Monday, 27 October 2008 00:00

Presentations 1st TRI Forum - Private Equity in Shipping and Ports

The Transport Research Institute launched the first TRI Forum on 22nd October 2008 at the Hilton Grosvenor Hotel, thus beginning a series of meetings which will present and discuss a current area of transport research and practice. The forum series will provide a unique opportunity to listen to and meet with industry experts, including the opportunity to enter into discussion within the forum. Each subsequent meeting will be hosted in Edinburgh in the early evening.

The focus of this kick-off event was “Private Equity Investment in Shipping and Ports”.

The forum discussed potential impacts of developments in financing maritime infrastructure and the potential conflict in utilising private equity finance between shipping and ports as profit generators, and the role of shipping services and ports in the wider socioeconomic context, was critically reviewed. The TRI Maritime Forum reviewed these new phenomena in financing maritime infrastructure and discussed the challenges for governments and institutions in dealing with private sector interests in strategic infrastructure assets.

Speaker Profiles

Professor Alfred Baird

Professor Alf Baird is Head of the Maritime Research Group at Edinburgh Napier University’s Transport Research Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland. Prior to his academic career he worked for a shipping company in Leith, followed by a position as Shipping Manager for a multinational engineering company.  His doctoral research involved the study of global strategic management in liner container shipping.

Ricardo J. Sánchez

Ricardo J Sánchez is Economic Affairs Officer at the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNECLAC), in charge of maritime, logistic and port issues, and Assistant Professor of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile. He is an economist and MSc in Economics of Public Utilities at the University of Paris Nanterre and University Carlos III of Madrid, in Spain. His main research interests are shipping economics and port economics, including the maritime cycle, port devolution and applied industrial organization matters.

Neil Amner

Neil is one of Scotland's leading transport, environmental and parliamentary lawyers. His transport practise covers rail (passenger, freight and infrastructure), tram schemes, roads (including freight transport and road user charging), bus/coach, aviation, ferry and short sea shipping and harbours operations and infrastructure matters. He is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, a member of the Rail Freight Group and the European Freight & Logistics Leaders Forum.  Neil is Director of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce and chairs its Infrastructure and Transport Issues Group. He is a member of the Law Society of Scotland’s Environmental Law Committee and United Kingdom Environmental Law Association.