27 September 2019

The shining stars of the UK’s £46.1bn maritime sector were applauded last week at the first ever Maritime UK Awards, with more than 400 attendees from businesses and organisations across the entire spectrum of the maritime sector; from leisure to shipping, professional services to ports and engineering to advanced manufacturing coming together to celebrate the best of the UK maritime industry. Shoreham Port’s Chief Executive, Rodney Lunn represented the Port at the awards evening to congratulate the winners and finalists.

A respected industry panel performed the judging across 12 categories for the awards ceremony, including Nicky Goldsbrough, Director of Corporate Services at Shoreham Port. With a wealth of experience within human resources and corporate services, Nicky was a judge on the panels for the Diversity Award and Maritime 2050 award.

Nicky commented “It was a great pleasure to see the efforts of Spinnaker Global and Red Funnel recognised at the inaugural awards. Both awards were thoroughly well deserved and a great example of what can be achieved within the maritime sector. Many congratulations to the team at Spinnaker Global and Red Funnel.”

The Diversity Award was presented to leading recruitment consultants, Spinnaker Global. Spinnaker work for the world’s leading shipping employers, specialising in shore-based recruitment, HR consultancy and salary benchmarking work. The Diversity award was presented to Spinnaker to recognise the work that the business has done to promote the importance of diversity and inclusion, particularly in their efforts to reduce the gender gap within the maritime industry. Spinnaker Global’s Managing Director also leads the Women in Maritime taskforce Total Package workstream.

Karen Waltham, Managing Director, HR Consulting from Spinnaker Global commented “It was a privilege to receive the award on behalf of Spinnaker Global. I’m immensely proud of the work that we have done to help educate and support the industry (both in the UK and globally) in attracting, developing and retaining a diverse talent pool.”

Meanwhile, the Maritime 2050 Award was awarded to Red Funnel, a highly successful travel and holiday company based in Southampton. The prestigious award, sponsored by the Department for Transport, recognises Red Funnel’s contribution to supporting the British shipbuilding industry and championing the UK Government’s Maritime 2050 strategy, which seeks to maintain and strengthen the UK’s position as a global maritime leader. The award was presented by Nusrat Ghani, Maritime Minister at the Department for Transport and was accepted by Red Funnel’s Chief Financial Officer, Graham Barnetson.

Fran Collins, Chief Executive at Red Funnel commented “We are extremely delighted to receive this prestigious award as we continue to do our part to support the British maritime industry. We believe in the UK Government’s Maritime 2050 vision of keeping the UK as a leading, global maritime nation, so we’re particularly honoured to receive this accolade.”

Fran continued “Supporting the UK maritime economy is strongly embedded in the present day ethos of Red Funnel, and has been since we were founded back in 1861 and will continue to guide our actions in the future as we look to embrace new technologies towards a greener future.”

Category: Maritime