In conversation with Dorothea Ioannou incoming CEO of the American P&I Club

Dorothea Ioannou, current Deputy Chief Operating Office of Shipowners Claims Bureau, manager of the American P&I Club talked with Emma Howell, Media Director of Seatrade Maritime News during the recent CMA Shipping event in Connecticut.

You can watch a video of the interview above, listen to a podcast of it in the player below, or the app or your choice, and read selected quotes from the conversation.

Listen to the full interview in the player above or on the app of your choice

Selected quotes from the interview

Becoming the first woman leader of both the American P&I Club and any Club globally:

“I'm definitely very excited. I'm thrilled. I'm proud. I think these are the three major words that I would use to describe how I feel. But also, you know, a little bit of weight, there's a lot of responsibility, because there's responsibility that comes with the role just as a role by itself for the American club, but because of its significance in the industry. So, since the first club was founded, 167 years ago, the first club of the current group, there's never been a woman leader of any club. So, this is significant, not just for us, it's, you know, the American Club is 105 years old, there's never been a woman leader. And I will be first there, and I'll be first from an industry perspective.”

What people can expect from Dorothea in terms of managing the club:

“One of the things that we've been doing for a number of years also is concentrating on enhancing people's skills within the club. So, putting the leadership in place of all the departments, that's definitely going to continue. Our motto has always been about personalised service and I've been a very big part of that. That's definitely going to continue as we go forward.”

On how the club managed the transition to working remotely during the pandemic:

“What we did was in the middle of the pandemic, was what's called a virtual workshop, where we took anonymous feedback from each and every person in the company to figure out whether they had what they needed. Are they able to do their jobs efficiently? Was there anything that was not working? Did they have ideas on what they would prefer to see going forward? Was there anything from a job perspective in terms of our strategy externally that we could do better?”

Views on consolidation and what the proposed merger of North P&I and the Standard Club means for the sector:

“I don't have a crystal ball. I can't say what's going to happen. But I can tell you what this means. This means that the market has one less choice in terms of options for P&I. That's a fact. Let's remember that the P&I clubs were created by the shipowners, each and every club was created by the shipowners. I think that if they didn't want to have that many options, not all of us would be here today.”

The impact of larger and more frequent claims and what the American Club can do:

“Right now, we are experiencing historical highs [for claims] especially on the pool. If you look at the last three years and compare it to the three years prior, it's almost double in terms of exposure. Our own exposure of our contribution to other clubs, claims have doubled in that period. What does this mean? Well, it just means what it always means that market goes through cycles.”

“We're going to continue what we always try and do, where we find a particular problem, we will come up with loss prevention initiatives that can help guide our shipowners in order to take perhaps, better measures. Because technology also as it as it unfolds, yes, it mitigates certain types of claims, but it creates new ones.”

“We are over a century old, and we certainly look with confidence to be able to meet those demands of the volatility of claims environment.”