Martin Baxendale 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.

John Wickham has been involved in the maritime industry for thirty years. He has held senior positions at Inchcape Plc, Denholm Shipmanagement and Wallem Shipmanagement in the UK, Hong Kong and New York. Before joining the MTI Network, he worked for Royal Olympic Cruises Lines Inc. in Piraeus, Greece.

Further to his responsibilities as operations director, he was an active member of the team that took the company public on the Nasdaq stock exchange in 1998. His diverse experience brings a wealth of first hand knowledge of ship owning, ship management and the cruise industry to the MTI Network.

Allyson Cover has been MTI Network Co-ordinator of the MTI Network since its inception in 1990. Allyson is responsible for liaison between clients and the Network on matters such as training, administration and quality. Allyson also organises the majority of the MTI Network client training courses, both in the UK and abroad. She assists in running these courses both at the initial entry level course and at the more advanced levels.

Jim Lawrence is President of the MTI Network and is founding Partner, along with Patrick Adamson in London. He is also President of MTI Network USA. Mr. Lawrence is Chairman of the publishing company Marine Money, which produces the monthly magazine Marine Money, the weekly on-line report Freshly Minted, the newsletter International Ship Registry Review, and the annual directory Official Guide to Registries.

He is also Chairman of International Marketing Strategies Inc. a US based sales and marketing company providing US and non-US based maritime focused companies, governments and associations with sophisticated entry to North American markets.

Mike Hanson has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington, with graduate studies in Systems and Logistics Engineering

He is also a licensed professional Mechanical Engineer in the states of Washington and New York.Between 1988 and 1996 Mike, as Vice President of Vanuatu Maritime Services Limited, was responsible for all phases of the development and operation of the Central Ship Registration office for the Republic of Vanuatu.

Since 1997, Mike has served as Vice President of International Marketing Strategies Inc. and MTI Network (USA). In this time he has acted as Lead Consultant to the Maritime Authority of Jamaica, developing their registry business plan, responded to numerous spills on behalf of MTI clients and makes regular media crisis management training presentations at Qualified Individual courses offered through the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and MTI client offices all over North America.

Darrell Wilson joined us after his retirement from a career with the US Coast Guard as a Public Affairs Specialist. Darrell worked in New York, San Francisco and, for the last 10 years of his career, Alaska. His last assignment with the Coast Guard was the Public Affairs Chief for the state of Alaska. Darrell handled media/community relations and managed Joint Information Centers to handle community concerns during major incidents. He has been involved in a wide range of incidents ranging from stowaways, drug smuggling, rescuing stranded boaters and hikers to major shipwrecks, fires and oil spills.

Darrel also has extensive experience teaching Public Affairs, Crisis Communications and JIC operations to Coast Guard men and women and industry partners. Darrell is based in Oklahoma where he is just a short flight from any coast in the US. His experience, enthusiasm and Coast Guard knowledge will enhance our ability to provide the best Reputation Management services to our clients around the world.

Ferdi Stolzenberg worked in advertising, Hong Kong, until 1976 when he returned to Melbourne, Australia to set up his own corporate communications agency.1983 saw him return to Hong Kong, initially freelancing as a business writer, and then setting up a PR agency in 1985. In late 1985,he met Patrick Adamson and a long-term business relationship commenced. Both specialised in business/banking/shipping PR. In 1990, when Patrick Adamson came up with the idea of carving a niche market in shipping crisis management as a result of OPA '90, he became one of the founding partners of the MTI Network, along with Jim Lawrence.

She is fluent in English, Cantonese and Mandarin and has a basic knowledge of Japanese. Noelle worked as a shipping journalist before joining MTI in 2003, where she has been involved in handling incidents and training, for the past 4 years

Per Ronnevig was educated as a journalist/economist/communicator at The Norwegian Journalist Academy, Norwegian School of Management BI and University of Stockholm.

Per has since worked as a journalist for several Norwegian publications and also served as Assistant Press Attachè at the US Embassy in Oslo, First Secretary and Press Officer in the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Stockholm and Head of Information in The Norwegian Export Council in Oslo.

He was Managing Director of Intervaco AS from 1975, Stayer AS between 1985 and 1997, and between 1997 and 1998 Managing Director of Kreab/Stayer AS

Per has been involved with the MTI Network since 1997 as Senior Partner, responsible for the Scandinavian area. He has handled several major incidents in Nordic waters and also the "Tampa" off Australia, "Tricolor" collision in the Channel and kidnapping of Norwegian seafarers in Nigeria.

Mario Calcagno Mario Calcagno holds a Bachelor Degree in Economics from Bocconi University (Milan). After working as a Senior Consultant for seven years for the first Italian Communication Consultancy Firm Barabino & Partners, he joined HSL in 1997. Mario is in charge of the Press Relations Area of HSL and has worked extensively on incident response and reputation management for some of the most important Italian Airports and Shipping Companies.

Cor Radings (1963) started his career as a journalist working for Rotterdam's biggest daily newspaper. In the late eighties he joined Royal Nedlloyd as a communication officer, working on corporate projects worldwide, covering internal and external communications and crisis communications with an emphasis on the shipping activities. He was actively involved in the communications regarding the merger of Nedlloyd Lines and P&O Container Line.

After Nedlloyd, Cor Radings moved to worldwide dredging company Royal Boskalis Westminster as Head of Corporate Communications and company spokesman. With Royal Boskalis he was a member of the crisis management team, responsible for communications. In 1999 he joined PR agency BIJL Partners as a senior advisor for corporate communications and crisis communications.

Ruud Bijl (1958) is an all-round senior in the communication business. Having worked as a journalist he joined the PR agency business in the eighties working for airline companies and the shipping industry in the field of crisis communications. In 1991 Ruud Bijl founded his own agency BIJL Partners in Public Relations which is now within the top 10 of independent PR agencies in the Netherlands, employing just over 20 people. Within its portfolio BIJL is serving the logistics and shipping industry.

The company joined the MTI Network in 2002. Ruud Bijl also plays an active role in various social organisations and international networks of PR agencies to which BIJL is affiliated.

Lars Walder (1964) worked for 10 years as a journalist for many of the leading Dutch television stations before joining one of the leading international maritime service providers, Smit International in 2000, as Corporate Communications Manager.

Lars Walder is well known for his role in managing the media response for Smit International of Rotterdam, during the high profile salvage operations involving the sunken Russian submarine 'Kursk', the oil tanker 'Prestige' and the car carrier 'Tricolor'.

Anthony Tregoning is managing director of Financial & Corporate Relations (FCR), a leading corporate and investor communication agency which has assisted with 25 IPOs and 27 M&A transactions in the past three years. He advises a wide range of clients throughout the Asia-Pacific region on communication strategy, investor relations, corporate image marketing and issues management. He previously operated a financial media/marketing consultancy after spending three years as chief executive of an international trade finance company. Earlier Anthony was director of an international educational publishing group, responsible for companies in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.

Brian Mahoney has been a director of FCR since 1987. He co-ordinated media relations throughout the Tampa dispute on behalf of the ship's owner, and has managed communication in a wide variety of crises. These have included a union threat to cargoes suspected of being contaminated with foot and mouth disease; oil spills; customer deaths from legionnaires disease; the threatened flooding of a mine; and companies being placed in bankruptcy.As well as crisis and issues management, Brian advises companies on media relations, and investor and employee communication. He has some 30 years' experience in corporate and financial communication, including roles as public relations consultant, senior finance journalist with The Australian and columnist on the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph.

Yoshinori Fukushima graduated from Meiji University with a major in Agricultural Chemistry. After a few years working under film production, he joined a leading company of retail chain stores as a director of research and development division of new media, and as a sales manager of TV copyrights.

He now works as a PR director of Japan PR Vision, whose main clients include e-commerce business, IT business, retail business, entertainment business, and others.

Miho Senju graduated from Rikkyo-University, Japan. While working as a planning specialist for a middle-sized cosmetics company, she became deeply interested in Public Relations. Following this, she gained experience with a US computer company and the joined the team at Japan PR Vision.

Miho Senju had now more than 10 years of PR experience with a variety of industry projects, such as the gold market, jewellery, cultural exhibition, toiletries, the Olympic support program.

Elise Croonen started her career in Sales, but was drawn more and more to Marketing, PR & Communication, which have been her main occupation since 1991. She completed her education studying in the evenings from 1991 until 1998, while working as Marketing & PR Manager in the daytime. In 2001 she moved to Greece and got involved in the Shipping Industry, first as Marketing & PR Manager for Unimarine Services Ltd. and now as Marketing & Sales Manager for TWA Trans-It Worldwide Agencies S.A. (Greece) and Trans-It ApS (Denmark).

Yap Boh Tiong is the Managing Director of Mileage Communications Pte Ltd. He has more than 30 years experience in the mass communication field encompassing journalism, public relations, advertising and marketing. He worked with a number of leading companies such as Singapore Airlines, United Overseas Bank (UOB) and Inchcape Berhad in senior public relations and marketing positions.

He also has provided public relations advice and service to the National Productivity Board for almost a decade, the Housing and Development Board, the Singapore Central Provident Fund Board, the Ministry of Education, and Singapore Red Cross.

Yap Boh Tiong has a Masters Degree in Social Science (Sociology) from the University of Singapore and also holds a Diploma in Public Relations from the internationally regarded CAM Foundation in London.

He was the President of the Institute of Public Relations of Singapore (IPRS) from 1985 to 1993 and is a member of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA). For his outstanding work for the Institute and the industry, he was conferred the title of Fellow by IPRS in 1994. In February 2000, the Institute named him PR Professional of the Year, in recognition of his contributions to the PR Industry.

Patsy Phay is the Executive Director of Mileage Communications Pte Ltd. She has more than 18 years of banking experience. Prior to joining Mileage, Patsy was with the Credit Department at the Regional Head Office Singapore of Deutsche Bank AG.

Patsy made a career switch to public relations by making use of her public relations qualifications which she acquired from the internationally regarded CAM Foundation in London. At Mileage, she developed investor relations programmes for public listed companies. She also spearheaded the communications programmes for companies in the financial, IT, biotech/pharmaceutical/healthcare, high-end consumer & lifestyle sectors. Patsy has handled many shipping and non-shipping crises for clients over the past 10 years.

Nick Wheywell brings a wealth of knowledge and over ten years of experience to the MTI Network.

He has experience in a variety of industries such as shipping and transportation, hospitality and tourism, construction and property, finance and banking, IT, as well as sport, the automotive industries and FMCG. He has worked in the Middle-East, Dubai, for five years and currently holds the position of General Manager at Perspective Public Relations.

Sheena Campbell-Royle O.B.E is a Psychology graduate from Kent and Canterbury Universities. Sheena moved to Spain in the seventies and is currently MD and one of the three partners of SCR public relations. The three partners started the company in 1986 in Barcelona and after 18 years in the market SCR has busy offices in Madrid and Barcelona.

The company has a long history in crisis communication, lobby and media training. Sheena is also President of COBCOE (Council of British Chambers in Continental Europe).

Verena Duchoud-Heeb was born and bred in Switzerland, but her origins (UK, Netherlands, and Thailand) have given her a taste for the international markets. After receiving the Bachelor of Science in International Hospitality Management at the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne in Switzerland, Verena started to work as the Assistant to the Unit Manager of Gate Gourmet in Barcelona - Spain, the Airline Catering Company belonging to the Swissair Group. For that same entity, Verena worked for a year on the operational side in Process Improvement Projects for catering units in Stockholm, Sweden and Lisbon, Portugal, which underwent major restructuring. After the 11th September 2001, she left the Swissair Group and took on the position of Sales Executive in the Hotel Le Meridian in Barcelona, being responsible for the corporate offer within Spain and supporting the international sales team.

At the beginning of 2003, Verena joined forces with SCR Public Relations and is General Manager since October 2004. Verena is fluent in English, German, Spanish, French and Italian.

Herman Zaaiman BMil (Science), MBA

Anthony Ashmead Cole BMil (Geog), MBA

Henry de La Garza is an internationally prominent public relations executive whose business has taken him around the world. His career spans nearly four decades of professional experience as a freelance writer, an award-winning network television news producer, public spokesman for AT&T, press secretary for the mayors of El Paso and Houston, and the founder of an award winning public relations firm. His agency is annually ranked among the city's top ten public relations firms by the Houston Business Journal. de La Garza Public Relations will commemorate its 25th anniversary beginning January 2, 2007. Mr. de La Garza is the past Chairman of Pinnacle Worldwide, Inc. - a consortium of more than 60 independent public relations firms with offices in major cities. In addition to being a member of Pinnacle Worldwide since 1991, his firm also serves as the Texas gulf coast representative for the MTI Network of maritime crisis communications agencies. He has written and lectured extensively on the subject of public relations, and his byline commentaries frequently appear in The Houston Chronicle and the Houston Business Journal. A native Texan and first-generation American, Mr. de La Garza is Accredited in Public Relations by the Public Relations Society of America.

Tom K Stewart holds a B. S. degree in Industrial Psychology and the Master of Business Administration (Management) degree. His Shell career of more than 36 years included assignments as a writer, editor, representative, manager and senior manager at Shell locations in Deer Park, New York City, New Orleans, and corporate headquarters in Houston. Prior to retirement, he held the position of Senior Manager, Corporate Communications. Now a senior crisis communications counselor with de La Garza, Stewart brings a full range of high level communications capabilities including reputation management, strategic planning and program development. He has served clients firms in energy, chemical, health care, telecommunications, public utilities, manufacturing, politics, academia, and entertainment. Stewart is an accredited member of the Public Relations Society of America, and the PRSA College of Fellows. In 2001 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Houston Chapter, PRSA.

Sérgio Poroger holds a degree in Journalism and has great experience in working with a wide range of clients across a variety of sectors- whether in Brazil or in the Southern Cone countries. After working for nine years at the group of O Estado de S. Paulo, he founded SPMJ, together with Maria José Arrojo, in 1986.

Jean-François Lebrun has made his mark in Public Affairs by providing his analytical strengths and his issues management capabilities to the top management of large private and public sector organisations. He can call on his solid, in-depth knowledge of the fifth estate thanks to a 20-year tenure in journalism. During his media career, Jean-François was involved in the three major types of news outlets: radio (Telemedia Network), television (TVA Network) and print (Journal de Montréal as A columnist and News Director). In business, he displayed his talents as an executive working for the Quebecor Group and the Fonds de solidarité FTQ. As an entrepreneur, he owned and operated radio stations before founding his own public relations consultancy. He has also lectured on Public Relations at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM) and at Concordia University.

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