Open-

Ended Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law

of the Sea and the Broadband Commission for Digital

Development, a joint initiative by ITU and UNESCO to

step up international efforts to meet the MDGs through

ICT and universal broadband access, including

satellite-based services which are fundamental for safe

and efficient transportation systems. Captain Pacha

holds a PhD, Nautical Science and Engineering, Is

Fellow of the Nautical Institute and the Institute of

Marine Engineering, Science and Technology.

Captain Esteban Pachá

Transport & Infrastructures

Attaché

Embassy of Spain

Mrs. Azara Al-Hassan Prempeh is the Alternate

Permanent Representative of Ghana to the

International Maritime Organisation. She is qualified as

a Barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Ghana

and after working briefly with a private law firm in Accra,

Ghana she pursued specialisation and obtained her

masters’ degree in International Maritime Law from the

International Maritime Organisation’s International

Maritime Law Institute (IMLI) in Malta. Upon her return

to Ghana, Mrs. Prempeh took up a position as Head of

the Legal Unit of the Ghana Shippers’ Council a

position she held for five years before moving to join

the newly established Ghana Maritime Authority in

2007 as head of the Legal Bureau. Mrs. Prempeh was

appointed to serve as the Alternate Permanent

Representative of Ghana to the IMO in 2013.

During her tenure as representative to the IMO, she

served as Chair of the Advisory Committee of the

International Mobile Satellite Organization from Nov.

2014 - Nov. 2016), First Vice Chair of the Meeting of

Contracting Parties of the London Convention &

London Protocol (LC/LP) from 2016 – 2017, Co-Chair

of the Strategic Plan Working Group and

Correspondence Group of the LC/LP, and Chair of the

Barriers to Compliance Steering Group of the same

instrument. Mrs. Prempeh is currently Chair of the

meeting of the contracting parties of the LC/LP having

been appointed at the last meeting in October 2017.

Mrs. Azara Al-Hassan

Prempeh

Alternate Permanent

Representative of Ghana to

IMO

Ghana High Commission

Mr. John Shaw has been active in various areas

radiocommunciations for some 45 years covering

guided missile radar, sound and television

broadcasting and the international spectrum

management framework. After working with Marconi

Space and Defense Systems, he spent nearly 10 years

in Bahrain, from 1976, with the Ministry of Information

upgrading their radio and TV services.

Thereafter, from October 1985, he was with the UK

regulatory authorities for spectrum management, firstly

in the field of broadcasting and then on international

regulations and spectrum management, with particular

emphasis on the maritime and aviation sectors, and on

satellite networks. He took early retirement in 2005 in

order to run his own consultancy business on

radiocommunication matters, mainly assisting public

sector clients in the broadcasting, maritime and

aviation sectors on various spectrum management and

interference issues. He is currently fulfilling three

Rapporteur functions in ITU-R on coexistence,

interference and radio noise issues.

Mr. John Shaw

Head of Operations and

Capacity Building

International Mobile Satellite

Organization, IMSO

Ms. Heidi Clevett currently work as Staff Officer

Vessel Traffic Management for HM Coastguard,

responsible for the Coastguard’s vessel monitoring

throughout the UK’s Search and Rescue Region, all

vessel monitoring systems used across the National

network, AIS data records, VTS Manager for the Dover

Strait and safety and security related surveillance for

both long range SAR and within our territorial limits.

Heidi started working for the agency four years ago and

previous to that she worked as a deck officer on board

cruise ships and ferries for six years. During her time

working for HM Coastguard, She have been involved in

various incidents where LRIT has been a crucial feed,

enabling the rescue of a number of casualties.

Ms. Heidi Clevett

Staff Officer Vessel Traffic

Management

HM Coastguard

Mr. Jassem Nasser leads the strategy and business

development division which includes Corporate

Strategy, partnerships & alliances and M&A activities.

Jassem also manages Thuraya’s Corporate Affairs

including Regulatory & Spectrum Management.

Jassem has over 19 years of experience in the satellite

industry through different roles. His engineering

background has been applied to a business

environment specializing in satellite communications

and other communication systems. Jassem has been

involved in setting up a start-up satellite organization

and seeing the company through various stages of

development by devising strategic direction and

priorities. Jassem graduated with 1st class honors from

Khalifa University (UAE) with a bachelor’s degree in

Communications Engineering.

Mr. Jassem Nasser

Chief Strategy Officer

Mr. Philippe Gros integrated CLS in 1988. He worked

for the business development of the Argos satellite

location and data collection system in various

application domains: animal tracking, in situ

oceanography and meteorology, fishery monitoring,

safety and security. He contributed to the development,

marketing and support of Argos dedicated hardware

and software. In 2008, Philippe Gros joined the CLS

Maritime Surveillance Business Unit with the position

of business development manager in charge of LRIT

activity and recently Search and Rescue activity. He is

the commercial point of contact of the CLS LRIT

customers, like the European Maritime Safety Agency.

Mr. Philippe Gros

Business Development Manager

Mr. Ben Minichino is the Global Head of the

Government Business division at Pole Star Space

Applications Ltd., responsible for business

development, product innovation, strategy,

partnerships & alliances and a portfolio of products and

services for the world’s largest Governments and

Maritime Flag Administrations. Bens’ efforts are

primarily associated with the maritime and homeland

security domain, space satellite technologies, SaaS,

hosted data centers, LRIT, S-AIS, and sensitive and

non-cooperative satellite surveillance programs. A

defense and maritime security professional with over

25 years of experience, Ben began his career in the

United States Marine Corps and previously served as

Country Director, and Chief Investigator in Chiang Mai,

Thailand, implementing justice training programs,

managing a caseload of forced child prostitution and

international human trafficking investigations. A

certified Master trainer and professional instructor for

special tactical weapons, executive protection and

investigations. Ben is originally from Washington D.C.,

and currently resides in Barcelona, Spain.

Mr. Ben Minichino

Global Head of the

Governemtn Business

Division

Pole Star Space

Applications Ltd

Mr. Peter Broadhurst is Senior Vice President of

Safety and Security at Inmarsat Maritime, responsible

for the development of the company’s safety and

security services. Peter will define the strategy,

development and evolution of Inmarsat’s satellite

communication services for maritime safety,

navigation, safety of life at sea and data security.

Peter started his career at Inmarsat in 2014 as Vice

President of Service Delivery for the Maritime business

unit. Peter was instrumental in the launch of Inmarsat’s

high-speed broadband service Fleet Xpress launched

in March 2016. With over 25 years’ experience in the

maritime industry, Peter began his career at sea as a

Radio Officer, then spent 15 years with Sea Tel Inc., /

Cobham SATCOM as Vice President of Sales and

Marketing where he was responsible for overseeing

and managing global sales and management. Peter

has a HND Electronics, Marine Radio General

Certificate, Radar and Marine Navigation Aids

accreditation from Wray Castle Merchant Navy School,

and holds an Open University, BSc (Hons) First Class

degree on Radio Frequency Systems.

Mr. Peter Broadhurst

Senior Vice President

Safety and Security,

Inmarsat Maritime

Mr. Kyle Hurst has over 20 years’ experience in the

maritime satellite communication sector. Before joining

Iridium he was Director Channel Development at

Station711 a global distributor of satellite services, Kyle

also worked as Director of Market Development at

Thuraya, and was also previously Maritime Marketing

Manager for Inmarsat in London, specialising in

product development and the application of satellite

communications to the maritime market. His

experience extends to working as a Vessel Monitoring

Systems (VMS) Manager for the Pacific Islands Forum

Fisheries Agency in the Solomon Islands. He currently

resides in the UK but is a native Australian, he has also

held a number of positions at the Queensland

Department of Primary Industries and the Australian

Military.

Mr. Kyle Hurst

Director Maritime

Iridium Communications

Ms. Karen Day is a network and communications

specialist with experience in the development and

installation of secure, high performance systems,

having worked in the financial sector and in Formula

One. Karen has been working with Fulcrum Maritime

Systems since 2007 and was involved in setting up the

first prototype of the LRIT system in 2008 and the

implementation of the first LRIT Data Centres in

January 2009. Karen is involved in promoting and

developing the use of satellite earth observation and

tracking data for maritime domain protection and blue

growth. She is currently working on a number of

initiatives to promote capacity building and technology

transfer in these areas with international partners.

Ms. Karen Day

Network and

Communication Specialist

Fulcrum Maritime Systems

Mr. Kounchou Tagne Ulrich Alain is a Norwegian

national, holding a Master Engineering degree (MSc) in

Marine Technology with specialization in Nautical

Sciences at the Norwegian University of Science and

Technology (NTNU 2009 - 2011); a Bachelor degree

(BSc) in Nautical Sciences with specialization in

Maritime Operations at the Haugesund University

College (HSH); and a Bachelor degree (BSc) in

Computer Sciences Engineering with specialization in

software development at the Trøndelag University

College (HIST). He currently (since 2012) works as

Senior Engineer at the Norwegian Coastal

Administration, an agency of the Norwegian Ministry of

Transport and Communications responsible for

services related to maritime safety, maritime

infrastructure, transport planning and efficiency, and

emergency response to acute pollution, and is a

national competent authority for the LRIT, managing

the LRIT Ship database.

Mr. Ulrich Tagne

Senior Engineer

Norwegian Coastal

Administration

Mr. Sadatoshi Koike is a radio communications

expert, who worked for the Japanese Coast Guard,

IMO Secretariat and some satellite communications

companies. He is involved in implementation of

GMDSS and LRIT. He has participated in Cospas-

Sarsat meetings for more than 20 years.

Mr. Sadatoshi Koike

Radiocommunication Expert

SATMarine Consulting, LLP.

Mr. Halil I. Keskin joined International Mobile Satellite

Organization in November 2009. He has been in

charge of the Organization’s ICT, including

development and maintenance of the required software

for the LRIT audits. He is also engaged in the

Organization’s GMDSS related activities.

Halil holds a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in

Maritime Transportation and Management Engineering

(Istanbul Technical University). He also holds a

master’s degree in Software Engineering (City,

University of London).

Before joining IMSO, Halil worked on nation-wide ICT

projects at the Turkish Maritime Administration and

previous to that he worked at sea for several years on

board cargo ships.

Mr. Halil I. Keskin

Technical Officer

International Mobile Satellite

Organization, IMSO

Captain Jon Leon Ervik, Head of Department for

Pilotage and VTS in the Norwegian Coastal

Administration.

He pursued a career in the Royal Norwegian Navy,

serving for twelve years, also as Commander-in-chief

at navy and Coast Guard vessels, operating mostly in

northern Norway and Svalbard. He also has

background from the merchant fleet.

Since 2002, Jon Leon Ervik has been the head of the

Pilotage and VTS Department. This also includes being

responsible for several systems like LRIT, SafeSeaNet,

AIS, Satellite AIS and DGPS.

In addition to the five Norwegian VTS stations, he is

also responsible for the European North Atlantic

regional AIS information management center.

Since 2001, he has been involved in several R&D

projects related to maritime safety, security and logistic

in Europe.

Captain Jon Leon Ervik holds a Nautical Bachelor

degree in Maritime engineering from University College

in Vestfold.

Captain Jon Leon Ervik

Head of Department for

Pilotage and VTS

Norwegian Coastal

Administration

Mr. Simon Church is Director of the Maritime Security

Centre Horn of Africa (MSCHOA) which is part of the

Strategic and Operational Headquarters for

EUNAVFOR’s counter piracy operation off Somalia.

His principle to role is to manage operational

coordination with international shipping at MSCHOA

and sustain the relationship of the Maritime Community

and Industry in EUNAVFOR where he has been

employed since December 2008.

His background is in commercial Shipping. He has

worked in the Shipping Industry for over 20 years,

working for several shipping organizations in a variety

of different roles and markets including Tanker Broking,

Logistics, Fuel Trading, Commercial operations and

Business development. His last position was with

Teekay Tankers in London.”

Mr. Simon Church

Director

Maritime Security Centre

Horn of Africa

Lieutenant Commander Christopher McCann is a

27 year active duty Coast Guardsman. He presently

serves as the Operations Applications Engineering

Branch Chief at the U.S. Coast Guard Operations

Systems Center (OSC).

Along with LRIT, he is responsible for the engineering

and development of over 25 other applications that

support Coast Guard operations and missions.

Previous assignments have included both C4IT

technical assignments and Training and Personnel

Development assignments.

Just prior to reporting to OSC, Chris was the HF ALE

Program Integrator and the HF High Power Transmitter

Recapitalization Project Manager at the

Telecommunications Information Systems Command.

LCDR McCann holds a Bachelors Degree in Computer

Information Technology, a Masters Degree in

Instructions System Design, and a Masters Certificate

in Human Performance Technology.

Lieutenant Commander

Christopher McCann

Operations Applications

Engineering Branch Chief

U.S. Coast Guard

Mr. Pier Giovanni Taranti is a Commander in the

Brazilian Navy. Graduated in the Navy Academy in

1995, he served on board up to 2005. His last

operational position was as the Captain of a Patrol

Ship.

In 2007, he got a Masters in Computer and Systems

and since 2008 he has the technical leadership of the

Brazil RDC development, having participated in almost

all IMO meetings in this theme since then. He also got

a Ph.D. in Software Engineering and conducted a post-

doctoral research in the Kings College London during

2014.

Mr. Pier Giovanni Taranti

Commander

Brazilian Navy

Mr. Jacob Sukkot is based in Copenhagen. He has

close to 15 years in the satellite industry. Mr. Sukkot

mainly focusing on VMS and LRIT at Thrane & Thrane

(Cobham) and Polaris Electronics, and now

Government and MOD at NSSL Global.

He is a Consultant in his spare time for the past 4 years,

software development mainly related to VMS and

tracking. He is active part of the LRIT working group

since 2007 till the implementation. Product and

technical manager for both Inmarsat and Iridium based

LRIT and tracking hardware. He overseen and active

part of the development of two LRIT test ASPs.

Mr. Jacob Sukkot

SATCOM Specialist

LRIT, VMS and Tracking

Recro ApS

Mr. Javier Yasnikouski is currently the Acting Head of

Maritime Security, under the Sub-Division for Maritime

Security and Facilitation of the Maritime Safety Division.

He has been involved with LRIT since 2006, when the

system was being designed and implemented.

He joined the International Maritime Organization

(IMO) in 2008, as Technical Officer in charge of LRIT

matters, a responsibility that he still retains.

He is retired officer of the Argentine Coast Guard

(Prefectural Naval Argentina), with educational

background on maritime safety, security and

communication systems. He is also a Systems

Engineer, with post-graduate qualifications on Systems

Management.

Mr. Javier Yasnikouski

Acting Head of Maritime

Security

International Maritime

Organization