Paul Foley is Regional Manager (Europe), for Oil Spill Response Ltd (OSRL) Paul is a seasoned environmental professional with over 20 years in oil spill preparedness, response, crisis management, and hands-on experience attending incidents worldwide. As Regional Manager (Europe) for OSRL, he ensures readiness and operational excellence. Paul’s leadership and innovative problem-solving have driven industry best practices. He actively contributes to professional boards, advancing good practice guidance to benefit the environmental response community.
Zäl Rustom is a crisis and incident management practitioner with over thirty-five years’ experience. Originally focussed on incident response for oil and transport industries, Zäl now covers all risks and all hazards across all business genre and with a global remit. Since 1989 he has been involved in response to many major incidents, including significant oil spills, HazMat incidents, major business continuity issues and numerous transport and terrorist events. Zäl co-authored Exercise Clean Seas, an IMO Model Exercise and serves as an IMO registered consultant. Zäl is a Member of the Energy Institute and the Institute of Strategic Risk Management, and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights.
Captain Nick Sloane was born in Zambia, and finished high school at Kearsney College in South Africa – where he still lives. Nick has been involved in casualties and salvage for over 40 years, and has responded to incidents in the middle east; the far east, north and south America – and on the continent and Islands around Africa. He was involved in 7 shore-crossing pipeline projects around Africa and 3 in the Black Sea, the installation of SBM’s and Gravity-Base Control Buoy – start-up manager for the Caspian Pipeline Consortium – Russia, and the Angola LNG Project, the setting up of Eco-Shelf Black Sea – to look after the Black-Sea CPC terminal oil-pollution contingency plans. Nick was appointed to the Lloyds Panel of Special Casualty Representatives in 2010 and sat as the immediate past-President of the ISU (International Salvage Union) from November 2020 until December 2023. He is a Fellow of both the Nautical Institute and the International Institute of Marine Surveyors.
Captain Bill Boyle has over 30 years of involvement in Oil Spill Response in the marine environment, from acting as Master of the UK Dedicated Response Vessels Forth Explorer & British Shield to his current role as an Oil Spill Response Consultant.
Bill has tremendous operational experience working internationally, attending well known oil spill incidents including Piper Alpha (1988), Braer (1993), Sea Empress (1996) and Deep Water Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico (2010). He has also been involved in oil removal projects from sunken wrecks and taken part in many oil spill response exercises in UK and International waters around the World. He has worked closely with Marine and Government Agencies in the UK, France, USA, Brazil, India, Mexico and Singapore. In 2018 he was appointed an ISAS Principal Marine Accreditation Assessor carrying out accreditation assessments on UK Oil Spill Response Organizations on behalf of the UK MCA.
Matthew Sommerville has over 40 years experience in oil spill response, including a decade at the UK Government Warren Spring Laboratory supporting incidents and developing a full range of spill technologies. Mathew later moved into the commercial side of the industry working at Briggs, Seacor, NRC and OSRL as well as Saudi Aramco and Shell on preparedness, incident response and oil spill management. Rounding out his experience he has served as Director of the Claims Department of the International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds, and in 2015 he established Spectrum to provides independent advice and consultancy based on his experience to U.N., Government, Ship Owner, Insurers and other stakeholders.
Wu Yue has over 20 years of experience in the maritime safety, environmental protection, and spill response industries, establishing himself as a leading expert in their field.
WuYue’s dedication to the industry is further exemplified through his involvement as a Director of the International Spill Control Organization (ISCO). This esteemed position allows him to contribute to the development and implementation of international standards and best practices in spill response and environmental protection.
As the Managing Director of the SIOETC International Ocean Engineering Training Center (SIOETC), WuYue holds a pivotal role in leading one of China’s foremost providers of industry safety training. SIOETC is a leading training institute in China that provides certification and skill training to marine resources practitioners, and in December 2024, it became the first
training centre in China to be certified by IOSH. As a member of the International Maritime Rescue Federation (IMRF), SIOETC is committed to improving the safety, environmental protection and survival skills of personnel at sea, and enhancing the accident survival rate and rescue success rate.
Rupert Bravery is Chairman of ISCO. Rupert enjoyed a lengthy career with ExxonMobil, holding a variety of commercial, operational and governance roles covering Europe, Africa & the Middle East. In the latter part of his service he was Emergency Preparedness and Response Advisor covering all corporate activities and for all risks, at both tactical and strategic level. Within that role Rupert represented ExxonMobil on a number of joint Industry/Ipieca initiatives such as the Marine Spill Group and the Global The Global Oiled Wildlife Response System (GOWRS). He also chaired two of the IMO/Industry Global Initiatives for improving spill response – GI WACAF, covering West and Central Africa, and the Oil Spill Preparedness Regional Initiative (OSPRI), covering the Back Sea and Caspian region. Rupert is now an independent consultant with a global remit. Rupert holds an Honours degree in Economics from the University of Sussex and is currently attached to their Faculty of Engineering & Informatics as a Fellow and Honorary Professor. His proudest achievement is his 13 year Chairmanship of the Johnson Beharry VC Foundation, which works to help young people leave street gangs and develop sustainable lives.
