The International Maritime Employers Cooperation (IMEC), the largest international organization deal­ing exclusively with maritime industrial relations, held its annual general meeting in London following a meeting of the IMEC Board of Directors held on the previous day.

During the meeting, many areas of interest to the maritime sec­tor were discussed including piracy, the ongoing International Bargaining Forum negotiations and the fast approaching imple­mentation of the ILO MLC 2006. Expert guest speakers includ­ing Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry, Director of the International Labor Standards Department of the International Labour Office and Cap­tain David Bancroft, formerly in charge of the UK MTO, provided key insights into specific areas of concern to the membership in attendance.

The IMEC membership, who expressed particular concern, when discussing piracy in the Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea, voted unanimously to adopt a standpoint of “protection over payment, through the provision of increased security systems, which may include per­sonnel or systems appropriate to the vulnerability of vessels on transit through pirate infested waters, based on a vessel’s type, speed and freeboard dur­ing transit.”

Also during the meeting, the long-standing Chair­man of IMEC, Ian Sherwood, stepped down and the members voted to elect Mr. Greg Triantafillou, from Epsilon Hellas in Greece, as the new Chairman, to lead IMEC into the future and deal with ongoing and future challenges. Mr. Triantafillou has been serving on the Board of Directors since 2007 and previously as Deputy Chairman since 2010.

On accepting the position as Chairman, Mr. Triantafillou paid tribute to his predecessor, describing Ian Sherwood as “a real technocrat, whose down to earth pragmatism, patience and calm, enabled IMEC to get what needed to be done, achieved.”

Mr. Triantafillou, in thanking the membership for their support, continued that “IMEC should encom­pass all those areas that our members care about, for which there is no other international representative organization or body.”

Mr. Triantafillou highlighted that it was his inten­tion to bring greater exposure to IMEC by raising the IMEC profile through the formation of strategic alliances with other industry associations, whilst maintaining and expanding the large training com­mitments, continuing the IBF negotiations and be­ing a recognized voice in the industry.

Also during the meeting, another long-standing IMEC Officer, Mr. Bob Goodall stood down and Mr. Triantafillou passed his thanks to Bob for his unwavering efforts on behalf of IMEC during his tenure.

With the departure as Officers of Ian Sherwood and Bob Goodall, two new Officers were elected by the membership into the posi­tions of Vice Chairman. Captain Norbert Aschmann and Captain Belal Ahmed from Germany and Singapore respectively were both appointed, with unanimous support, to join Captain Rajesh Tandon, a currently appointed Vice Chairman and Mr. Triantafillou as Chairman.