Meet our Speakers

CEO of Seatruck Ferries Ltd, Alistair Eagles was part of a small start-up team that helped set up Seatruck Ferries a freight only ferry company operating on the Irish Sea. Seatruck specialise in the shipment of unaccompanied freight trailers and has grown from a new entrant to a significant player moving in excess of 7,000 freight units per week on 3 routes. Today Seatruck moves around 20% of the total roll on roll off freight traffic to Ireland and continues to grow. With a strong customer focus Seatruck has come through both COVID and BREXIT with strong financials. The Irish market has continued to switch away from accompanied shipments as logistics operators also look to reduce road milage, which provides them with significant enviomental and operational benefits. With 8 purpose built freight ferries, Seatruck is also active in the external charter market offering vessels on hire to other operators in Northern Europe. Seatruck is 100% owned by the Clipper Group based in Denmark.

Björn Boström is since 2008 Managing Director at Port of Ystad. He has 38 years of experience in shipping in companies like Saga Line, DFDS, Lion Ferry, DSØ A/S (i.a. The Hydrofoils Copenhagen-Malmö), the domestic island ferry company Ven-Trafiken AB and now Port of Ystad. He has a broad experience of ferry operations and has worked as Sales Representative, Sales- and Marketing Manager, Route Manager and Managing Director.
Since 2008, Port of Ystad has strengthened its position as Sweden's third largest ferry passenger port. The volumes still increase with new records during the last years, and the port has undergone a major development as two new ferry berths, for vessels up to 240 meters, were built ready for service in January 2021, an investment of more than 100 million euro securing the future port operations.

Robbie Drummond is the Chief Executive of CalMac Ferries, a customer focused ferry and port operation business with revenues of £300m and 1,800 employees. CalMac Ferries run 35 ferries across the West Coast of Scotland, carrying 6 million passengers annually, 1 million cars and 1 million freight metres, and running on average 500 sailings per day.
Robbie has a keen interest in supporting local business. He is on the Board of Scottish Council for Development and Industry (SCDI) and is Chair of Stramash, an outdoor nursery enterprise. He also sits on Operator’s Committee for Interferry.

Secretary General of the European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO) since 1/08/2013. Before taking up this function, Isabelle has been working as Director of the European Federation of Inland Ports (EFIP) and Senior Advisor of ESPO for four years.
She studied Law (University of Namur and KULeuven) and European Law (UCL Louvain). Before joining EFIP, she worked in EU Public Affairs for almost 20 years. After a short period at the European Commission (DG Agriculture), she worked in an EU Public Affairs consultancy. In 1994 she started working in the European Parliament, as a political assistant and bBetween 1999 and 2009 she was the political assistant of Dirk Sterckx, where she was mainly active in transport and port-related fields. She is co-author of the handbook “Zo Werkt Europa” (1st edition 2007, 2nd edition 2010).

Finn Wollesen has salt water in his veins. He started sailing on J. Lauritzen Reefer vessels and on their famous NELLA DAN, sailing expedition voyages in Antarctica. Finn then trained as a mechanical engineer in Denmark, which led to a design position with the HVAC equipment supplier Novenco, working on projects for the international maritime market.

Finn has been stationed in numerous countries, including Spain, Singapore, and Italy. After the Italian posting, Finn and a colleague started their own marine design and consultancy, Marine Technologies.
In 2003, this was merged with one of the Danish marine industry’s most renowned and respected companies, 1937-founded KNUD E. HANSEN. Finn became Managing Director of the merged group and since then the well-travelled, “old sailor” has thrived in the company's very international atmosphere.

Ger van Lang is Managing Director of Wagenborg Passenger Services. Responsible for this division of Royal Wagenborg Group from The Netherlands, he leads the ferry services to the Dutch islands Ameland and Schiermonnikoog. He has been working on the development of several new ferry services around the world.
Prior to joining Wagenborg, Ger van Langen was Director Nautical Department for the Province of Zee-land. In this capacity, he was responsible for ferry services across the Western Scheldt Estuary. He has also served a decade as sr. navigation officer on several cruiselines and has over 30 yrs of managerial experience in the cruise and ferry sector.
Van Langen holds a Master Mariner’s degree from the Merchant Marine Academy in Flushing and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. He has been consultant for the Dutch government for vari-ous ferry projects in the Netherlands. Ger sits on a range of consultive bodies on tourism and leisure at provincial and national levels he is also Secretary of the National Education Body for Ferry Crew``

Spiros Paschalis is the CEO and an Executive member of the Board of Directors of Attica Group, a leading maritime group based in Greece that operates 32 vessels in the Greek domestic market and on the Greece-Italy routes through the brands of SUPERFAST FERRIES, BLUE STAR FERRIES and HELLENIC SEAWAYS. He is also the General Manager of AFRICA MOROCCO LINK (AML) operating since June 2016 connecting Morocco and Spain.

He is the Vice President of the Greek Passenger Shipping Association (SEEN) participating as an elected member of the BoD since 2009. In February 2014, he was elected as a member of the Hellenic Chamber of Shipping representing the Passenger Shipping sector.

Being part of the passenger shipping industry as from 1996, he has a 23 year experience in this sector holding previously the position of Authorized Director and CEO of the well – recognized brands BLUE STAR FERRIES and SUPERFAST FERRIES respectively.

He has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the American College of Greece and he further extended his financial educational background in London where he graduated from Cass Business School (City University) holding an MBA degree in Finance.

Mr. Achille Onorato, the eldest son of Vincenzo Onorato, represents a fifth generation ship – owner. He graduated in Business Administration at Bocconi University in Milan. He later received his Master always Bocconi in Logistics and Transport Infrastructure. Even before his degree, he already participates actively in the business of the company, working on board of the ship fleet of the family alternately to studies from the age of 13 years old until the end of university, spending on board a total of more than 3 years. He then later started to work in the commercial area of the group and then became the Hospitality and on Board Services Director of the company Moby SpA.
On January 2012 he became the CEO of the company Toremar, first public shipping company that was privatized in Italy, achieving a radical revolution and innovation of the company. Mr. Achille Onorato has served as a member of the Board of Directors of Moby and Tirrenia – CIN since 2015 and he has also served as the sole director of both companies from its formation until its conversation into a joint stock company and the subsequent appointment of the Board of Directors.

On July 2015 Mr. Achille Onorato has become the Vice Executive Chairman of Moby SpA and subsequently on April, 2016 he became the Chief Executive Officer and in the same time he still keeps the position of Vice Executive Chairman of the company. In addition to the Ship - owner's family tradition, just like his father, he has also the passion for sailing on regattas.

Summary of Current Position in the Company:
* Moby CEO and Vice Executive Chairman
* Member of the BoD of Tirrenia – CIN
* Executive Member of the BoD of Toremar
* BoD Member of San Cataldo
* Chairman of Agemar and Renzo Conti sr

Dan Mikkola
Born 1965
Three children aged 22, 16 and 13
Master of economics Åbo Akademi, Turku 1990
Managing director Godby Shipping since 2000
Board member/chairman football club IFK Mariehamn since 2012

Theodora Riga is the Chief Commercial Officer & Director of Strategic Communications of ThPA S.A., a Member of the Board of Directors of MedCruise (Association of Mediterranean Cruise Ports), Member of the Board of Directors of Thessaloniki Tourism Organization and the Hellenic Chamber of Shipping Representative on the Hellenic Government’s National Cruise Committee.

Born in 1973 in the USA, she holds an MBA in Business Administration and has held senior managerial positions in port, shipping and financial services companies over the last 20 years, a member of the National Cruise Committee and a Board Member of a shipping company listed on the Athens Stock Exchange, as Commercial Director and as Management Consultant on Strategic Development, Sales, Marketing and Communication in the largest shipping companies in Greece, providing communication support to the Association of Shipping Companies.

Gotland Tech Development AB
+46 72 509 18 10
christer.bruzelius@gotlandtechdevelopment.se

“As a senior partner with Gotland Tech Development, Christer drives innovation in shipping, enabling the industry to become more sustainable by advancing the technical solutions of tomorrow. Gotland Tech Development was launched in 2021 by Rederi Gotland to drive technical development by building partnerships with leading maritime companies. Christer Bruzelius has more than 20 years of experience in senior management positions, as CEO and MD, for shipping companies in Sweden, Finland, and Denmark. For 9 years, Christer was the CEO of Destination Gotland (part of the Rederi Gotland Group), which operates the RoPax ferry traffic between the island Gotland and mainland Sweden. During his time as a CEO, Christer led several initiatives to place the company at the forefront in sustainability, including adding two RoPax-ferries powered by natural gas and biogas to the fleet.”

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Lieve Duprez (°1972) obtained a Master’s degree in Languages (Dutch,
French, English) at the Provinciale Hogeschool voor Vertalers en Tolken in
Ghent followed by a Postgraduate degree in Journalism at the Vlekho in
Brussels.
She began her carreer as Translator and Press Officer at the Embassy of
South Korea in Brussels.
In 1999 Lieve Duprez took up employement at the Port Authority of
Zeebrugge. First at the Public Relations department. In 2001 she rotated
within the company to the postition of Press Officer and Communications
Manager Business to Business.
As from the 1st of January 2020 she made the switch to the Commercial
department of the Port Authority in the position of Chief Officer Shortsea.
Lieve is First Point of Contact for all intra-European shipping lines and their
related markets.

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Senior Vice president (Corporate Communications, Landbased HR, Sustainability) of the listed company Viking Line Abp. She has a Master’s Degree in International Marketing from Åbo Akademi University. Boijer-Svahnström works at the Head Office on the Aland islands and is a member of the Group Management.

She is Member of the Board, Swedish Shipowners' Association, Deputy member of the Board, Finnish Shipowners’ Association, Member of the Board, Åland Chamber of Commerse, Member of the Board, Ålands Sjöfart r.f., Member, Communications Working Group of ECSA (The European Community Shipowners' Association) Member of the Communications Committee, Swedish Shipowners’ Association, Chair of the Communications Committee, Finnish Shipowners' Association.

Pino Spadafora currently serves in the marine sector as RINA’s Global Commercial Senior Director and has been living and working in Northern Europe for 17 years to continually enhance the profile of the group throughout the region. His current responsibilities encompass group strategy and external corporate development, both commercially and technically.

In terms of group strategy, he is specifically responsible for the rollout across business streams into a global plan and ensuring consistency with the company’s vision and mission. Working closely with RINA’s CEO and individual business streams, his role is to identify potential partners with whom to collaborate to grow and build the business.

Pino has acquired a wealth of experience in fleet management principles, classification services, advisory services, project management, key account management and customer service, including customer retention and satisfaction. He also has excellent knowledge and technical experience of all aspects of the marine industry, including environmental and regulatory matters.

Lars Clausen 55, have 25 years of background with payment- and self-service solutions for a broad range of industries, incl. ferries, travel and ticketing. He holds a MSc. Economics and Business Administration and have held several top management positions within the automation and payment industries, incl. CEO Nets Denmark Merchant Services. Lars co-founded Logos Payment Solutions in 2011 based on a vision that self-service would evolve to be preferred by both customers and operators. Today Logos is 160 empowered employees, incl. +100 engineers and technicians.

Hans Björkborg

Since 2010 I have my own consultant company mainly working with IT and digital matters on leadership level. My main assignment right now is to act as Senior advisor for Ferry Systems International in Gothenburg Sweden and then focused on the reservation system Lighthouse. Other main assignments since 2010 are advisor and project manager at DFDS, Managing Director for FerryGateway Association and Facilitator for Ferry CIO Forum. Before 2010 I was IT Director at Stena Line during 13 years. The history of working with the ferry industry goes back almost 30 years.

As a person I am open, engaged and very much enthusiastic with what I am doing and simply love to meet and hang out with people.

Best regards

Hans

Hans Björkborg

Senior Advisor

hans@ferrysystems.com / +46 704 830280

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Glenn started his career within the retail industry working for leading brands in that sector and holding a variety of roles across the industry. Since joining Iarnród Éireann in 2001, Glenn’s career has encompassed roles including Human Resources Manager, Head of Customer Relations, General Manager Rosslare Europort & Freight and to his current role Director of Commercial Business Units.
Glenn has led Rosslare Europort to become Ireland’s number one port for direct Ro-Ro Pax services to Europe with a six-fold increase in ship calls from Ireland to the EU, an increase of overall freight by +50% cumulatively in the last two years and passenger travel now operating at +12% pre covid levels. Over the next 4 years Rosslare Europort will see the largest ever investment in the port’s history of nearly €450M with the delivery of very significant infrastructure and digital projects including Irelands first National Offshore Renewable Hub.
Glenn also is leading the strategy and implementation plan for delivering Irelands National Rail Freight Strategy with significant investment in new infrastructure projects including; multiple strategic inland ports, reconnection of rail freight to the ports of Shannon Foynes, Cork and Rosslare , purchase of new rail freight rolling stock and double digit growth in rail freight services over the next 5-10 years.