The meeting was attended by 58 members of the group, including representatives from regional offices in Fort Lauderdale, Houston, Long Beach, London, Piraeus, Roosendaal, Dubai, Mumbai, Zurich, Geneva, Shanghai, and Hong Kong.
Commenting on prospects for 2018, Bill Gallagher, IRI president, said, "We anticipate continued future growth for the RMI Registry, but this growth needs to be supported by an investment in our processes and people. We remain dedicated to preserving the quality that our customers have come to expect, while evolving our services in line with a changing industry."
A number of internal changes to management were announced during the meeting, including changes to the head of the Investigations and Technical departments. Rob Lorigan, who has been responsible for both the Quality Management System (QMS) and Investigations, will now focus his attention just on the QMS.
"We are working towards a new ISO standard which includes ISO certification for all of our 28 worldwide offices," said Gallagher. "Rob has done a tremendous job working as the head of both departments, but in order to ensure all of our offices are able to meet the new ISO standard, his audit schedule has intensified and it is important for him to focus in on just the QMS now."
Hans Molver has agreed to lead the Investigations group. With more than 10 years co-leading the worldwide technical team with Charles McHardy, Molver is in a good position to continue to support the registry in this new role.
Simon Bonnett, who is based in London, will take on the role of head of worldwide technical on the blue water side. He has a background in naval architecture, with over nine years of involvement in shipbuilding with Lloyd's Register based in South Korea, and over seven years of experience with IRI in a technical role. He will be working in co-ordination with McHardy, who will continue in his capacity as head of technical for the offshore side.
John Ramage, IRI COO, said, "Rob, Hans and Simon have all shown their dedication to IRI and to the customers that we serve, proving time and again their commitment to the responsibilities of investigation, quality management systems, and technical services. These changes ensure our worldwide team is able to serve industry stakeholders and fulfil our obligations as the registry continues to grow."
These changes come at a time of shifting QMS, with significant amendments to the internationally recognised ISO 9001 certification. As ISO 9001:2008 will be obsolete from September, 2018 and replaced by ISO 9001:2015, IRI is committed to strengthening its QMS functions and meeting these new requirements.