Vassilis Demetriades, the highly successful former Shipping Deputy Minister of Cyprus, is considering running for election as Secretary General of the IMO.

As he stated in the Tradewinds newspaper, he has been approached by people in the shipping industry to proceed with submitting a candidacy, but he will first have to consult with the newly elected Cyprus government in order to accept such a proposal.

It is recalled that Vassilis has worked for 25 years as a Civil Servant of the Cyprus Department of Merchant Shipping and representative of Cyprus in Brussels.

The fact that he has been involved in the drafting of the European shipping policy makes him automatically popular with the authorities of the European Union from where he can have support in his election campaign for the position of General Secretary of the IMO. Five candidates have so far expressed interest in being elected IMO Secretary General in a few months’ time.

The main issues facing the new SG of the IMO is the crisis in Ukraine, the fragile geopolitical situation internationally, the different views on the decarbonisation of shipping and many other issues. The race for the election is led by Arsenio Dominguez, an experienced Panamanian diplomat and IMO negotiator who was chief of staff to Kitack Lim, outgoing SG.

The second candidate is the Kenyan Nancy Karigithu with a long-term presence in the IMO and Moin Ahmed from Bangladesh and SG of the International Telecommunications Satellite Organisation. Turkey has nominated Suat Hayri Aka representative to the International Civil Aviation Organisation for maritime affairs.

Also Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry from Dominica has declared her candidacy who has worked at WMU and ILS and finally Andreas Nordseth from the Danish Maritime Authority. Nominations close at the end of March.