The State of Shipping

Mr Benjamin Wong is the Head of Transport and Industrial Sectors at Invest Hong Kong (InvestHK), the Government department responsible for attracting and facilitating foreign direct investment. He has a much diversified portfolio covering maritime, aviation, road transportation, logistics, energy, infrastructures, mining, natural resources and construction and has helped numerous multinational companies landed in Hong Kong.

With extensive experience in both the private and public sectors, Mr Wong's expertise combines transport sector knowledge, international marketing and investment promotion. Before joining InvestHK, Mr Wong has spent years with some of the biggest European and American companies with regional responsibilities.

Martijn Snijder is managing partner at Olmar, which focuses on acquiring, managing and developing strategic logistics assets. Examples are port terminals, vessels, barges and rail. Olmar is exclusively backed by one of the largest pension funds of The Netherlands (www.olmar.nl).

He has >20 years of experience managing and developing logistics assets and commodity supply chains. Having previously held senior executive roles at BHP, Trafigura/Impala and Nyrstar, he lived in The Netherlands, Brazil, Indonesia, Singapore and Switzerland. By having managed large organisations with activities in 80+ countries, he obtained a truly global view best practices and trends.

George Xiradakis was born in Athens and grew up in Volos. He graduated from the Nautical Marine Academy of Aspropyrgos-Athens and he holds a diploma in Commercial Operations from City of London Polytechnic and an MSc in Maritime Studies from University of Wales.
He served as Senior Manager in the French bank Credit Lyonnais both in Athens and Paris. In 1999 he founded XRTC which acts as a commercial representative of foreign banks and institutions in Greek Shipping Market.

Since 2009, XRTC has been working closely with the Chinese ship finance market aiming to
assist Chinese Banks to penetrate the Greek Shipping Market while since 2010 is the Preferred
Shipping Finance Consultant of China Development Bank. In 2010 XRTC awarded in Lloyd’s List Greek Shipping Awards as “Financier of the Year 2010” for the completion of the first bilateral loan between a Chinese bank and a Greek shipowner which was signed in the presence of both countries Premiers. Mr. Xiradakis is a Banker of reference on Chinese financing in the Greek business cycles due to his long lasting relationship with PRC.

Mr. Xiradakis is Vice President of China Hellenic Chamber (HCCI), General Secretary of the
Association of Banking and Financial Executives of Hellenic Shipping, Vice President
(International and Financial Relations) of the China-Greece Association, VP of the
International Propeller Club of the United States.

He is Emeritus President of International Propeller Club, Port of Piraeus, Emeritus Member of The Piraeus Chamber of Commerce & Industry, member of the Mediterranean Committee of China Classification Society, Piraeus Marine Club, Hellenic Maritime Museum and Hellas Liberty Floating Museum etc.

In May 2019 he participated in the European Parliament elections.

Panos Zachariadis is a Mechanical Engineer (BSc) and Naval Architect (MSE) from the University of Michigan with a 38-year experience in shipping. He has served for years as Marine Superintendent in New York, after periods of shipbuilding supervision in Japan and sea service in bulk carriers and oil tankers. He is Technical Director of Atlantic Bulk Carriers since 1997 and a member of the Greek Delegation to IMO since 2004, having contributed to the development of several well-known regulations (e.g. GBS, PSPC, FSA) and the prevention of others (e.g. double hull bulk carriers). In cooperation with major Korean shipyards he has applied numerous energy saving ideas, some of which have become industry standards. He is a member of Technical Committees of several classification societies, UGS and Hellenic Chamber of Shipping, BIMCO Marine Committee, BoD HELMEPA and MARTECMA. He has been honored with the 2011 Efkranti award for his contribution to Greek shipping, the Hellenic Shortsea Shipowners Association 2017 Maritime Personality award, the 2017 Lloyd's List "Achievement in Safety or Environmental Protection" award and the 2019 Green4Sea Personality Award.