World Bunkering > News > Summer 2010 > Chief Executive's Report

Board Elections

Ian Adams

On 15 February IBIA held its Annual General Meeting (AGM). One of the items on the agenda was the appointment of members of the Board. This year was the first election under the new governance structure and attracted a great deal of interest. Originally there were nine applications for the three vacancies. After the deliberations of the Board Development Committee, the number reduced to four. Another first for IBIA was the appointment of the Electoral Reform Service to conduct the elections; this meant that the ballot was conducted through a secure website with all members being issued with a log-in so as to cast their vote. As always, we have a very good participation rate in IBIA elections and this year it proved, yet again, to be the case. The following candidates were duly elected: Simon Neo, Equatorial Marine Fuels; Dilip Mody, Global Fuels and Lubricants; and Jens Maul Jorgensen, Oldendorff Carriers. The new Board met in April, the first meeting under the Chairmanship of Mike Ball, Gearbulk UK Ltd, with 100% participation, which bodes well for the future. That meeting also saw the election of Bob Lintott to the position of Vice Chairman. Under the new structure he will assume the Chairmanship next April. Nigel Draffin also accepted the nomination to Honorary Treasurer for his second year, a role that is greatly appreciated by the Board as a whole and me in particular.

Annual Dinner

This year’s Annual Dinner was, once more, a great success. Given the economic situation which we experienced last year we were understandably concerned that we may have had a smaller attendance. However, as reported in the last issue of World Bunkering these fears were unfounded. We actually had a new record for attendance with 798 guests at the event. This really is the limit for the Hilton on Park Lane. We have managed to use various ways to increase the numbers that can attend but now we have exhausted all options! We are considering alternative venues but as the waiting list was fully satisfied this may be unnecessary. Please see the photos later in this edition. The feedback from the Dinner has been extremely positive and we look forward to next year’s event.

Annual Convention

Preparation for the Annual Convention is now well in hand, despite the change in personnel (see below). The choice this year of Stamford, Connecticut seems to be a popular decision and we would like to thank all the companies who have come forward as sponsors. We are extremely proud to announce that Petrobras have agreed to be our Platinum Sponsor again this year. For details of all the other sponsors please see page 26. The programme is being worked on so please keep an eye on the website www.ibia.net to keep informed of the developments. The Conference Committee has noted the feedback which we received following Singapore and has tried to develop a programme which will satisfy as many people as possible. It is not too late to have an input so if you have any particular topic or format you would particularly like to see, please let us know.

IBIA Staff

As mentioned above IBIA has experienced a change in personnel. Anne Chambers, who many of you have met either at the Dinner or at various conferences around the world, has decided to leave IBIA in order to pursue other opportunities. As a result we now have a new Event Manager, Charlotte Egan. Charlotte joins us with a wealth of experience in running events and I am sure our bunker community will welcome her as they do all newcomers.

New Publications

With this edition of World Bunkering every member will receive a revised copy of “Evaluate the Merits of a Bunker Claim” and “The IBIA Glossary of Bunker and Lubricating Oil Terminology”. I would like to thank Chris Fisher for the revision of “Evaluate” and the members of the IBIA Board for their help with the Glossary. I hope our members find them useful. If for any reason you do not receive these additional publications, please contact the Secretariat at ibia@ibia.net.

Ian Adams
Tel: +44(0) 23 8022 6555
Fax: +44(0) 23 8022 1777