Italian shipowner Cesare d’Amico will chair a member’s board of 16 directors at the merged mutual NorthStandard when it opens for business in February 2023.

Members of the North P&I Club and Standard Club backed the merger in a vote last week which also approved a proposed board of directors.

The new board will be split evenly with an equal amount of representatives from both clubs in line with the principle that this is a “merger of equals”.

The merged board will be chaired by current Standard Club chairman Cesare d’Amico, chief executive of the Italian d’Amico Group.

Sea Traders managing director Ioanna Procopiou has been elected as deputy chair and is the only woman named on the NorthStandard board. She is also currently vice chairman of the North P&I board.

Also acting as deputy chairman will be Alassia NewShips Management founder Nicolas Hadjioannou.

Other prominent shipowners named on the board will include BW Group’s director Nicholas Fell, Takis Vellis of Pleiades Shipping, SeaOcean Carriers director Erik Johnsen, Arklow Shipping director James Tyrell, Orion Bulkers director Johann-Philipp Reith and Interocean Transportation’s Ricardo Menendez.

Like the merger, the final board is also subject to regulatory and other approvals.

Sea Traders’ Ioanna Procopiou will be deputy chairman of the merged P&I club NorthStandard. Photo: Duncan Phillips

The current chief executives of both clubs — North P&I’s Paul Jennings and Jeremy Grose from the Standard Club — will be executive directors of the board. The two men will also share the position of chief executive of the new merged NorthStandard management.

However, a question mark hangs over whether the other critical roles of chief underwriting officer and chief financial officer can be similarly shared at the new merged mutual.

Discussions on how the roles will be divided will unravel over the coming months. Thya Kathiravel is the current chief underwriter officer at North P&I, while Mark Collins is undewriting director at the Standard Club.

The North P&I’s chief financial officer is Ed Davies and his counterpart at the Standard Club is Nick Jelly.

The two clubs have expressed their intent to hold onto existing talent and are promising an “exciting future for our people”.

Both clubs have admitted there will inevitably be a degree of personal uncertainty for some. “We are proactively engaging with our people to minimise the risk of people leaving during this time,” North P&I said.