Did you go through training/university or straight into work? After high school in the Bahamas, I began my seafaring career at the Glasgow College of Nautical Studies.
Who have been your mentors? There’s not one person in particular. From a maritime perspective, in my earlier career, I was lucky enough to be a cadet and officer with Denholm Ship Management and was afforded the opportunity to sail on a variety of ships. This meant I benefited from the wisdom and experience of many shipboard and shore-based personnel, ranging from galley staff to superintendents.
Ambition or talent, which is more important? Ambition provides the drive to realise, harness and expand any talent that you may have, so they’re both important and valuable in their own right.
What would you have done if you hadn’t gone into shipping? Probably something around accountancy or finance. Maths was always one of my stronger subjects at school.
What is your biggest extravagance? I’m quite financially cautious but the closest would have been my first car.
How do you relax? Relax? What’s that? I’m always looking for or thinking of something to do. I’m not someone who easily switches off.
Where and when are you happiest? Anywhere with family and close friends.
What would you change in shipping if you could? The regulatory process from the perspective of the formulation of a system that enables more frequent review of requirements to assess their relevance at the time.
The Bahamas Maritime Authority appointed Captain Dwain Hutchinson acting managing director/chief executive in January 2018, after the retirement of Commodore Davy Rolle. Hutchinson is a master mariner with more than 30 years’ shipping experience and has been employed in management capacities within the authority over the past 16 years. He was deputy director, head of seafarers and manning from October 2008 and has served as chairman of the IMO flag state implementation sub-committee (re-named the sub-committee on implementation of IMO instruments III). He is also vice chairman of the Caribbean Port State Control Committee.
Hutchinson served as a deck officer with Denholm Ship Management from 1983-1996 and subsequently studied for an MBA in business studies at the UK’s Open University between 2001 and 2006, adding a post-graduate certificate in law in 2011-2012. Last June he was appointed an executive governor of the World Maritime University.
What would you like to own that you do not possess? I’m happy with what I have, but part of me would like to own/charter a yacht one day and visit the 700 islands, rocks and cays in the Bahamas chain, at a leisurely pace, before continuing to sail south to explore the other Caribbean islands.
Is politics important to you? Yes. Governmental decisions have a huge impact on everyday life, so it’s important to keep a watchful eye on what’s happening around the world and consider the views of those people who can influence political decisions.
What would your 20-year-old self say about you today if you met? “Stay the course, relax and smile more.”
What keeps you awake at night? Depends on what I was trying to achieve that day but didn’t, or what I wish to achieve the following day.
What are your favourite song, book and film? I always find this question hard as there isn’t any one film or book that I watch/read time and time again. The same applies to a song, as it depends on what I am doing.
What is the most important lesson you have learnt? Take one day at a time, making sure that you enjoy those days with your true friends.
What are your best and worst characteristics? Worst: Apparently, I am known to be a little impatient. Best: I’m not one to gloat, so I would have to ask one of my friends/family this question. However, I am known to relish a challenge.
What is your greatest achievement so far? From a maritime perspective, I would consider being elected chairman of the IMO flag state implementation sub-committee and serving in that capacity for the past eight years. Being from a major flag state administration, the faith and trust of my peers in my ability and competence to lead a UN international body that had as one of its responsibilities flag state obligations at a time when a lot of international attention was directed at eradication of substandard ships was a humbling experience. This achievement also brought national pride, as I was representing the Bahamas, and personal pride, as I consider that this “success” was due to all of the support afforded to me by my family and close friends.
What has been your greatest disappointment? I’m not one for regrets. I’m happy with my life.
What ambitions do you still have? Recently, we celebrated a national maritime week in the Bahamas and I visited my old primary school in Nassau as part of the week’s activities on raising maritime awareness. Sandilands Primary is one of the oldest schools in the community of Fox Hill — a community with social challenges — and the teachers and local dignitaries marked my visit as a source of inspiration, for which I was deeply humbled. My ambition from that experience is to help provide the opportunity — if only to one student from my former primary school — to succeed, starting with a prize of a laptop in 2019 for the top student in maths and science, which I consider to be core subjects.
