Taher Al-Busaidi
Director General of Maritime Affairs, Ministry of Transport Communications and Information Technology, Oman, Muscat
Taher is currently the Director of Maritime Legislation Department in the Ministry Transport, Oman. Since his graduation from Swansea University, he has been involved in various legal projects as a draftsman, supervisor, auditor and legal consultant. In particular, he has been involved in the drafting of several statutes in Oman and implementation of IMO Conventions into local law.
In 2017, he was appointed by the IMO as consultant and auditor. In that capacity, he provides advice to the IMO member states on the effective implementation of the IMO conventions into national legal systems.
Sibel Almobideen
General Counsel, Global Feeder Shipping Group, Dubai
Soon after completing her LLM studies, Sibel was offered an internship at the Legal Affairs Department of the International Maritime Organisation and had the opportunity to observe the functioning of the regulatory framework for the shipping industry regarding the safety, security and environmental performance of international shipping. She then worked as an associate in legal firms in Turkey and in the United Arab Emirates.
Sibel then moved on to the position of Head of Legal in Simatech Shipping and Forwarding LLC - one of the leading ship owning and operating companies pioneering container shipping services in the Middle East-Gulf, the Indian-subcontinent, Far East and East Africa; having offices all around the world.
Based in Dubai, she was responsible for all legal affairs of the group; being involved in claims handling, arbitration and litigation procedures of cases, dealing with new vessel building, sale & purchase, ship finance, handling corporate matters including registering new companies, group structuring, trademarks registrations, following up with legal affairs of all offices in Europe, India, Singapore, Cyprus, UAE, Africa, Iraq and Malaysia, drafting and reviewing all types of legal documents and agreements required, corresponding with partners, main lines, ports and terminals, agencies, insurers, P&I Clubs, brokers, bunker suppliers, government authorities and other third parties. Sibel now works for Global Feeder Shipping Group as General Counsel.
Yi-Cheng Chen
Senior Supervisor, Taiwan International Ports Corp, Taiwan
Yi-Cheng works as senior supervisor at Taiwan International Ports Corp., Ltd. As part of his job he provides support to various heads of departments in identifying legal issues in transactions which the Company is proposing to enter into. He also provides advice and assistance in discussions, negotiations and drafting of the relevant commercial contracts.
Abdul Fahl
TTMS (Gulf) Director, TT Club, Dubai
Abdul Fahl joined TT Club as a Claims Executive having previously worked at the Claims Department of MacAndrews & Co Ltd. Abdul went on to become a Senior Claims Executive at the TT Club handling liability and property damage claims for Intermodal Operators, NVOCs, Logistics Operators, Marine Terminals, Stevedores, Port Authorities and Ship Operators servicing Club members in Eastern Mediterranean, Turkey, North Africa and Southern Europe. He has now relocated to the TTMS (Gulf) office in Dubai in his role as Director.
Evans Fei
Associate, Ince & Co, Shanghai
Evans completed his LLM at Swansea and now works in Shanghai with Ince & Co. He regularly advises clients of the shipping industry in contentious and non-contentious matters in respect to commodity trade, shipbuilding, charterparty and carriage of goods. Prior to that, he had internship experiences with China P&I Club, Chubb and Clyde & Co.
Rui Hao
Associate Director, Charles Taylor, Shanghai
Rui completed his LLM at Swansea. Thereafter, he began his career as an average adjuster at Richards Hogg Lindley. In 2020 he qualified as a Fellow of the Association of Average Adjusters. He is now the Manager of Charles Taylor (China) Ltd and based in Shanghai.
Tariq Idais
Senior Associate, Shipping Litigation Team, HFW, Dubai
Tariq completed his LLM in International Trade Law at Swansea University. He then worked at a prominent Emirati law firm in Dubai from 2013 to 2022 in the Transport and Insurance Department, where he was involved in variety of contentious matters including maritime disputes.
In 2022, Tariq joined in HFW’s shipping litigation team in Dubai where he advises on cargo claims, ship arrests, charterparty, collision, general average, civil and commercial disputes.
Shengyi Jiang
Shipping Executive, COSCO, Singapore
In the course of his LLM at Swansea, Shengyi had the chance to attend internships with Holman Fenwick Willan LLP and Willis, one of the world's largest professional services firms specializing in insurance brokerage and risk management. He found that his internship opportunities enhanced his practical understanding of shipping and insurance law and have definitely assisted him in getting a job with COSCO South East Asia in Singapore as Shipping Executive.
Siddharth Mahajan
Senior Loss Prevention Executive, Gard, Singapore
Siddharth is a Master Mariner with more than 20 years of sailing and shore-based experience in the maritime industry. He obtained his LLM in International Maritime Law (with distinction), following which he started working as a DPA for a tanker owner in Thailand for three years where he was in charge of ISM and TMSA related matters.
He now works in Singapore with GARD AS, a leading marine insurer, as a Loss Prevention Executive for Asia region. His current role entails serving members and clients through workshops, seminars and internal reviews, presenting in industry forums, writing articles, conducting causation analysis of claims, providing technical advice and assessing suitability of vessels for cover. Occasionally he also writes for The Nautical Institute’s Seaways publication.
Munhak Pahk
Partner Lawyer, Sejin, Busan
Munhak was invited to participate in a number of internships with international maritime law firms in London (Stephenson Harwood, Mays & Brown Solicitors, Tatham Macinnes LLP) and Newcastle (Mills & Co). These internships gave Munhak the opportunity to work closely with solicitors dealing with different maritime cases, gaining invaluable hands-on experience on issues related to marine insurance, carriage of goods, charterparties and admiralty law, which are some of the subjects he studied during his maritime LLM at Swansea. Munhak now works as a partner in Sejin, a leading Korean law firm in Busan.
Charles Qiu
Assistant Vice President, Claims, Skuld, Hong Kong
Charles graduated from Swansea, with his first degree from Dalian Maritime University in business studies. After graduation, he immediately found a job in the most prominent Chinese shipping law firm Wang Jing & Co., where he qualified as Chinese lawyer and started a career in maritime law. His clients were predominantly shipowners, their P&I Clubs and underwriters. He worked as Chinese shipping lawyer for 9 years. In 2019, the Norwegian P&I Club Skuld offered him a position as a senior claims handler, and he is now assistant vice president – claims within the company.
Daniel Septiano
Managing Director, PT Inare Proteski, Jakarta
Daniel completed his LLM at Swansea and is now the Managing Director of PT Inare Proteski. In his role, he manages marine business accounts, such as marine cargo, hull/machinery and P&I, for various shipping companies. Apart from marine brokering, his company provides marine consultancy for several shipping companies in Indonesia.
Mayank Suri
Associate Professor, O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU), Delhi
Mayank worked for two weeks under the supervision of Professor Soyer as a research intern at the Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law. He provided invaluable assistance on the Institute's research project on legal issues concerning unmanned ships, and as part of his internship presented his findings in a highly professional way to Institute members in July.
As a spin-off he also got the opportunity to present a further paper in September at the Cyber Security Conference organised by PhD students at Swansea. His findings on the planned use of artificial intelligence to automate ship functions pointed out the need for devising strategies to combat cyber risks in an operational context. The research was targeted at finding out current commercial developments in ship-building that incorporate artificial intelligence to substitute human involvement. Mayank is a registered advocate in India. He has worked with various law firms in New Delhi area, specializing in maritime and offshore oil and gas law. Mayank is now an Associate Professor at O.P. Jindal Global University.
Rusen Zhao
Consultant, EY, Beijing
Rusen was offered the unique opportunity to undertake an internship at Aon PLC, the leading global provider of risk management, insurance and reinsurance brokerage. He interned at the company's offices in Beijing, where he had the chance to see how the insurance and reinsurance sector operates, as well as what the job of a broker entails. This internship opportunity has enhanced Rusen's employability prospects. Rusen currently works as a consultant at EY.
