Diploma for the Ship Agent course delivered by distance learning

Course Director

Captain Rodger MacDonald MSc
Secretary General
The International Federation of Shipmasters’ Associations

Captain Rodger MacDonald served initially with British India up to acting Chief Officer. After a year as Flight Planner, he left to return to maritime industry and from 1967 to 1970 was appointed Surveyor of Ships for the New Zealand Government at the Port of Lyttleton. Initially to gain command experience, he took a leave of absence from the New Zealand Government to join Straits Steamship Ltd as Master. He was asked to set-up a new Offshore Supply Vessel in Borneo, which was the forerunner of Ocean Inchcape Ltd. After 25 years of senior management positions within Ocean Inchcape Ltd Captain MacDonald was appointed Director of Faculty at the National Sea Training Centre, part of North West Kent College, an Associate College of the University of Greenwich. From 2001 until his retirement 2006 he was Director of Maritime Studies at North West Kent College. Captain MacDonald also represents the interests of Ship Masters as Secretary General of IFSMA – a non-governmental organisation at IMO. In 2005, Captain MacDonald was awarded the LSM Lifetime Achievement Award at the Asia Pacific Manning and Training Conference in recognition of his contribution in the sphere of education and training. 

Course Authors  

Anthony Beck
Barrister

Anthony Beck was educated at Cambridge and Harvard Universities, taking a double first in Economics and Law in the UK and a Master’s degree in the U.S. He qualified for the Bar and pursued an academic career becoming Head of Training at leading shipping law firm Holman Fenwick & Willan. He founded and ran the International Trade and Shipping Law Centre at the London Guildhall University. He has written numerous articles and delivered seminars and lectures for shipping professionals on International Trade and Shipping Law. He has taken an active part in the development of distance learning and international seminars in shipping and international trade law.

Graham Bog
Chief Operating Officer
S5 Agency World Ltd

Graham Bog is Chief Operating Officer of S5 Agency World Ltd. S5 is a new force in international shipping but is built on strong foundations with a long heritage through its stakeholders stretching back to the early 19th century. It is an international shipping agency company offering international hub and port agency services with a strong investment base, focused on contracting directly with clients who might benefit from a transregional approach. S5 is able to harness the joint resources, operational capability and financial reputation of its stakeholders, who are all regional market leaders. Graham has 30 years international management experience working with dominant world businesses in the services sector.

Responsibilities have covered various aspects of the shipping and international supply chain with experience of container, oil/gas, dry bulk, cruise, RORO, and naval sectors. He has also worked in the marketing and distribution stream of a major PLC with responsibilities for FMCG and a major wines & spirits business. In addition he has had responsibility for documentation and logistics centres, parts sourcing businesses, cargo services, forwarding/ consolidation and container depots. Graham has experience of working in both the independent and proprietary agency sectors. Prior  to joining S5 Graham spent 24 years with  the Inchcape Group and more recently with CMA-CGM.

Bob Deering
Partner
Ince Al Jallaf & Co

Bob Deering has been a Partner of Ince & Co since 1985. Ince & Co has offices in Hamburg, Hong Kong, Le Havre, London, Paris, Shanghai and Singapore and Bob heads the firm's Dry Shipping Group which comprises some 85 partners and other lawyers. The authoritative legal directory, Chambers, adjudges Ince & Co the outright No.1 shipping law firm and says of Bob "Clients singled out perennial favourite Bob Deering as an "obvious leader" for dry work. Over the years Bob has become involved in all aspects of the firm's shipping practice and now represents a number of substantial ship owners, charterers and P&I Clubs, the latter in their own capacity as well as on behalf of their ship-owner members. He also acts for Underwriters in the investigation of hull claims and, as a result, has experience of casualties from all sides of the fence. Bob is a regular on both the UK and the international seminar circuit and is listed in Chambers Global Directory and the Legal 500 as a leading international shipping lawyer in London.

Graham Harris
Partner
Thomas Cooper & Stibbard

Graham Harris is a Partner at Thomas Cooper. Graham joined Thomas Cooper in December 2000 after being a Partner at Richards Butler for 12 years. He specialises in dispute resolution in international transportation; carriage of goods by sea and charterparty disputes; ship sale and purchase and building disputes; enforcement of ship mortgages; international sale of goods; electronic trade; marine insurance; agency and through transport disputes and disputes in the travel industry. He is a first class honours graduate of Oxford University with a Masters in Jurisprudence. He lectures regularly for the Cambridge Academy of Transport on charterparty, bills of lading and through transport issues. He also lectures on e-commerce; package limitations; letters of credit; electronic bills of lading; and the Hague-Visby and Hamburg Rules. He is a member of the Committee of the London Shipping Law Centre and a supporting member of the London Maritime Arbitrators Association.

Peter Hughes
Director
Open for Business Ltd

Peter Hughes has written over thirty distance learning modules for a range of clients covering commercial organisations, universities, government agencies and professional bodies. Having originally worked in management services, he has retained his focus on improving performance and effectiveness and now focuses on how to use Higher Education to improve corporate performance. Peter runs his own company, Open for Business Ltd but also works part time for Middlesex University’s National Centre for Work Based Learning which has government recognition as a “Centre for Excellence”.

Sam Ignarski
Transport and Risk Consultant

Sam Ignarski is a consultant on transport and insurance matters currently connected with the Wavelength consortium at Lloyd’s on behalf of Charles Taylor Consulting plc. Formerly for 6 years he was the regional manager of Asia Pacific for the TT Club in Hong Kong there then followed a period in London as Chairman of the Managers of the TT Club. Since leaving the Club he has been a consultant to the Bolero Project (the new paperless electronic medium for international trade). He is a founder of WavyLine.Com an internet based approach to international risk management which is based on his conviction that electronic methods of distribution, networking and modern market pressures in international trade will rapidly replace traditional bureaucratic methods in the next five years - even in marine insurance. Sam is also the author of ‘The Underwriter’s Bedside Book’ and ‘The Box: 25 Years of Containerisation’. He is a regular columnist for Lloyd’s List and is the publisher of ‘Bow Wave’ the e-zine for the shipping and insurance world.

Malcolm Latarche
Chartered Ship Broker
Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers

Malcolm Latarche has worked in shipping since 1972. A member of the Controlling Council of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers from 1996-2000 and Chairman of the Federation Council (the corporate membership of ICS) from 1997-1999. Malcolm has been an active member of the Institute, serving on several committees at a variety of levels since becoming an Associate member in 1976. He was a member of the BIMCO working party that drew up the ‘Ruswood’ Charter party form for the shipment of timber from Former USSR ports to Western Europe.  He was also a General Agency manager of Anglo – Soviet Shipping Co Ltd from 1981- 1995 where he controlled the agency network for all the former USSR fleet in Great Britain, Ireland and British territories overseas and supervised more than 2000 port calls annually for a wide range of craft. Since 1995 he has been engaged in chartering and ship management activities operating a fleet of mixed short sea type vessels. Malcolm is also the author of ‘Port Agency’ – a textbook aimed at students taking the membership examination of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers.

Jim Skinner
Lecturer, Accounts and Finance
North West Kent College

Jim Skinner is an experienced Lecturer in Accountancy at North West Kent College, teaching at both intermediate and professional levels. Having successfully taken professional exams, he is sympathetic to the problems students’ face in trying to balance part time studies with family and work.

Beverley Simpson
Lecturer, Business Studies and Accounting
North West Kent College

Beverley has been lecturing for five years and delivers on a variety of academic, vocational and professional programmes. She is also a Director of POB solutions, a financial and taxation advisory business, aimed at small business needs.