Internal Speakers
Sue Watkins
Sue has a law degree from the University of Warwick. She joined Steamship Mutual in 2004, becoming a Syndicate Manager in 2010 and Director in 2018.
Sue sits on the International Group Pollution, Production Operations Specialist Craft, and Sustainability Committees and Chairs the Vessel Response Plan Working Group within the Pollution Committee. She is also responsible for organising the Member Training Course and the Club’s work on sustainability/ESG.
Genevieve Holloway
Genevieve is a Syndicate Associate within the American Syndicate, specifically in the Club’s dedicated Cruise and Ferry team. She joined Steamship in 2023 having previously worked at the UK P&I Club (Thomas Miller) for over 15 years.
Genevieve specialises in handling all people related claims including crew, passengers, stevedores, and third-party claims arising in jurisdictions all over the world. Prior to working in P&I Clubs, she gained first-hand maritime experience sailing as a deck officer on board cruise ships.
Mark Underhill
After eight years as a deck officer in the Merchant Navy and a further period working as a Marine Surveyor, Mark joined Steamship Mutual’s claims department in 1989, dealing initially with the Club’s North American membership along with parts of Europe.
A graduate in Law, he now works exclusively with our European accounts as the syndicate’s Head of Claims.
Sarah Chase
Sarah graduated from University College London and joined Steamship Mutual in 2002. Sarah handled underwriting matters for our European Members before moving to the Americas Syndicate, for which she is now Head of Underwriting.
Sarah is ACII qualified.
John Taylor
John joined Steamship’s Loss Prevention team in January 2016 after 37 years with BP. Attaining his Class 1 (Deck) Certificate of Competence in 1994 he sailed on the BP clean and dirty oil fleet before joining the LNG fleet. Coming ashore in 1997 he has 13 years’ experience of marine terminal operations including the construction of Tangguh LNG in Indonesia from FEED through to full operation and then managing two FPSO’s in Angola.
Leading the Loss Prevention Department he has responsibilities for the Club’s Loss Prevention material, the PEME programme and initiatives such as the Club’s relationship with MHSS.
Malcolm Shelmerdine
Malcolm is a solicitor and joined Steamship Mutual in 1999 from a leading London law firm. He has been Head of Claims for both the European and Eastern Syndicates and is now Head of the European Syndicate.
He is also Head of FD&D at the Club. Malcolm sits on the International Group Bills of Lading committee.
Joanne Sharma
Joanne is a qualified solicitor and joined Steamship Mutual in September 2016. Joanne joined the Club from an international law firm where she specialised in dry shipping disputes.
She has extensive experience of London arbitration and English court proceedings. Joanne manages claims in the Americas Syndicate predominately for the Ultra group companies.
Sophie Cordonnie
Sophie joined Steamship Mutual in 2018 as a Claims Associate and advises the Club’s European Members on all types of FD&D disputes.
She qualified as a solicitor in 2009 and, prior to joining the Club, worked at two international law firms, handling shipping and insurance disputes.
Edward Barnes
Edward joined Steamship Mutual and the India & Middle East claims team in November 2015.
Before joining Steamship Mutual Edward qualified and practised as a Barrister at the Chambers of William Clegg QC, 2 Bedford Row.
Danielle Southey
Danielle is a claims manager in the European Syndicate dealing with both Owner and Charterer Members. Danielle qualified as a solicitor in 2009 and joined Steamship Mutual in 2014.
Danielle sits in the European Syndicate and handles both P&I and FD&D claims. Danielle has completed her P&IQ Certificate qualifications as well as the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers Exams.
Sacha Patel
Sacha joined Steamship’s in-house legal team in 2010 and specialises in sanctions issues.
His other responsibilities include updating the Club’s rule books and related clauses (P&I, FD&D, Charterers, Yacht, War Risks), advising on cover issues, managing the Club’s due diligence/screening operations, and representing the Club in industry forums including at the International Group and Bimco Documentary Committee.
Fern Attree
Fern is the Club’s Korean underwriter. She also manages Eastern underwriting department as part of her wider role. Fern studied Maritime Business and Maritime Law at undergraduate, hold a Masters degree in Maritime Security and has completed the IG P&I Qualification.
Fern sits on the IG working group of LNG indemnities.
Adrian Benham
Adrian joined Steamship Mutual in 2009 and is now a Director and Head of Claims for the Americas Syndicate. He studied law at Oxford University and qualified as a solicitor in 1987 subsequently becoming a partner at Thomas Cooper.
As a solicitor, he specialised in advising on maritime contracts and disputes, and in particular has extensive experience of London arbitration.
Chris Adams
Chris retired from Steamship Mutual in February 2023 and at that time was Managing Director, Head of the European Syndicate and Head of Loss Prevention. He has over 40 years’ experience in P&I, and prior to joining the Club served as a navigating officer in the British Merchant Navy.
He holds a BSc (Hons) degree in Nautical Studies from the University of Southampton, is a Fellow of the Nautical Institute, Member of the Royal Institute of Navigation, Court Assistant of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights, Freeman of the City of London, and a Younger Brother of Trinity House. He now works as an independent maritime consultant.
Ceri Done
Ceri is a qualified solicitor, having trained and qualified with the law firm of Thomas Cooper LLP. He became a partner at Thomas Cooper in 2014 and during his time in private practice worked on a broad range of commercial matters, with particular experience of international commercial dispute resolution in the marine, international trade and commodities and insurance sectors.
Ceri joined Steamship Mutual in 2019 and advises Members on the full range of Defence and P&I matters.
Stephen Martin
External Speakers
Charles Watkins
Born in 1985 in Osnabrück, Germany Having graduated with a master’s degree (with distinction) in clinical psychology and completing his clinical training at the world-renowned University Medical Centre of Princeton, Charles continued to use his passion to inspire positive change and advance the field of psychology in areas new to the psychological approach. Working in his private practice has been complemented by lecturing on various topics around the world. His devotion towards identifying places of need for dealing with stress and depression has led him to the maritime industry. Through the team’s profound research in the maritime industry, Charles has been able to create training videos and safety plans for the crew and onshore personnel. Charles has been researching the area of maritime stresses and psychological illnesses to develop preventive measures for the maritime industry. Charles is continuing to find helpful psychological solutions for real life problems on ships and on shore.
Richard Gunn
Richard is a leading lawyer in our Casualty and Admiralty team and has been involved in most of the firm’s recent casualty work, particularly collisions, groundings, explosions and salvage, and subsequent contractual disputes. As well as acting for salvors, owners and underwriters, he also acts for various owners and clubs in charterparty disputes, focusing on those of a technical nature such as unsafe port disputes, P&I claims and GA disputes. His work has included a number of claims involving complex containership casualties, logistics, bunker disputes, speed and performance issues, and yachts. He has undertaken reviews of various contracts relating to provision of port services, STS and emergency towage services, wreck removal, Towhire and Towcon, Supplytime and decommissioning. He has also acted in aviation disputes, providing regulation advice on incident management. He is the legal advisor to the International Salvage Union (ISU).
Peter Dixon
Peter is a member of Miller’s P&I marine liability team, and he is responsible for negotiating and placing some of the most complex and challenging reinsurance programmes in Lloyd’s and the London marine insurance market. Peter has over 30 years’ experience in P&I reinsurance and is an authority on all aspects of P&I, including global shipping, coverage issues, international conventions and reinsurance solutions. Peter started his career in 1987 as a graduate with a specialist marine liability broker, eventually becoming a director before joining Miller in 2003.
He holds a degree in mathematics from the University of Bristol, is a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute and also hold an MBA degree.
Michael Chalos
Michael G. Chalos has been practicing maritime law for more than 40 years. Mr. Chalos has handled matters involving traditional maritime issues such as collisions, groundings, damage to cranes and offshore rigs, cargo damages, general average, personal injury and other Jones Act Issues, Death on the High Seas Act, arrests and insurance, including issues involving Certificates of Financial Responsibility (COFRs) for both vessels and off-shore rigs and platforms, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990(OPA), the Clean Water Act and other environmental related statues, dealing with the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund (OSLTF) and related governmental agencies, and its sub-agencies, as well as commercial disputes, drafting of charter parties and other lease agreements, registration of vessels in U.S. and other jurisdictions around the world, financing of vessel purchases and leasing.
Mr. Chalos also has extensive experience advising clients on civil and criminal environmental law matters. Mr. Chalos has represented a number of clients involved in high-profile civil and criminal environmental litigation. Michael is a Member of United States Maritime Law Association and Proctor in Admiralty.
Max Bobys
Mr. Bobys leads HudsonCyber, a division of HudsonAnalytix, Inc., which delivers cybersecurity strategy, risk management, advisory, cyber threat intelligence, and training services to the global maritime community. He draws on over 20 years of experience in enterprise risk management, cybersecurity transformation, and integrated cyber-physical/ security systems. He designed and currently leads the delivery of HudsonCyber’s award-winning CyberLogix decision-support platforms for the global shipping and port industries.
Prior to joining Hudson Mr. Bobys served in a variety of executive positions at Civitas Strategy Group (Paladin Capital), BAE Systems, Stanley, and CIBER (HTC Global Services), among others. He has supported numerous organizations including various US Government agencies, the International Maritime Organization, the World Bank, the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), the Organization of American States (OAS), the Nautical Institute, Chatham House, MITRE, the US Naval War College, NATO, and various cybersecurity insurance underwriters. He currently serves on the International Association of Ports and Harbors Data Collaboration and Risk and Resilience Committees, and the Delaware Bay Area Maritime Security Committee’s Cybersecurity Sub-Committee.
Andrew Chamberlain
Andrew is a former Royal Navy officer and specialises in "wet" shipping cases, including salvage (acting for salvors, as well owners and their underwriters), collisions, fire and explosion, total loss and wreck removal. He also advises on both civil and criminal pollution liabilities, marine insurance coverage disputes and the full range of other shipping-related commercial and contractual disputes. Andrew served at sea with the Royal Navy and also had a stint with the Hong Kong Squadron. He left the Royal Navy in 1990 and joined HFW in 1994, having trained at Richards Butler (now Reed Smith). He was promoted to partner in 2003 and has been heavily involved in many of the largest casualties of recent years, including "PELICAN 1" (2003), "BP THUNDERHORSE" (2005), "MSC NAPOLI" (2007), "MSC CHITRA" (2010), "Costa Concordia" (2012), "FLASH" (2012), "KULLUK" (2012), "SMART" (2013), "NORMAN ATLANTIC" (2014) and "EASTERN AMBER" (2015). Andrew lectures regularly on salvage, wreck removal and casualty response and is an acknowledged expert in the field.
Andrew is consistently ranked in the top tier for Shipping in Chambers and Legal 500 for his "wealth of experience in admiralty matters" (Chambers UK 2012).
Daniel O’Connell
Daniel is an associate in the London office. He focuses mainly on wet shipping matters, including collisions, groundings, salvage, wreck removal, fires, piracy, limitation of liability and coverage issues. He also advises on dry shipping matters including charterparty, bill of lading and related contractual disputes. Daniel acts for owners, charterers, H&M underwriters, P&I Clubs and salvors in both arbitration and court related matters.
Daniel previously spent four years in the firm's Singapore office and has completed a secondment at an International Group P&I Club.
Richard Johnson
Richard Johnson is a marine biologist with a higher degree in radiation and environmental protection. Having worked as an environmental consultant with both a small, independent and subsequently a large international company, Richard joined ITOPF in 1994. His ITOPF career has seen him progress through all technical positions becoming Technical Director in 2009. Richard has attended on site at scores of spill events, playing significant roles in major oil tanker incidents such as SEA EMPRESS (UK), NAKHODKA (Japan), ERIKA (France), NATUNA SEA (Singapore/Malaysia), PRESTIGE (Spain) and HEBEI SPIRIT (South Korea). He has also attended numerous non-tank vessel spills and has attended spills in the US such as NEW CARISSA, Oregon and BOUCHARD BARGE B120 in Buzzards Bay. Since joining ITOPF he has been involved with, or anchored colleagues from London, or helped to coordinate ITOPF's involvement, in more than 500 incidents. He has travelled to more than eighty countries Richard has provided claims analysis and damage assessment advice on numerous cases to a range of different entities including government, P&I Clubs and the IOPC Funds. He also participated in intergovernmental meetings such as at IMO and has been involved in numerous advisory projects and contingency plan reviews. He has delivered keynote opening, and closing plenary presentations at a number of major international conferences as well as providing papers, chairing or giving input to workshops, seminars and training courses at regional, national and local level courses, both for government and industry
As Technical Director, Richard provides strategic oversight of the full range of technical services offered by ITOPF and is the focal point for the delivery of these services. As well as overseeing the Americas, Africa, Europe, & Middle East and the Asia Pacific Technical Teams, Richard actively contributes to the risk management and knowledge management internal working groups. He is also the Chairman of the ITOPF R&D Award Committee.
Martin Baxendale
Martin Baxendale is the Chairman of MTI Network. Martin was educated in the UK and holds a BA (Hons) from London University. After working for a City based advertising and public relations agency, he joined the MTI Network’s London office in 1998. During his time with MTI, Martin has overseen traditional public relations projects, as well as working extensively on incident response and reputation management programmes.
He has advised on a number of high-profile media incidents, as well as a wide range of pre-emptive strategic programmes. He is also closely involved in MTI’s various training programmes.
