2018 Conference Speakers

Mervi Pyökäri is Counsel at Krogerus Attorneys Ltd (Helsinki), specialises in compliance related matters and co-heads the firm's Compliance, Investigations and Corporate Offences practice.

President of the Finnish Maritime Law Association and member of WISTA Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association “I enjoy finding viable and practical options to solve complex international business problems especially in connection with supply chain, shipping, logistics, insurance, trade and compliance matters”.

Prior to joining Krogerus, Ms. Pyökäri worked as a legal counsel both in Finland and in Switzerland for global fertilizer and chemical company Yara International ASA.

Thomas Kolster is Counsel at Krogerus Attorneys Ltd (Helsinki), with special focus on disputes relating to the financial sector, international trade and mergers and acquisitions.

He has also been involved in numerous insurance disputes as well as IT-disputes.

Prior to joining Krogerus. Mr. Kolster was Law Clerk at the District Court of Åland until 2008 and has also worked for the Supreme Court of Finland and for the Helsinki Court of Appeals.

Aki Hanhela is Marine Surveyor at Oy Lars Krogius (Helsinki) since 2006.

Prior to joining Krogius he has had a sea-going background. Currently he is involved in wide range of surveys, but specializes in cargo securing surveys & other cargo related loss prevention.

Jonathan Chambers is Barrister at Quadrant Chambers (London), and has a broad practice covering all aspects of commercial and transport law.

Jonathan has acted in disputes involving many of the major airlines, cruise and tour operators, UK airports and the CAA. He also acts on behalf of shipyards, ship-owners, rig owners, crewing agencies and shipping unions and the Royal Yachting Association. He is involved in a large volume of wet and dry shipping cases including cargo claims, pilotage, collisions and groundings.

International ship-building, rig-construction and repair cases are also a strong feature of his practice.

Arjan Herrebout is founder of Marinsal Consultants BV (Leiden), a private consultancy company set up early 2016.

Arjan graduated from nautical college in 1989 and joined Wijsmuller fleet where he sailed on various types of vessels both as engineer and deck officer. With a masters license he transferred to the salvage department and dealt with claims handling issues for the LOF arbitrations. In 2001 and now at Raets P&I in Rotterdam as senior claims executive, he graduated for a postgraduate diploma in Maritime law at the London Metropolitan University.

Is in 2006 when Arjan returned to the salvage industry and was one of the founders of the new salvage division within the Mammoet group, Mammoet Salvage.

Fokko Ringersma is Casualty Management Consultant through his own company RSC Marine Salvage Experts and in close collaboration with his former co-director and co-founder in Mammoet Salvage BV., Mr. Arjan Herrebout of Marinsal Consultants BV (Leiden)

After an initial 10 years career at sea as a master mariner with Shell Tankers B.V., he started salvage work with Wijsmuller, SMIT and Mammoet Salvage BV. Since 2006 has been sharing his front-end salvage experience in casualty management and operational support to shipowners and their insurers to mitigate their losses, often physically involved in many salvage and wreck removal operations.

Niklas Langenskiöld is Partner at Castrén & Snellman Attorneys (Helsinki), since 2002.

First as attorney and later as Partner since 1989 at maritime and transport law firm Serlachius & Ryti Attorneys at Law, Niklas were part of the team that merged with Castrén & Snellman in 2002. His areas of specialisation are commercial litigation and domestic and international arbitration as well as tort, commercial, contract, insurance, maritime and transport law.

Henrik Rak is a Lawyer at Solita Oy (Helsinki), and the company’s Data protection officer.

Henrik has a very strong international background and experience from contract, company law, compliance and corporate governance as well as GDPR and privacy matters or negotiating complex agreements and contracts in various jurisdictions.

Experience from various industries such as mechanical engineering, equipment manufacturing, software/IT, marine/shipping, oil and gas/offshore as well as insurance. He is a strong team player and can work in and lead project teams. Enjoys peer coaching

Christoph Zarth is a Partner at CMS Hasche Sigle Rechtsanwälten (Hamburg).

Christoph's focus is on the maritime industry. He is acting for clients from various sectors, in particular shipping, transport and logistics, shipbuilding, engineering, offshore wind energy as well as foreign trade.

Christoph is advising in operational matters and transactions. In those areas, Christoph has also developed a litigation and arbitration practice. He is frequently appointed as arbitrator.

Jens Mathiasen is Partner at Gorrissen Federspiel (Copenhagen), and has been part of the firm since 1997. He has a Master of Laws, University of Copenhagen 1996 and LL.M. University of Southampton, 1997.

Jens is a partner in the practice group Shipping / Offshore / Transportation and he also has extensive experience in Banking and Finance. He also provides assistance in relation to the drafting of all types of loan agreements and he provides advice to both borrower and lender in all types of financing matters.

With extensive experience in all types of maritime and transport law matters, Jens assists in conducting arbitration cases in both Denmark and Norway and is often appointed arbitrator.