New Secretary General reshuffles IMO bureaucracy

After taking office January  1, new IMO Secretary-General Koji Sekimizu is making a number of changes in the structure of the IMO Secretariat.

Sekimizu said: “The biggest challenge I see in the coming years, in terms of management of the Organization, is how to improve the ‘delivery mechanism’ in the Secretariat to address the demanding issues we face, such as anti-piracy measures, the introduction of the mandatory Member State Audit Scheme and our ever-increasing workload. To address this will require effective human resource deployment and redeployment, the creation of new ways of handling our work and improvements to our working methods.  It will also require close co-operation between the Secretariat and Member Governments.”

Among the changes made by Sekimizu  is the transfer of Assistant Secretary-General, Andrew Winbow, from the Administrative Division to the Maritime Safety Division, as its Director and the transferred Jo Espinoza-Ferrey from the Marine Environment Division to head the Administrative Division as its Director.  Stefan Micallef has been promoted to the post of Director of the Marine Environment Division.

To ensure that further progress in dealing with piracy, Sekimizu has appointed Hartmut Hesse as Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Maritime Security and Anti-Piracy Programs. Hesse will be taking responsibility for the implementation of the Djibouti Code of Conduct and will also act as the IMO representative to conferences and meetings dealing with piracy issues.

To prepare for the introduction of the mandatory Member State Audit Scheme and to provide ample resources for these activities, Sekimizu has reorganized the Sub-Division for Implementation and Coordination of the Maritime Safety Division into a Department for Member State Audit and Implementation Support in the Maritime Safety Division. Laurence Barchue was appointed as Head of the new Department.

Finally, the Secretary-General also decided to strengthen the functions dealing with internal audit and matters of ethics and appointed K-R. Min as the Senior Deputy Director in charge of the Internal Oversight and Ethics Office.

The changes announced also results in changes in the composition of IMO’s Senior Management Committee:

Secretary-General

Assistant Secretary-General/Director, Maritime Safety Division, A. Winbow
Assistant Secretary-General/Director, Legal and External Relations Division, R. Balkin
Director, Conference Division, O. O’Neil
Director, Technical Cooperation Division, J. Zhu
Director, Administrative Division, J. Espinoza Ferrey
Director, Marine Environment Division, S. Micallef
Special Adviser on Environmental Protection Standards, D. Du
Head, Department of Member State Audit and Implementation Support, L. Barchue
Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Maritime Security and Anti-Piracy Programs, H. Hesse
Senior Deputy Director, Internal Oversight and Ethics Office, K-R. Min
Head, Executive Office of the Secretary-General, J. Thompson
Head, Policy and Planning Unit, J. Loldrup

January 4, 2012