Mission completed.
This is a somewhat wistful and certainly memorable day for me. Today, at 11:47h CEST, in the course of the 2024 Assemby of the CMI - Comité Maritime International, I completed my service as an officer of the CMI. I was elected as a member of the Executive Council in 2013 and re-elected in 2016. In 2018, the Assembly elected me as Vice-President and so re-elected me in 2021. This means that for more than a quarter of my professional career as a practicing lawyer (I am now in my fortieth year) I served on the Executive Committee of CMI.
Quoting Past-President of the The Maritime Law Association of the United States, Francis Nolan, III: „If you want to see the world and make friends all over it, go into Maritime Law.“
Right he is. During my professional career, I visited 63 countries and made countless friends, a good number of them were present in the room today at the Assembly in Gothenburg. I worked under three distinguished Presidents - Stuart Hetherington, Christopher Davis and Ann Fenech and with 22 Executive Council members of 17 different Maritime Law Associations.
It was always a pleasure, and never a burden. While I strove to give my best, I know I did not always succeed, and apologize for when I did not meet the expectations.
I will not say good-bye to CMI, but continue engaging in various International Working Groups and Committees, just as I continue with my law practice - though at a slower pace. Because there is also a life beyond Maritime Law. For me this will be more family life and more travelling.
With this in mind I happily repeat the three reasons why you will see me at the 2025 CMI Conference in Tokyo: (1) my heart will continue to beat for Maritime Law, (2) my wife and me will visit our son and our Japanese daughter in law, who live in Japan for over 10 years and (3) after 43 years, my wife and I will repeat a trip we did when we were young: with a cargo boat from Kagoshima (Kyushu) island-hopping the Amami Islands down to Okinawa and further south to Ishigaki and Iriomote.
You will hear from me. In this sense: no good-bye, but rather see you soon.
The photo on the left shows me during my last address to the Assembly (thanks go to Johannes Grove Nielsen), the right shows me, already as Past Vice-President, with President Ann Fenech, continuing Vice-President John O‘Connor and freshly elected new Vice-President Alexander von Ziegler. Congratulations and best wishes to Alex!
Consulting und Privatier
1moOffice or DGTR?