|
Thome In-House Conference The conference was held at the Traders Hotel in Manila with representatives from our principals Lars Mossberg of Marinvest, Olav Eikrem & Svenn Magne Edvardsen of Frontline and S.C.Hui of Island Navigation in attendance. The sea staff was represented in force with approximately 100 officers attending. Captain Ronnie Maniego welcomed the conference delegates at 0900 hours with an outline of the day’s event and an introduction of the first speakers Captain Bjorn Hojgaard, managing director of Thome Ship Management Pte Ltd. Captain Hojgaard introduced himself to the delegates and proceeded to outline his philosophy on flawless ship management and the safe operation of our expanding fleet. The first presentation of the day was delivered by Len Harbottle, the new fleet marine personnel manager on the subject of P&I cases experienced by a principal during the latter part of 2007 and Thome’s investigation of these potential disability claims. This generated a lot of feedback from both the principals and the officers. Second up was Captain Ronnie Maniego from our health, safety, security, environmental and quality department who delivered a very comprehensive update and review of our management system and its important policies and procedures. Once again this presentation produced a lot of interest from the officers and principals like with many questions and statements based on personal experience. After a coffee break the conference continued with a very good presentation from Captain Peter Helm, the marine & safety manager (DPA) on vetting and port state inspections and our compliance and record in 2007. A discussion then developed on the ‘human factor’ and its affect on major incidents through fatigue, intensive trade, inexperienced crew and insufficient manning. Thereafter in the lead up to the lunch break a general discussion took place on a variety of crew issues such as wages, conditions, contract lengths, welfare retention etc. After lunch the afternoon session commenced with a presentation from Yatin Gangla the technical manager of Fleet Group 2 on current legislation relating to international environmental issues and Thome’s compliance with this and the quality environmental standard of ISO14001. This was followed by a presentation by Sandy Kumaran the technical manager of Fleet Group 1 on the related subject of oil record books which again generated a good response from the audience. Captain Ivar Thomasli introduced our next speaker, Captain Sanjeev Soni, project services manager for DNV SeaSkill who presented the subject of the implementation of this important competence management system. Svenn Magne Edvardsen representing Frontline presented an overview of the company’s (Frontline & Golden Ocean) activities including their new building programme in both the wet and dry trades. The audience was then invited to engage in an open discussion with a panel of senior Thome managers and the subject revolved around the current hot topic of crew retention, promotion and career development. Next up was Jesse W. Lewis from Helix Media who after his introduction by Captain Hojgaard proceeded into an informative presentation on problems encountered with dealing effectively with the media especially during crisis. Captain Hojgaard the managing director of the Thome Group of Companies brought the conference proceedings to a close by thanking the principals, officers and his colleagues for their attendance and their participation in such a successful event. A post conference dinner followed. |
|
|
Press Release |
