Punit Oza

Punit Oza is the founder & Director of Maritime NXT, Singapore, which is focussed on driving the “Next” in Maritime through training, teaching, mentoring, consulting & collaborating in commercial shipping & digital transformation space. He is a Senior Adjunct Fellow at Maritime & Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) Academy, an Affiliated Research Fellow at Singapore Management University and a guest lecturer at multiple business schools in China, Singapore, India, Greece, UK & Denmark lecturing on “Geopolitical Risks & their impact on Supply Chain and Trade Flows”. Punit hosts a monthly podcast on Geopolitics & Trade with Seatrade Maritime Podcast, interviewing prominent shipping, trade & technology leaders.

Punit is also the current President & Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers, UK and sits on the board of Netbulk, Singapore as a Non-Executive Director.

Punit started his career in Dry Bulk Shipping over 30 years ago and has held senior management positions in some leading shipping companies including Precious Shipping, Noble Group & Torvald Klaveness, holding senior commercial positions in the group as well as Head of Digital Transformation at Klaveness Dry Bulk.

Punit previously served as the Executive Director of Singapore Chamber of Maritime Arbitration, driving transformation & positive changes, combining legal & commercial expertise. Prior to that, Punit was on the board of Singapore Maritime Foundation.

Mr. Punit Oza is currently the Chief Commercial Officer of FrontM, which is pioneering a holistic digital toolbox bridging the ship-shore divide and optimizing maritime operations.

Punit is deeply involved with the maritime tech-startup space and is also an angel investor and advisor in Motion Ventures, a VC fund focused on sustainable maritime and supply chain startups.

Punit holds a Masters in Shipping, Trade and Finance from Bayes (previously CASS) Business School, UK and an LLB and Post Graduate Diploma in Maritime Law from the University of London.

Mike St-Pierre

Lieutenant Commander Mike St-Pierre is a Clearance Diving and Bomb Disposal Officer, and Commanding Officer of Fleet Diving Unit (Atlantic). Notable assignments include XO of FDU(P), postings abroad with all ABCANZ partners, and three years on exchange with the Royal Navy as Officer in Charge of Southern Diving and Bomb Disposal Unit 2, in Portsmouth, UK. Graduating his CLDO course in 2011, he then qualified as an Explosives Ordnance Disposal Operator in Canada, the US, and the UK. He is also a graduate of the UK's IEDD Operator Course and qualified as a Royal Navy Amphibious Operations Officer.

Mike graduated with Masters degrees from the Canadian Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Toronto, with specialization in CCP unrestricted warfare, currency-war, and elite capture, and IDC Herzliya, Israel, with focus on Middle Eastern Studies, OPEC, and the Straits of Hormuz. His work and research have required extensive travel to all FVEYS partners, numerous NATO allies, the greater Middle East, Latin America, and recent studies in Taiwan. He is a graduate of the Royal Military College of Canada’s Military & Strategic Studies program, with focus on U.S. Foreign Policy. He was inducted into the Order of Military Merit in 2019, currently serves as a Policy Insights Forum International Security Fellow, a Life Member of the Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society, and member of the US National Security Forum. He and his wife, Kristen, spend their evenings and weekends tending to the needs of Lord Howard of Salisbury, a tuxedo cat.

Athanasios Platias

Athanasios G. Platias is a Professor Emeritus of Strategy at the University of Piraeus, the President of the Council of International Relations-Greece, an Athens based think tank, and the Coordinator for Europe of the Mackinder Forum. He received an MA and a PhD in international relations from the Department of Government at Cornell University. He has been a Ford Foundation Fellow at Harvard University, a MacArthur Fellow in International Peace and Security at Harvard/MIT, and a NATO Fellow.

Professor Platias has held several senior advisory positions in the Greek public sector over the last thirty-five years, and has served as non-executive director in publicly listed companies for more than three decades. He also held several senior academic positions, such as Dean of the School of Economics, Business and International Studies, and Chairman of the Department of International and European Studies at the University of Piraeus.

Professor Platias is the author of numerous books and articles. His research and teaching focus on four principal areas: grand strategy; geopolitics and geoeconomics; international security; and leadership.