08.00-08.55

Registration and Coffee in the Pre-Function Area sponsored by Noria

08.55-09.00

Welcome Address: Grant Attwell, Managing Director, Cannon Events

09.00-09.15

Keynote Address: Preventing of Marine Insurance Losses – At the Heart of Sustainability

As maritime risks evolve, so must the role of marine insurers. In this keynote, Sigvald Fossum challenges the industry to move beyond traditional claims handling and embrace prevention as a core part of Gard’s integrated mission. He explores how safety culture, data-driven loss prevention, wider insights, and industry collaboration can help insurers safeguard their clients’ interests and the oceans we all depend on.

Speaker: Sigvald Fossum, Senior Vice President, Head of Analytics, Gard

09.15-09.55

Panel Discussion: Where Are the Nordics on the Global Marine Insurance Map?

As part of the global market, the Nordics cannot operate in isolation, so we take a look at the state of the marine insurance market globally before drilling down to the regional and local level. We also consider the latest developments on the Nordic Plan and how that might change the operating environment in the year ahead.

Moderator: Herman Steen, Partner, Wikborg Rein

Panellists: Rory Colacicchi, Partner, Marine -Transportation and Logistics, McGill and Partners

Lene-Camilla Nordlie, Vice President, Norway and Sweden, Managing Director, Gard

Tor Erik Andreassen, Chairman, Hydor AS

09.55-10.35

Panel Discussion: All in the Name – Marine Insurance

The class of marine insurance is one of the broadest out there in the market. However, we know that as the market hardens, terms and conditions harden first, which ultimately results in less coverage. Now that the market appears to be softening, we consider what is included in policies and what is quietly being dropped from cover, sometimes available as a buy-back and sometimes totally excluded.

Moderator: Iryna Petrenko, Manager of Claims and P&I Department, Nordic Marine Solutions

Panellists: Andreas Meidell, Partner, Thommessen

Anders Langeland Johannessen, Global Head of Project Risk, Lockton Edge

Anders Furnes, Senior Vice President Marine Underwriting, Norwegian Hull Club

Paal Hystad-Haaland, Group Claims Director, AI Marine Risk

10.35-11.05

Coffee and Networking in Pre Function Area

11.05-11.25

Market Update: Salvage in The Turkish Straits

The Turkish Straits and Marmara Sea are places where a state-owned salvage company has monopoly rights for salvage services and even a short service after simple engine breakdown may cause substantial salvage claims. This session will talk about the technicalities of such salvage claims in challenging areas in Turkey.

Presenter: Caglar Coskunsu, Partner, Cavus & Coskunsu

11.25-11.50

Fireside Chat: ESG and Salvage – Cleaning up Green

Increasingly, those involved with salvage are expected to be as environmentally sensitive as possible, however this tends to involve more costly operations. In this session, we discuss how demands on salvors are changing and ask whether insurers and ultimately their clients, are ready to pay the price for going green.

Participants: Andrew Chamberlain, Partner, HFW

Dimitris Theodorou, Director of Emergency Response, Resolve Marine

Janet Ching, Senior Claims Manager, London P&I Club

11.50-12.10

Presentation: Salvage Innovation: Can Technology Salvage the Salvors?

Salvage operations are facing a range of practical and often costly challenges, just at a time when everyone is looking to keep a lid on spending. In this session, we consider how salvors are managing the challenges of keeping their operations afloat with the help of evolving technology, but which in turn is driving the need for greater investment into salvage operations.

Presenter: Elias Psyllos, Vice President, T&T Salvage

12.10-12.30

Presentation: Finding a Safe Haven – Ports of Refuge

Ports of refuge are designed to do exactly what’s on the tin – provide a safe haven in a time of need. However, in recent years, vessel owners have increasingly found it difficult to find a port ready to grant access when they have a ship in distress. For salvors, it has become matter of paperwork, and lots of it. All of that delays decisions and ultimately puts greater strain on the whole system, as we explore in this presentation.

Presenter: Marjan Schuringa, Award and Claim Handling Manager, SMIT Salvage

12.30-13.10

Panel Discussion: War Risks – Shipping in the Firing Line

In recent months, geopolitical tensions have caused significant disruption to global trade routes. Ships have come under attack, war risk premiums have fluctuated, and the war risk insurance market has evolved in response. For shipowners, charterers and their insurers, the landscape remains dynamic – subject to rapid change and escalation. The panel will explore how war risk insurers and assureds are adapting to the shifting environment.

Moderator: Richard Neylon, Partner, HFW

Panellists: Henrik Hagberg, Partner, Thommessen

Chrsitopher Hesselbrandt, Nordic Portfolio Manager Marine, QBE

Nick Maddalena, Managing Director, Ambrey Global Specialty

Kjell Inge Børnes, Head of Reinsurance, Norwegian Hull Club

13.10-14.00

Lunch in the Pre-Function Area

14.00-15.00

Roundtable Sessions

Engage in informal roundtable discussions post-lunch over a coffee. Each roundtable will run for 25 minutes. There will be a 5-minute break to allow delegates to change tables and the tables will then be repeated in a second 25-minute seating.

15.00-15.20

Presentation: Loss Prevention – More Risk Management, Lower Claims?

The simple maths is that risk management pays off. Insurers would argue that the better the loss prevention, ultimately the lower the claims. This is a message all insurers pass onto their insureds.  With 2025 already seeing some significant fire losses, in this session we look at some aspects of a fire prevention strategy and how that could contribute to a reduction in risk and loss mitigation.

Presenter: John Gow, Principal Associate, Hawkins

15.20-15.40

Presentation: Maximising Data to Benefit the Market

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is obviously here to stay, but what is not so clear is the best way to use the available technology to improve the outcomes for insurer and insured alike. The question for this session is how to maximise data that’s gathered via AI to improve loss prevention. Could it be used to encourage owners to run maintenance programmes more efficiently, for example?

Presenter: Vince Barrelet, Product Owner, Concirrus

15.40-16.00

Presentation: Limiting the Liabilities

No matter what part of the shipping industry, everyone with a claim will bump into the limits on liability at some point. In this session, we explore some recent cases and also look back at the Flaminia to see how these limits play out under various scenarios and how insurers and insureds can manage expectations.

Presenters: Alexander Bramwell, Partner, Hill Dickinson

16.00-16.40

Panel Discussion: Alternative Fuels – Will They Scale and Deliver on Time?

Everyone wants a ‘quick fix’ in the race to greener fuels – but is that truly realistic? In this session, we dive into the most likely decarbonisation models by 2030, weighing up whether alternative fuels can really scale up under today’s regulatory uncertainty, or if biofuel blends will remain the most viable option. We explore what shipowners should consider and how insurers can help to reduce the risks – and unlock opportunities – along the way.

Moderator: Neil Mathew, Claims Executive, Gard AS

Panellists: Michael Banning, Senior Marine Engineer, Fuel Specialist, Brookes Bell

Erin Walton, Assistant Corporate Director, West of England P&I

Petter Sundby, Head of Special Risk, Lockton Edge

Øistein Jensen, Chief Sustainability Officer, Odfjell SE 

16.40-17.00

Presentation: Tracking the Dark Fleet

The idea of Russian warships escorting dark fleet vessels through Nordic waters and along the English Channel may seem more James Bond than reality, but is true of 2025. One of the reasons the dark fleet has gone dark has been simply turning off its GPS tracking, but now ship tracking technology is changing, too. The question is, are all the dark vessels visible once more?

Presenter: Matt Morgan, Chief Product Officer, Polestar Global

17.00-17.05

Closing Remarks and End of Conference