Christian Breinholt

Board Member Since 2016, Chairman Since 2018

Christian joined QACE in November 2016. He began his career as a deck officer in the merchant fleet followed by 39 years of service in the Danish Maritime Authority. The last 13 years he held the position as Deputy Director General and was responsible for maritime safety, security and protection of the marine environment. In addition Christian was the representative of Denmark at a number of international, regional, multilateral and bilateral events, including IMO diplomatic conferences, Assemblies and sessions in the Maritime Safety Committee and Marine Environment Protection Committee since 1988. He was the chairman of the Maritime Safety Committee in the years 2012 – 2015.

Xie

Hui

Board Member Since 2013

Xie joins QACE with a broad base of regulatory and operational experience. With the China Maritime Safety Agency as Director for International Affairs he is also Chairman of the IMO DSC sub-committee. Xie has served within the Agency as Deputy Director Ship Safety and Pollution, London based as Permanent Representative to the IMO and as a flag and port State Section Chief.

Nikos

Mikelis

Board Member Since 2018

Nikos has worked in ship classification; and then for a shipping company as superintendent, technical manager and director. He joined the International Maritime Organization in 2006, where he was the Head of, Marine Pollution Prevention and Ship Recycling section. Nikos has served in senior positions in various shipping industry bodies, has written over 50 papers, numerous articles in the maritime press and is a freeman of the City of London.

Ashok

Mahapatra

Board Member Since 2019

Ashok joins QACE in January 2019. Again QACE is lucky to have such an experienced new Director. He began his career as a cadet working up to the level of being a Master on foreign going ships in the Merchant Navy. This followed with many years as a Surveyor with the Indian Maritime Administration. Ashok has also been the Deputy Nautical Adviser to Indian Government of India. Thereafter, he has worked at the IMO in the Maritime Safety Division from 1998 to 2017. He was the Director of the Maritime Safety Division, IMO from 2015-2017.

Niels-Bjørn

Mortensen

Board Member Since 2019

Niels-Bjørn joins QACE in January 2019. QACE is lucky to have him, his career having covered many aspects of the marine industry at sea and on land. After his sea time for East Asiatic Company as deck officer, he qualified as naval architect which took him to head the Burmeister & Wain Shipyard design office at a time when large numbers of tankers, OBOs and bulk carriers were designed and built at the yard. Work for BIMCO followed as a technical consultant and then Head of the Marine Department. Niels has had various roles from Vice Chairman of the IACS Advisory Committee (QSCS), member of the Korean Register European Committee and Lloyd’s Register’s Technical Committee. In 2010 he became Director of Regulatory Affairs in Maersk Maritime Technology and chaired the Technical Committee of the Danish Shipowners’ Association from 2013-2016.

Des Gutteridge

Secretary General

Des joined QACE in 10 December 2012, bringing a wealth of experience from both the Recognised Organisation (RO) Classification Societies and from the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS). Des has many years of experience with ship classification, quality assurance and business improvement. As the Lloyd's Register Quality Manager Des ran the marine performance management and audit programs and change and business improvement projects. He was a founding member of the LR Group business assurance community. Des was the LR Representative in the RO Group that established QACE. He was a long-term member and past Chair of the IACS Quality Committee. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Quality Institute (CQI).

Alima

Kamara

Administration Managerr

Alima joined QACE in January 2015. Her responsibilities include dealing with inquiries, managing the office, management of the QACE assessment programme and social media.

Contact Alima Kamara

Tim

Ho

QACE Assessor

Tim joined QACE in 2015. He has extensive experience with the IACS QSCS scheme and with Statutory and Classification survey, Management System audit and advisory services. Tim has devoted most of his time with training activities for lecturing at University, practical training for Flag Surveyor and PSCO, also for seafarers training based on the STCW convention and IMO model courses.

Mike Jennings

QACE Assessor

Mike has joined QACE in 2015 after over six years with IACS as an Audit Manger, auditing and observing member classification societies for QSCS requirements. He spent seven years with an IACS class society as a Senior Surveyor, Lead Auditor and Country Manager also carrying out ISO audits for an Accredited Certification Body. Mike spent ten years in ship management from Superintendent, to Technical Manager, to Fleet Manager running UK operation of oil, product and chemical tankers, including a fleet renewal programme. Mike had fifteen years at sea from cadet up to Chief Engineer, sailing on dry cargo, tankers and container ships.

Captain Hartmut

Nickel

QACE Assessor

Hartmut joined the QACE team during 2014 from the German flag State Administration. Hartmut has long and varied experience most recently as a German flag state surveyor, senior Port State control officer, ISM / ISO 9000 lead auditor and MLC inspector to the German Ship Safety Department. He has been involved with RO oversight for the Administration.

Gur Sarup

QACE Assessor

Gur (Sarup) joined QACE in 2011 after serving fifteen years with IACS as an Audit Manager. He has extensive experience with Class having served the Indian Register of Shipping for seventeen years in various capacities,including responsible for Classification & Statutory services. A marine engineer by profession he sailed as a Chief Engineer. Sarup is a fellow Member of the Institute of Marine Engineers (India).

Alvin

Shepherd

QACE Assessor

Al joined the QACE team in 2017 upon retiring from the American Bureau of Shipping as Corporate Manager of Management Systems Certification and Principal Surveyor. Responsibilities include training new and experienced auditors to ISM, ISPS and MLC requirements. Previous experience includes twenty years as a U.S. Coast Guard Flag State Marine Inspector, Investigator and Marine Engineer. Al also audits for an ISO Certification Body for various ISO Standards.

Abhay Shah

QACE Assessor

Abhay joined the QACE team in January 2020 following 20 years with Lloyd’s Register where he held senior governance, assurance and improvement positions at both a global and regional level. Abhay has a background in technical performance highlights include responsibility for a transformation programme that helped improve ship maintenance and awareness of common deficiencies, through pre-arrival checklist booklets, now widely used by the marine industry. He was heavily involved with internal and external audit and was responsible for introducing both risk-based and remote ISO audit methods.