#FridayFive from the Executive Director: 24 April 2026

Who else has been talking a load of ship this week? Here’s my #FridayFive as we sail out of Singapore Maritime Week (SMW) & FHA:

1.  Tremendous discussion: it was a pleasure to host Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister for Aviation, Maritime and Decarbonisation), Keir Mather MP together with H.E Nikesh Mehta, Department for Transport (DfT), United Kingdom, Department for Business and Trade and Maritime and Coastguard Agency in a roundtable as we talked about ASEAN, UK strengths as a maritime nation, regulation, alternative power sources, innovation and green maritime. Thank you to our expert members Simon Middlebrough, Capt Yves Vandenborn FNI, Andrew WONG, Jonathan Galloway, Chandran Jayabalan, Shivendu Gadkar, Nishant Dhyani, and Toby Stephens, covering ports, P&I, education and standards, energy, ship ownership/operators, and legal sectors. Thanks to the UK in Singapore team, Niall Ahern and Mel. ⛴️ 🗣️ 

2.  Inspirational Members: Awesome to see MLA College’s programmes develop here in Singapore, with Lucy and Lissy supporting from the British Chamber of Commerce Singapore (BritCham). Andrew, you’re doing a great job! There was also a brilliant maritime mixer networking event with Sulnox Group PLC’s Ben Richardson and Stuart Hall – thanks also for your sublime company this week and look forward to seeing you back in Singapore soon. 🏫 ⚓️ 

3.  Do you like British food?! Yes, of course you do, with Lydia and Caitrin and the team supporting the reception and programme of British food brands at Food & Hospitality Asia. 🐟 🧀 

4.  Exciting Future: Two parts to this – a great board meeting yesterday chaired by Haslam Preeston where I presented our strategic plan ahead of our AGM next month. Also a really progressive set of programmes around geopolitics and CEO engagement – watch this space! H.E Nik Mehta also pulled together the British Community Leaders, as we discussed the wider Team UK in Singapore and how we can all support each other. 🇬🇧 💪

5.  Super Conversations: thank you to Andy Snell from London International Shipping Week 2027, Richard Meade from Lloyd's List, and to Toby and the team from HFW for hosting a super roundtable, with #geopolitics and power/energy forming a large part of the discussion. Lucy and I had the pleasure of having a coffee to catch-up with Prakash Pinto and Patrick Lee from Standard Chartered. I also had a call with our Britain in South East Asia | BiSEA Chambers, and met up with the wonderful Namrata Nadkarni (you inspire me!). Huge thanks to Mark Domitrak for your awesome company this week, and, how could I not mention Paddy P and Helen – thanks for dropping in with Yves De Leeneer – Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology (IMarEST) is still a big part of our backgrounds! AND, we had a cross-chamber networking event last night as well!⭐️👊

Oh my cod, what a week, but a brilliantly impactful on - lots of really positive follow-ups to capitalise on. 

Sea you next week!