Maritime Advisory Board
Below is a list of the Maritime Advisory Board members. Click on a person to get a short bio and contact information (if available).
Nigel Palmer commenced his career at sea as a Cadet with BP Tanker Co. in 1967 and served on a variety of ship types before attaining command in 1984. He subsequently gained experience in a number of shore appointments before attending Business School in the UK and Japan in 1988.Seconded in 1991 to the Australian North West Shelf LNG Project in Japan and, in 1994, to Australia as General Manager of the LNG shipping company, returning in 1997 to BP Shipping in the UK to head up the Ship Operations Group with responsibility for the commercial, operational and technical management of the BP Fleet of 30+ Oil, Gas & Offshore vessels.
In August 2002 became Director, Group Marine Assurance with responsibility for the risk management activities of BP Shipping, including third party ship and terminal vetting, plus the wider LNG and Offshore Loading Projects of the BP Group. In January 2004 took up a new role as Director, Government & Industry with responsibility for the external interfaces of BP Shipping with the wider industry.
Following retirement from BP Shipping in August 2004 he continues to be involved in the shipping industry, and formed his own company in 2005 providing general industry marine advice.
Nigel has been Chairman of the Merchant Navy Training Board since 2000 and the Maritime Skills Alliance (which brings together the Merchant & Royal Navies, together with the Ports, Fishing and Leisure industries on maritime training issues) since its formation in 2004. He is also a member of the Sea Vision UK National Core Group.
He is Chairman of the Britannia P&I Club, and a non-exec Director of the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA). He is a Trustee of the Marine Society & Sea Cadets, Slater Fund, CHIRP and the Shipwrecked Mariners Society and is also a member of the Board of Glasgow Nautical College.
Captain Palmer is a Younger Brother of Trinity House and was appointed OBE in the 2007 Queen’s Birthday Honours list for services to the shipping industry.
He lives in Felixstowe, Suffolk and is married with three adult children. Hobbies include sailing and golf.
In
May 2003, Philip Wake became the Chief Executive of The Nautical Institute – the
international professional body for qualified seafarers – having served in the
Secretariat since November 1999. Prior to that, he was Chairman of the voluntary
London Branch 1998/99 and was elected a Fellow in 1996.Previously, he served at sea from Cadet to Chief Officer with Ellerman City Liners before coming ashore to a container consortium (including establishing a new commercial department). He became a Senior Consultant in shipping economics at LMIS, and latterly was a Director of Clarkson Research Studies.
He holds an MSc in Shipping, Trade, and Finance from the City University Business School, London and a Master’s Certificate of Competency (Foreign Going). He also served in the Royal Naval Reserve specialising in Mine Counter Measures and Naval Control of Shipping.
Peter Cardy was born on the south coast of England, where at an early age he developed a lifelong interest in sailing and the sea. He studied for his first degree at Durham University and undertook an MSc at Cranfield Institute of Technology.He spent the first part of his career working in adult education in the east of England and the north of Scotland. For twenty years from 1987 he ran the UK’s major charities concerned with the dread diseases – motor neurone, multiple sclerosis and cancer.
He has written and lectured extensively on the management of these uniquely complicated bodies, with their devolved structures, large numbers of volunteers and small staff, and multiple goals of service improvement, research and policy change. He has been a member of many national and international professional bodies and foundations. In 2001 he was honoured with the Charcot medal of which fewer than a dozen have been awarded, all others to senior physicians.
In a change of direction Peter joined the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in March 2007. Peter Cardy remains idealistic about making the world a better place. He expects to utilise his experience of running complex, multi-functional organisations for the benefit of seafarers and the users of the seas of our island nation.
Stuart Carruthers joined the RYA in January 2005 as the Cruising Manager. He took up sailing at an early age and has been passionately fond of the sport ever since. He has sailed extensively in many parts of the world including most of the European and North Mediterranean coastline and as a boat owner has acquired a detailed knowledge of the many issues which are of concern to the recreational boating sector.
Stuart is a Chartered Marine Engineer and is registered as Eur Ing with FEANI. Apart from his technical responsibilities, he takes a keen interest in regulatory matters that affect the recreational sector and is a member of the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) International Regulations Commission. He frequently represents ISAF at the International Maritime Organisation on a number of committees and sub committees. He is a member of the Recreational Craft Directive (RCD) Experts Group and a number of its related sub committees.
Above all, Stuart is committed to the ethos of the RYA which embraces the need for self reliance, safety and proper training.
Prior to joining the MAIB in 2002, he served in the Royal Navy. Specialising in navigation, he commanded six warships, including the amphibious ship HMS FEARLESS and the aircraft carrier HMS ILLUSTRIOUS. As a Rear Admiral, he was the Commander of UK Maritime Forces, the Royal Navy’s seagoing Admiral.
David Smith served an engineering apprenticeship with Furness Withy & Co Ltd. under the Alternative Training Scheme, attending Portsmouth College of Technology from January 1959 to December 1960.He stayed with Furness Withy until June 1969 when he gained a First Class Engineer’s Combined Steam and Motor Certificate. He then came ashore, first working for a year as an Editorial Assistant on “The Motor Ship”, returning to marine technical journalism in mid-1973 as Technical Editor of the weekly journal Shipbuilding and Shipping Record. The interim period was spent working as a sales engineer for CJB Developments in the chemical process industry.
In 1974 he joined Bureau Veritas and remained with BV until February 1992. He had experience both as a hull and machinery surveyor in new construction and ships in service, as well as gaining inspection experience in the offshore, nuclear and other industries. During his later years with BV he also became involved in quality management audits.
He left BV at the beginning of 1992, as a Principal Surveyor and Manager of UK Ships in Service Operations, to join IACS in the newly established position of Quality Secretary. This appointment initially entailed gathering a team of auditors and setting up systems to audit the IACS Members. He participated in the auditing scheme both as Administrator and as an active auditor. He held this position until retirement in December 2004.
Since retirement he has attended several IMO meetings on behalf of the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST) and has participated over the last three years as an Analyst in IMO FSI Sub-Committee’s Marine Casualty Analysis Correspondence Group.
He was elected a Fellow of Council of IMarEST in 1984 (then the Institute of Marine Engineers) and was a Vice-President of the Institute from 1990 until 1993.
He was Editor of the 5th and 6th Editions of the text book Marine Auxiliary Machinery and author of the paper “North Sea Well Control Equipment – Design and Certification Developments” presented to I Mar E in 1987.
He is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of I MarEST, a Member of the Chartered Quality Institute and a Chartered Quality Professional.