We finally meet again!

The evening of Friday, November 11 has been exciting, because we got to once again reunite with our Ammitec colleagues!

The Annual General Assembly meeting of Ammitec took place, followed by the Elections for the new Board of Directors. The event was held in hybrid format and was attended with great enthusiasm by a large number of members!

The coronavirus had stopped meetings and events in their tracks. However, the arrival of Covid vaccines and their positive results have revived hopes and dreams for getting back to normal!

In such a context, Ammitec decided to offer a hybrid event - a live event plus the option to participate virtually.

Given that we are an Association of IT Managers, the tech came through with flying colors!

The live gathering took place at Marriott hotel, while at the same time live streaming was available to the remote participants via Zoom. The integration of the Assembly material and also the voting procedure was carried out through the platform Eventora.

Below is the Assembly agenda:

1. Annual report of the actions of B.o.D in 2021 (presented by Ammitec Vice-president, Themis Sardis):

Events co-organized with Ammitec: 

• Pylones & Palo Alto Cyber onboarding - 28 Jan 2021.
• Computerize Ltd live demo presentation of the “UC for All” Cloud PBX, 23 Feb 2021.
• INMARSAT - Ammitec joint event - 4 March 2021 (event attended by more than 75 participants) - press release published in many sites and e-magazines.
• Slide2Open Shipping Finance Conference, 16-18 March 2021.
• Netsquare - Maritime Cyber Resilience webinar, 15 April 2021.
• OTE Workshop on blockchain technologies and discussion with BoD, 13 May 2021. 
• CyberOwl Annual Maritime Cybersecurity Conference, 18 May 2021.
• Virtual Maritime Cyber -Security & Safety Conference| 20 May 2021.
• SMN Athens Conference, Divani Apollon Palace and Thalasso, 15 June 2021.
• Breakfast with Kaspersky for Maritime, 16 June 2021.
• 18o Digital Ship Conference, Sept 23-24 2021, Divani Apollon Palace & Thalasso
• ShipIT Conference 2021, 28 September 2021.
• 5th NMIOTC (NATO Maritime) Cyber Security Conference - Chania, 29-30 September 2021.
• 2nd Cyprus Shipping News conference, Limassol, 14 October 2021.

Other activities:

• Ammitec Survey on Cyber Maturity of Shipping Companies - Results presented in SMN event and ShipIT and published in the following newspapers / magazines / websites:

1. Maritime Economies
2. Digital Ship
3. Cyprus Shipping News
4. Smart Maritime Networks
5. Netweek
6. Athenian
7. Elnavi

• Initiative for Creation of “Guidelines for the selection of Maritime Cyber Security Solutions” with Vendor participation
• Discussion with CSO Alliance about AMMITEC’s participation in a secure Cybersecurity Incidents Reporting Platform”
• Evaluation of the security of “ammitec.org” website
• Publication of 2 Newsletters (Feb & July)

2. Financial report for year 2021 (presented by AMMITEC treasurer Mr. Tasos Makris).

Both the BoD activity and Financial Report were approved by the members.

Right thereafter, the Assembly unanimously approved the proposal of the outgoing BoD for Achilleas Choursoglou and Manos Kothris to become honorary members, after their 19-years term. Mr Choursoglou addressed a brief farewell.

3. Discussion - suggestions of the action plan for the coming year.

• Plans for networking - Pita event in February 2022.
• Preparation of AMMITEC participation in Posidonia 2022 exhibition.
• Appointment of new Accountant with “SoftOne CRM” skills.

4. Danaos Cyber incident - action plan and response.

The members exchanged views and experience regarding the recent Cyber security incident, which affected most of Danaos’ customers. Important feedback was provided, as well as ideas on how to respond, from technical and business / operational point of view.

5. Electoral process for the election of the new B.o.D.

The electoral process was carried out via the secure Eventora platform. Both local and remote participants accessed the voting link through their mobile phones, where the candidates’ profiles appeared.

The elections results are as follows:

BoD members:

Sardis Themistoklis - Costamare Shipping Company S.A.

Raptaki Katerina - Navios Maritime Holdings Inc.

Vazintari Anna - Unisea Shipping Ltd.

Benaki Eftihia - Minerva Marine Inc

Sakellakos Konstantinos - Navarone SA

Maheras Matthew - Metrostar Management Corp.

Sabanis Stelios - GasLog LNG Services LTD

Alternate BoD members:

Makris Dimitris - Andriaki Shipping Co. Ltd

Makris Tasos - Gourdomichalis Maritime S.A.

Filippopoulos Yannes - Hellenic American University

The event was followed by dinner, which served as a platform for more discussions, positive vibe, fun and networking!

On 10 November, the new B.o.D. gathered to elect the new President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary and the results are as follows:

• Sardis Themistoklis - PRESIDENT
• Maheras Matthew - VICE PRESIDENT
• Sakellakos Konstantinos - TREASURER
• Vazintari Anna - SECRETARY
• Benaki Eftihia - MEMBER
• Raptaki Katerina - MEMBER
• Sabanis Stelios - MEMBER

We wish them a good start of term and also every success in their new roles!