The rapidly-growing group has a clear agenda to drive change through new initiatives in areas such as global standards, sustainability, data-driven procurement practices, and talent and leadership.
The GMPC has moved quickly to formalise its purpose, setting out a vision and values statement as well as a charter for council members. The group will comprise a General Council, which will act as the leadership body for all matters concerning the workstreams and agenda, supported by a wider Forum Council. Together, the two councils could represent more than 10,000 ocean-going vessels.
The group will establish workstreams that include council members and other invited industry specialists who will share their time and expertise to develop new working practices and standards aimed at driving improved efficiency. At the meeting held on September 11th, the General Council identified two priority workstreams that will soon begin their work.
The first workstream, Procurement Leadership and Talent Management, will be led by Alex Drew, Procurement Director at FLEET Management Limited. This group will focus on developing frameworks to support and inspire the procurement leaders of tomorrow. The second workstream will address the increasingly important digitalisation agenda, led by GMPC Chair Paolo Magonio, Head
of Group Procurement and Services at Scorpio Ship Management S.A.M.. This task force will have a broad remit focused on driving innovation, efficiency, and collaboration across the supply chain.
Paolo explained the GMPC role to say “We are a group of like-minded procurement professionals that have joined to form a collaborative forum that will share ideas and work together to create innovation, harmonisation, education and transformation in the global maritime sector. Our aim will be to deliver genuine value to ship operating companies and the wider maritime supply chain eco-system”.
The GMPC’s line-up of leading ship owners and managers continues to grow stronger, with Pacific Basin (Samar Das, Head of Technical Procurement), NSB Group (Christian Sinz, VP Corporate Value Chain Management), Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (Shabnam Ahmed, Group Director – Procurement), and Starbulk (Alexander Aliferopoulos, Business Development Director, Ship Procurement Services) welcomed as the latest members.
The Council now represents around 4,000 vessels and comprises: BW LPG (Rick Ackermann, Head of Procurement), d’Amico Shipping (Francesco Leboffe, Procurement Manager), FLEET Management Limited (Alex Drew, Procurement Director), Stena Northern Marine (Stephen Fulton, Head of Purchasing), OSM Thome (Jesper Larsen, Vice President, Technical Purchasing), Scorpio Ship Management S.A.M. (Paolo Magonio, Head of Group Procurement and Services), Synergy Marine Group (Natarajan Duraisamy, Head of Procurement), and Wilhelmsen Ship Management (John Beck, Vice President, Procurement), with more members to be confirmed in the coming weeks.
The group plans to expand its Council membership to include additional leading shipping companies whose representatives share the philosophy of collaboration for change and progress. Whilst creating an open forum within the industry, the Council has agreed to a full commitment to complying with all applicable competition and antitrust laws and to protecting the confidentiality of the companies they represent.
The group will be supported by the International Marine Purchasing Association (IMPA), which will provide administration and communications services to the GMPC. Meetings and announcements will be issued via IMPA’s channels, including at annual events
in London, Hamburg, and Singapore.
Readers interested in joining the GMPC agenda are encouraged to contact IMPA Secretary General and COO Steve Alexander at salexander@impa.net in the first instance.
Mission Statement
Like-minded maritime procurement professionals working together to make lasting change.
Vision
As a group of like-minded maritime procurement professionals, we will collaborate to create innovation, harmonisation, education and transformation in the global maritime sector.
Our aim will be to deliver genuine value to ship operating companies and the wider global supply chain eco system.
We will do this by creating industry working groups that will combine experience and knowledge to drive progress and improvement in areas such as global standards, sustainability, data-driven procurement practices and talent and leadership.
We are committed to complying with all applicable competition and antitrust laws. We recognise the importance of fair collaboration and expect all members to uphold these principles in council activities.
Our values
• We embrace change.
• We look for creative solutions.
• We are open and honest.
• We protect the sovereignty and confidentiality of the companies we represent.
• We listen and we are flexible in our approach.