MEMBERS OF ISCO COUNCIL
AUSTRALIA
John Wardrop (Seer Associates) is specialised in oil spill response, training, impact assessment and rehabilitation. He has been a member of ISCO since 2008. Experience includes acting as consultant to government and industry for over 25 years, emergency and oil spill response planning and training, environmental management, development and implementation of HSE management sysyems. He has work experience in Australia, PR CHINA, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Russia, UK, PR Vietnam, PNG and USA. Seer Associates
AZERBAIJAN
Osman Tarzumanov is Oil Spill Lead Advisor, Crisis, Continuity Management and Emergency Response for BP Exploration (Caspian Sea) Ltd. and is based in Baku, Azerbaijan
BRAZIL
Flavio P. de Andrade – Flavio is a Naval Architect and Marine Engineer from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) working on the Ocean Business for more than 30 years with extensive experience on the shipbuilding, fisheries, shipping, oil spill preparedness and response, environmental services, offshore supply vessel and oceanographic survey sectors. Flavio is the founder and CEO of OceanPact, a Brazilian maritime services company, and a board member of Witt O’Brien’s do Brasil.Flavio’s activities on the oil spill response business started earlier in 1996 with a medium sized barge spill in Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro, with major roles in several other spills such as the year 2000 pipeline spill also in Guanabara Bay, the Vicuña tanker spill in Paranaguá in 2004, the Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico response in 2010 and the Frade Oil Field response, Campos basin, Brasil in 2011 / 2012. Flavio was born in 1964 in Rio de Janeiro, where he lives with his wife, two sons and one daughter, has a post graduate degree in Petroleum Business by COPPE/UFRJ and speaks English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. Flavio is also an enthusiastic amateur sailor and diver.
CANADA
Merv Fingas, M.Sc., Ph.D., has worked for more than 25 years in the field of oil spill technology at Environment Canada’s Environmental Technology Center in Ottawa, Ontario. As head of the Emergencies Science Division at the Centre, he currently conducts and manages research and development projects in the sciences as they relate to spill measurement, evaluation, and control. His specialties include spill dynamics and behaviour, studies of spill-treating agents, in-situ burning of oil spills, and the technology of personal protection equipment. He is called upon to make presentations on these subjects at international conferences around the world. Dr. Fingas earned his doctorate in environmental sciences from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. He also holds master’s degrees in science and business administration from the University of Ottawa in Ontario, as well as a bachelor of arts degree and technical training in machining and electronics. Dr. Fingas has authored or co-authored more than 450 technical reports and papers on various aspects of oil spill research. These include writings on the development of new and improved procedures for testing dispersants and extracting solvents, studies of water-in-oil emulsions and dispersants, monitoring oil spill concentrations, identifying the source of oil spills, studies of chemical treating agents and their effectiveness, in-situ burning of oil spills and the emissions from such fires, oil spill remote sensors, and the review and selection of personal protection equipment. Dr. Fingas is on the editorial board of the Journal of Hazardous Materials, the Spill Science and Technology Bulletin, and the Journal of Micro-Column Separations, and has served as guest editor for several special issues of these publications. In 1999, he was appointed to the United States Academy of Sciences and is a member of an eight-person committee to review the sources, fate, and effects of oil in the sea. He is vice-chairman of the American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM) F-20 Committee on Spill Standards, and chairman of the In-situ Oil Spill Burning Committee.
CHINA (Hong Kong)
This position is currently vacant.
CHINA (Mainland)
This position is currently vacant, but Wu Yue is ISCO’s Ambassador in China. His company is Hong Kong Spill Response Technology Ltd. He is also very much involved in training and manages The Shandong International Ocean Engineering Training Center which has been recognized as the best training provider by the World of Safety & Health Asia Awards 2022. Courses provided by the center include POITO, GWO, SIOTEC and oil spill response training.
.CROATIA
Mr Darko Domovic MSc, former Senior Programme Officer for REMPEC in Malta is now Technical Advisor to the Oil Spill Education Centre in Croatia. A more complete profile is under preparation.
EGYPT
Eng. Ashraf Sabet is a respected figure in Egyptian pollution control circles. He has been with the Arab Academy for Science and Technology and Marine Transport since 1975 and was responsible for the operation of the Cairo Branch. Many of his former students now hold responsible positions in government. With his long experience in the maritime industry, he has represented Egypt and the Arab Academy at numerous international conferences. He is Chairman and CEO of PESCO a leading pollution Egyptian response company which holds the vice-chair of MOIG, the Mediterranean Oil Spill Group dedicated to advancing regional pollution control co-operation. He took a key role in establishing OSRAM and is the first President of this regional spill response alliance which promotes operational co-operation between leading response companies in Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Malta, Spain, and Turkey.
ESTONIA
Torbjörn Hedrenius is Managing Director of Hedro Balti OÜ, an oil spill response company with operations in Estonia, Latvia and Sweden. A more complete profile is under preparation.
FAROE ISLANDS
Pauli Einarsson is Managing Director of Oil Spill Response Faroes P/F. A more complete profile is under preparation.
GREECE
Prof. Harilaos N. Psaraftis is Professor of Maritime Transport at the School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). has permanently relocated to Denmark and has stepped down as the representative of Greece. The appointment of the new Member of Council for Greece will be announced as soon as possible.
INDIA
Captain D. C. Sekhar, heading AlphaMERS, is an experienced captain of large seagoing tankers and is a trained and experienced internal auditor of ISM, ISPS, WMS, QMS and PMS. He is a trained and experienced incident investigator. He has completed finance management at Singapore and executive general management at the renowned Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. He is a passionate writer on marine technical issues in trade magazines and a speaker at many trade seminars. He heads AlphaMERS and also the sister company from the same promoters, engaged in techno commercial feasibility studies of coastal and inland water projects.
ISRAEL
Major Ben Benny is a former Major in the Israeli navy and currently acts as the Chief Operations Officer of the marine services and spill response company named M.Danchor Ltd.
KENYA
Sanjay Gandhi is a Civil Engineer and qualified OHSAS 18001 Lead Auditor who was born and raised in Kenya. He is Director of Nutek Solutions Ltd., a Nairobi-based company providing HSE consulting and support services for clients in the petroleum, manufacturing and service sectors. Before founding his company, Sanjay worked for Chevron in Africa and the USA for 14 years and became deeply involved in oil spill prevention and control. He was author of the Kenya National Marine Oil Spill Response Contingency Plan which has been adopted as a working document by the IMO for Kenya. Together with Dr Andrew Holmes of Shell/BP he was the co-founder of Kenya’s Oil Spill Mutual Aid Group (OSMAG), a grouping of seven major oil companies who invested in equipment and response preparedness training. As a specialist in incident investigation and root cause analysis, he has delivered lectures in Africa and several overseas countries.
LUXEMBOURG
Joe Braun is Managing Director of Environmental Services Europe s.à.r.l. A more complete profile is under preparation.
NETHERLANDS
Dennis Van der Veen graduated in 2007 from the Open University in Environmental Sciences, specialising in environmental risks in the marine transport of hazardous goods. He has 20 years of professional experience in environmental sciences, of which 10 years with the Dutch Institute for Applied Sciences TNO and 12 years at the Dutch governmental agency Rijkswaterstaat. In both the positions at Rijkswaterstaat and at ASCC Mr. Van der Veen is international recognized as expert on remote sensing and bioremediation. Dennis Van der Veen has executed and managed a number of projects, including EU-projects and EU-workshops on topics dealing with oil spill response, law enforcement and remote sensing of spills. He is co-author of the IMO Guidelines on Bioremediation. Currently Mr. Van der Veen is crisis manager at Rijkswaterstaat and as such involved in oil spill preparation and response in the Dutch Wadden Sea.
NIGERIA
Chief Kola Agboke, an experienced PetroleumEngineer with over 35 years service in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry,is the Chairman and CEO of Marindus Holdings Ltd., the parent company of Salvesen Pollution Services Nigeria Ltd. and Marine & Industrial Services Nig. Ltd. Chief Kola’s companies serve Nigerian industry, including oil and gas (both offshore and onshore), providing oil and chemical spill response contingency planning, training, emergency response, spill management, response equipment sales and environmental consultancy services. He was a pioneer of oil pollution control in Nigeria and keeps up-to-date by attending major international conferences and other events worldwide. As a former employee of Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) he served on government panels to raise standards of oil industry E&P practice in the Niger Delta in conformity with government regulations. He was also been extensively involved in technology transfer throughout the Nigerian Petroleum Industry and has served on government committees, advising on pollution control and environmental matters. Chief Kola was one of the first members to join the re-launched ISCO and strongly supports the organisation’s objectives.
PANAMA
Carlos Sagrera works in Panama as specialist in oil spill prevention and response for the public and private sector. He is a former LCDR (Uruguayan Navy) and Environmental Geographer (UCL, Belgium). He has been a member of ISCO since 2011. Experience includes acting as operational manager with the principal OSRO in Panama OPC until 2008 including offshore and onshore spills level Tier 2 and 3. After this he had worked as consultant to several OSRO in the Central America region and Mexico. He had supported the last 20 years the Latin America Oil & Gas industry, several governments and regional specialized organizations with their NCP and the regional cooperation in emergency and oil spill response, planning and training. As environmental consultant he had managed several national and regional projects for international funding organizations and the NU environmental system, working actually for IMC Panama as external advisor. He has work experience in Panama, Belize, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Aruba, Mexico, USA, Argentina, Brasil, Paraguay and Uruguay.
SINGAPORE
Chris Richards – Originally at sea with BP Tankers, Chris Richards has now been in the Oil Spill business for more than 20 years, having started as an Operator at what is now OSRL (then BPOSRB) in Southampton, UK in 1982. Shortly after returning from the response to the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska in 1989, Chris moved on to spend 4 years managing an Oil Spill Response Centre in Dundee, Scotland on behalf or BP Exploration until returning to OSRL for a 2 year stint as Training Superintendent in 1993. Chris then briefly left the world of oil spills to run an emergency response training centre in the Philippines until 1996, when he returned to the fray by taking over the management of a commercial response centre in Singapore, SOSRC (Singapore Oil Spill Response Centre), part of a marine salvage company (Semco). Both SOSRC and Semco are now part of the world’s biggest port operator, PSA, and Chris’ role has greatly expanded as one of Semco’s Senior Managers and includes marine salvage operations (as Salvage Master), HSE, Quality and Security Management of the whole company and and integral role in the operational management of Semco’s Fleet of ocean going Tugs and Offshore Vessels.
SOUTH AFRICA
Mrs Fatima B Shaik is the South Africal Petroleum Industry Association’s Head of Health, Safety, Security and Environment. Fatima has been involved in environment matters since 1996. She holds a Masters in Business leadership, Masters in Science: Environmental Management (cum laude), B-Tech: Environmental Health, and N.Dip: in Environmental Health. Prior to joining SAPIA she was Country HSSE manager for Shell South Africa where she worked with various Industry members, SAPIA committees and other business fora.She currently plays a key role in working with a range of internal and external stakeholders (Government, Business, International, etc.) in promoting HSSE within the sector; co-creating the countries HSSE legislative frameworks; co-ordinating industry initiatives, including oil spill response preparedness and was recently appointed to the Advisory Council of Occupational Health and Safety.
THE NETHERLANDS
Dennis Van der Veen graduated in 2007 from the Open University in Environmental Sciences, specialising in environmental risks in the marine transport of hazardous goods. He has 20 years of professional experience in environmental sciences, of which 10 years with the Dutch Institute for Applied Sciences TNO and 12 years at the Dutch governmental agency Rijkswaterstaat. In both the positions at Rijkswaterstaat and at ASCC Mr. Van der Veen is international recognized as expert on remote sensing and bioremediation. Dennis Van der Veen has executed and managed a number of projects, including EU-projects and EU-workshops on topics dealing with oil spill response, law enforcement and remote sensing of spills. He is co-author of the IMO Guidelines on Bioremediation.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Dr Ali Saeed Al Ameri is Chairman and Managing Director of a number of companies in the UAE and GCC countries. His wide-ranging business interests include oil and gas services, management consultancy, training and development. His PhD is in Management and Organizational Culture and he is a qualified specialist in adult training, combining theoretical and practical aspects of management. He has been extensively involved in the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies Research and has arranged conferences, symposia and lectures, generally concerned with promoting educational and scientific development of the UAE. Dr Ali has a special interest in pollution control and strongly believes in the aims and values of ISCO.
UNITED KINGDOM
Mr Kevin Miller is the founder and manager of HazmatLINK, established in 2004 and now a leading company in providing innovative solutions, assisting clients to manage their hazardous materials and be better prepared to deal with incidents involving hazardous materials. Kevin also works with the emergency services and governments, providing advice and consultancy on planning and managing incidents involving hazardous materials whether they be as a result of an accident or a deliberate release. Prior to founding HazmatLINK, Kevin managed the United Kingdom’s National Chemical Emergency Centre (NCEC). In this role he was responsible for ensuring a rapid and professional response to over 1500 incidents per year ranging from consumer poisonings through to major road accidents and large scale incidents aboard marine vessels. Before working at the NCEC, he was responsible for providing Environmental, Health Safety corporate support to a large international petrochemical company with a turnover of $6 billion and employing over 30,000 staff. Kevin has been involved in a number of projects and activities including developing national dangerous goods regulations and standards, dangerous goods transport corridor risk assessments, rapid assessment of hazardous sites for environmental agencies, part of the Department for Transport working group that developed the code of practice for security of dangerous goods transported by road and rail, assisted in the development of the European Emergency Response Intervention Cards (ERICards), peer reviewed the CDC/NIOSH’s emergency response safety and health database, acted as the scientific advisor to emergency services for a number of exercises and incidents and assisted in the establishment of chemical emergency response teams and support centres. Kevin speaks regularly on issues related to hazardous materials management and emergency response, topics have included looking at hazmat in the urban search and rescue environment, the illicit use of chemicals for terrorism and the implications of new technology on hazmat response. Many organisations have benefited from receiving training from Kevin, including major chemical companies, dangerous goods transport companies, environmental agencies, fire and police and the military. Kevin has a degree in Environmental Science and Chemistry and is a member of the Emergency Planning Society playing an active role in the CBRN Special Interest Group and the Society of Industrial Emergency Safety Officers.
UNITED STATES
Dr. Manik Sardessai serves as a Vice President of Technical and Environmental Affairs and Director of Training of Detroit, Michigan, USA based Marine Pollution Control (MPC) Corporation. He is responsible for developing both in-house and client training programs, including development and oversight of all course content and compliance with applicable local, state and federal regulations and delivers instructions in 40, 24, and 8 Hour Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HazWoper, CFR 1910.120) courses, DOT, Incident Command Systems (ICS), and Chemistry classes. As a Faculty, he has taught both undergraduate and graduate level courses at Wayne State University, U.S.A. and University of Saskatchewan, Canada. At MPC, he is responsible for all elements of Corporate Health and Safety Program, including the development and enforcement of Site-Specific Health and Safety in support of emergency operations and scheduled projects. He provides Technical Advice on Chemicals; use, handling, recovery, transport, remedial procedures and actions, and supervision during emergency response involving chemicals. He also develops compliance policies and related Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Dr. Sardessai’s education includes a Master of Science degree from Bombay University and a Ph.D. in Chemistry (Pharm.) from Wayne State University, USA. He is trained in nuclear, biological and chemical response at US Army School, Fort McClellan, Alabama. He has published over thirty publications in reputed journals and in abstracts and posters form, and has delivered invited presentations both nationally and internationally. He has been a member of the technical Support Team, Wayne County Emergency Management in Michigan. Since 2002, he has been a member of Chemical Transportation Advisory Committee (CTAC) (USCG, USA).