Intelligent Seas Group, the fast-growing online training provider for seafarers and energy workers, announced the appointment of Adrian Economakis as CEO.
Adrian brings with him extensive experience in leading the development and commercialisation of innovative and market leading products and services for the maritime and energy industries.
Prior to this appointment, Adrian was Chief Strategy Officer, member of the Board of Directors and Shareholder of VesselsValue, until its acquisition by Veson Nautical in 2023.
Adrian was one of VesselsValue’s founding employees in 2010. He started as an analyst and progressed through a number of senior product development, commercial and leadership positions as the company grew from a start-up to the market leader employing over 200 people across seven international offices. Before this, Adrian spent three years as a supply chain consultant at Accenture, spending the majority of his time developing and implementing cutting edge demand forecasting solutions for BP’s refined products business throughout Europe.
Adrian, who is joining the executive team along with the two Co-Founders, Martin White and Tim Love, along with COO Steven Matthew, has an MsC with distinction in Shipping, Trade and Finance from Cass Business School London and a BA in Economics and Philosophy from York University.
Adrian said of his appointment: “I am honoured to assume the role of CEO at ISG. This is a company at the forefront of using technology, innovation and expertise to provide market leading virtual training to help our clients improve safety and regulatory compliance. ISG has grown fast over the last 18 months and now counts many top owners, operators, energy companies, cruise and ferry lines as clients, from across the UK, US, Canada, Middle East and Asia Pacific. I am very much looking forward to building on this to significantly scale up the business across the major maritime and energy markets.
“Apart from the top-quality products and growth prospects, what attracted me to ISG was the fantastic team of people including the founders and key development and commercial staff. Each one of them is not only highly capable and experienced, but also of great character and morals. This is hugely important to me and something I will be looking for vigilantly in the significant recruitment of development and commercial staff we will be making over the next years,” he stressed.
Welcoming his appointment, Martin White added: “After a long and detailed search for a CEO to lead us through our next stage of growth, I am incredibly excited to welcome Adrian to the company. His experience in developing and commercialising market leading products and services for the maritime and energy industries, as well as scaling up from a start-up to a highly successful business is critical to our ambitious plans.”
ISG, whose staff are located in London, Aberdeen and throughout the UK, was formed in 2021 in response to massively growing demand for high quality, impactful and cost-effective virtual training for seafarers and energy workers.
Traditionally, regulations required that most operational training be performed in a physical classroom. However, following Covid restrictions and increased adoption of remote technologies, increasing amounts of training can, and are preferred, to be provided virtually through phones, tablets and laptops or as a blended virtual/physical solution.
Additionally, demand is being further driven by changing technologies, new vessel types, cargoes and fuels, decarbonisation, evolving regulations, increased demand for operational staff/seafarers, new threats such as cyber-crime and an ever-growing focus on safety and environment. The challenge which ISG has taken up, is to meet this demand through providing virtual or virtual/physical blended training is of the highest possible quality, relevance, impact and cost-effectiveness.
