THE JUDGES

Justin Archard has been on the commercial front line of the heavy lift and break bulk industry for more than 25 years. He has lived and worked in The UK, Netherlands, Germany, Singapore and Australia in roles including chartering, project management and sale & purchase.

He is the founder of the One World Market Sentiment Index for the breakbulk industry and an occasional feature writer for HLPFI profiling leaders and influential people in the heavy transport and logistics sector.

Elisabeth Cosmatos has been working in the shipping, forwarding and logistics sectors for the past 27 years. In 2000, she was appointed Managing Director of The Cosmatos Group of Companies and leads business activities across a portfolio of well-known industry brands. Her expertise spans all aspects of multimodal transportation, in diverse industries such as oil and gas, renewable energy, and defence logistics.

Elisabeth currently serves as the president of THLG, having been part of the association’s executive committee for the past eight years; served on the executive committee of the Thessaloniki Shipping Agents Association from 2002-2008; is a WISTA Hellas member, and a WISTA ambassador for northern Greece.

Marc Cowie has been with Trans Global Projects for over 20 years. During that time, he successfully managed a plethora of major projects across a range of worldwide locations, most notably in countries such as Kazakhstan, Russia, the North Sea, New Caledonia, Australia and Iraq. Marc has a UK degree in Maritime Law and is also a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers. He is presently the Group COO based in Houston, USA.

Steven Degrauw is the Head of the Commercial Department at PSA Breakbulk in the Port of Antwerp-Bruges. He has been with PSA for more than ten years and has more than 35 years of experience in the maritime industry, specialized in breakbulk, project cargo and lashing equipment. Prior to joining PSA Breakbulk, he worked as a management consultant in the maritime industry and served as a director of lashing equipment companies. Steven has a bachelor’s degree in shipping from the Professional Institute of Shipping in Antwerp.

Ruediger Fromm has held various management positions in heavy haulage and project logistics.

Before joining Siemens in 2008, he was managing director of Felbermayr Deutschland. At Siemens, he was responsible for project logistics in the power generation, wind power and energy management divisions.

Since October 2022, he has been responsible for global project logistics in the newly formed project entity of Siemens Energy Global which executes all complex projects of the company.

Dominik Keller started his career in freight forwarding back in 1989 at Switzerland’s Natural, which later became Agility and now DSV. He went on to serve at several logistics companies around the world including Brazil, Spain and the US, before becoming head of global development at the Fracht Group in 2014. He is responsible for the supervision, support, management and development of the global office network, partnerships and the Key Account Management of the Fracht Group.

Formerly the Global Project Director at Pentagon Freight Services, now semi retired Chris Kent has been at the vanguard of the industry for five decades. He joined the project forwarding industry in 1972 where he started with Kuehne & Nagel before relocating around the world to work in leadership roles at some of the sector's leading companies, including Panprojects and deugro.

In 2022, Chris was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Heavy Lift Awards.

UTC’s COO of global projects, Mirko Knezevic, has spent his 30-year career in logistics and freight forwarding, mentoring and motivating staff to become leaders in project management.

Experienced with start-ups, he has learned to think entrepreneurially and to always consider the bottom line. With a focus on projects that are complex, he provides specialized knowledge on varying types of cargo shipping to remote and challenging locations. Many of Mirko’s clients have been doing business with him for over 25 years, a testament to his work and the loyal relationships he has built.

Engin Kuzucu graduated from Bosphorus University, Istanbul as an Industrial Engineer. He started his career in STFA Construction Co. where he held import/ export manager and managing director roles at STFA Maritime company. In 2001, he joined Hareket Heavy Lifting and Project Transportation Co. For 19 years he worked as managing director at Hareket. Since 2020, he continues his duty as board member at Hareket.

Abir Leheta has served as CEO of Egytrans since 2015. She also serves as a non-executive board member of Alexandria Container and Cargo Handling (ACCH); vice chair of the transport committee at the Egyptian Businessmen’s Association (EBA); co-chair of the transport committee at the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham); chair of the Transport & Logistics Committee of the Egyptian African Businessmen’s Association (EABA); and board treasurer of the Global Compact Network Egypt. Abir has been recognised four times by Forbes as one of the Middle East’s 100 most powerful businesswomen.

Dennis Leschensky oversees the sales process for Goldhofer within Europe and North Africa, leading a team of sales managers and a dealer network across Europe. Prior to joining Goldhofer nine years ago, he spent four years with Liebherr – two years in the mobile crane division and another two years in the earthmoving division. During that time, he gained abroad international experience, while among other countries, travelling across Asia and South Africa.

Aditya Menon joined the project freight business in the UK, where he focused on pricing and tender management for EPC and oil and gas projects throughout West Africa and the CIS, before moving to Western Australia, where he shifted focus to servicing large-scale mining and LNG industries. Aditya then relocated to Dubai to become the second generation in the project forwarding family business Blue Bell Shipping, where he now focuses primarily on EPC and oil and gas projects in the Middle East and CIS.

Susan Oatway joined the Journal of Commerce by S&P Global in January 2023 as a senior research analyst for multipurpose and project shipping. Her focus is on the multipurpose, breakbulk, project cargo, and related shipping markets, including ro-ro and refrigerated shipping.

Susan began her career with P&O Bulk Shipping in 1989 and progressed through a variety of senior planning and commercial roles before joining Drewry Shipping Consultants' dry bulk shipping team in 1997. In addition to serving as Drewry's principal breakbulk and multipurpose analyst since 2004, she co-authored Drewry’s regular reefer shipping report and also worked as a maritime consultant, providing analysis for shipping companies, financial institutions, and other institutional clients during her career in the maritime industry.

Kyriacos Panayides has served the shipping industry for over 30 years. He graduated with a degree in business administration, a post-graduate degree in shipping studies and thereafter becoming a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers. A staunch advocate for sustainable growth, he combines extensive experience in management and widespread projects across a variety of shipping segments - shipowning, shipmanagement, tanker operations, multipurpose and project heavy lift, container feeder operations and shipping agency.

Kyriacos also sits on the boards of several other shipping companies within the Schoeller Group and has participated on numerous shipping industry committees, as well as non-shipping related bodies.

Patrick Richardson is a logistics and project management expert with a strong background in global project logistics management. He currently serves as the Global Head of Business Development - Projects at AsstrA-Associated Traffic AG, a position he has held since March 2020. In this role, he spearheads strategic initiatives and provides customised logistics solutions for complex projects across multiple regions.

Before joining AsstrA, Patrick has held senior roles at Panalpina World Transport, Fagioli, Geodis and others, in multiple locations in Europe, USA, the Middle East and Africa, managing logistics requirements for a broad spectrum of clients and project types.

With over 45 years of experience in logistics and project management, Patrick Richardson has consistently demonstrated expertise and capability in project supply chain solutions, and delivering innovative strategies globally (including super heavy over dimensional cargoes).

Bernd Schwengsbier formerly served as the managing director of equipment manufacturer TII Group. He has 45 years of knowledge in the worldwide heavy transport sector, 15 years of which in management positions. Throughout his career, Bernd gained extensive experience servicing the oil and gas, shipyards, steel mills, wind energy (on and offshore), special transport, space and aviation industries.

Thomas Skellingsted has more than 30 years of experience within transport and logistics—starting in the transport industry as a freight forwarder trainee in 1988 in Denmark and since then holding various management roles, including several years at ABB. With a proven track record of both theoretical and practical experience, he recently joined LPX Partners (Consulting) as Managing Director of the company based out of Dubai and Houston.

Riccardo has worked in the heavy transport, heavy lifting and project forwarding industry for more than 40 years.

After several years in the forwarding industry he joined Italy’s Fagioli Group as business development manager in 1985.

During his 33 years with the Company he overlooked the management of many international projects and built up the international network of the Group, setting up strategic alliances and international JV’s. Director on the corporate Board for 10 years and managing several International Group Companies Worldwide.

Since 2019, he operates as a professional advisor from Milan, through his own firm, RTC.

Andy Tite has over a decade of experience in the industry, from both an asset owner (land and marine based) and project freight forwarding perspective. He has held various roles within all the main functional phases of project logistics from explorations or conception, pre-feed, tendering and execution followed by MRO engagement and contract management for operational facilities. He currently serves as vice president, global business development and commercial director of industrial projects at DHL Global Forwarding.

Kohki Uemura is the President & CEO of DENZAI, global leader in heavy lifting, transportation and construction services with innovative engineering solutions.

He has overseen the growth of DENZAI, expanding the group to more than 1200+ employees and 40+ bases around the world.

Cyril Varghese leads the portfolio of global logistics at Fluor, and is responsible for the strategy, commercial and operations aspects at the group level.

He holds a bachelor's degree in naval architecture and shipbuilding, with an MBA in marketing and human resources. Prior to joining Fluor, Cyril had an illustrious career in the project freight forwarding industry, where he was able to work on the business development side as well as operational side of logistics for large industrial projects.

He is passionate about the optimisation of logistics processes, guiding the next generation of project logistics leaders, as well as bringing transparency and digitalisation to the supply chain.