First Row (from left to right): Patrick Horan (Baltimore), Luiz Freitas (Rio), RADM Robert North (Consultant), Liz Bouchard (London), Joe McKeown (Ft. Lauderdale), Richard Dias (Hong Kong), and Michael Worch (Reston). Second Row (from left to right): Peter Feild (Reston), Tony Guida (Reston), Naresh Santram (Reston), Cosmin Bozenovici (Houston), Laura Sherman (Reston), David Cummins (Reston), Tom Blenk (Busan), John Taverner (London), and Michael Wu (Reston). Third Row (from left to right): Vasilis Kamitsis (Piraeus), Theo Xenakoudis (Piraeus), John Ramage (London), Bill Gallagher (Reston), Meredith Kirby (Reston), Simon Bonnett (London), John Gallagher (Reston), Scott Sisk (Reston), and Bob Fay (Reston). Fourth Row (from left to right): Tom Heinan (Reston), Jonathan Maiorine (Baltimore), Hans Molver (Reston), Charles McHardy (Houston), Dave Wamsley (New York (Downtown)), Michael Timmons (Reston), Aidan O’Donnell (London), Rob Lorigan (Reston), and Brian Poskaitis (Baltimore).
Last week saw the last meeting for 2018 of the Maritime Services Group (MSG) at International Registries, Inc.’s (IRI’s) global headquarters in Reston, VA. Pulling together resources from 28 worldwide offices, these regular meetings, the third one this year, provide an opportunity for IRI’s international network of offices to update each other on the latest developments, share technical knowledge, provide regional updates, and discuss future innovation. A large part of the success of IRI and its ability to provide exemplary administrative and technical support to the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) Registry is due to its decentralized model and international network of experts.
The results presented during the meeting reflected the true decentralization of the RMI Registry noting that regional offices outside of the United States are now responsible for issuing more than 70% of the requested seafarer documents and over 90% of the vessel registrations that take place worldwide. Furthermore, worldwide technical support is not only inclusive with registration costs but also timely since all regions have technical resources available to respond to inquiries. These are important statistics as they mean that industry stakeholders who have vessels flagged in the RMI Registry are receiving faster and better service worldwide. No international shipping operation can afford to be delayed because their flag State does not have an office open or an office open that cannot immediately address the customer’s needs.
Relationships are important in this business not only externally but also internally. These meetings ensure there is more effective communication from the regions about their local owner/operator concerns and there is a unified approach in addressing them. Made up of a network of 28 offices in key maritime and financial hubs, IRI has helped ensure the RMI fleet has a low port State control detention record and delivers a customer-first approach to the discerning shipowners and operators who choose to flag with the RMI.
