ABOUT THE SPNL

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The Shipping Professional Network in London (SPNL) was founded in 2007 as a meeting place for young shipping professionals in London.

Our vision

• Promote and enhance London as a maritime centre.
• Be the ‘voice’ of young shipping professionals in London by engaging with the broader shipping community.

Our strategic objectives are as follows:

• To provide a forum where young professionals who work within the shipping industry in London can meet to build their social and professional networks.
• To provide a competence and expertise-developing educational forum for young professionals who work within the shipping industry in London.
• To function as a recognised and respected representative of the shipping industry in London and work towards its advancement.

Background

Today the SPNL enjoys significant broad-based support from from companies and individuals alike. We are proud to have official backing from the UK Chamber of Shipping. Through regularly-organised events, young professionals from all aspects of the shipping industry are brought together to network, socialise and learn more about the industry we proudly form part of.

The SPNL was founded in November 2007, starting out in what could be described as “humble beginnings”, when close to 30 people attended the first networking drinks (mostly from recent graduate groups related to London Business School, RINA and CASS Business School). From there, the SPNL has gone from strength to strength.

SPNL’s inclusion in the Lloyd’s List London Maritime Map (all of London’s significant organisations which make up the London maritime cluster represented as a London tube map) is testimony of this. SPNL is proud to be recognised and feature alongside such illustrious organisations.

SPNL serves as a platform for networking from which young shipping professionals may create relevant contacts and establish long-lasting relationships with tomorrow’s shipping leaders whilst being exposed to current industry leaders. Our work has been warmly welcomed by the greater London shipping community for its favourable impact on the London maritime cluster.

SPNL has been a supporter of the London International Shipping Week (LISW) since its inception, with the first SPNL LISW event coinciding with the launch of the first ever Next Generation Confidence Index. The Index, which featured research conducted by SPNL in conjunction with Moore Stephens (now BDO LLP), canvassed the opinions of young professionals working primarily in the shipowning, shipbroking, ship management, chartering, advisory and associated industries in London. Respondents were asked for their views on the current state of the market and how they believed it would perform in the following twelve months. The Index formed part of the SPNL Future-London Report (Click here to view the report) – a report focused on making London more attractive to both talent and investment. The UK maritime sector directly employs over 200,000 people and contributes nearly £40bn to the UK economy each year, with the City of London forming an essential part of the wider UK shipping industry.

UK Minister for Shipping and Ports Stephen Hammond MP said: “London International Shipping Week was a great opportunity for London and the whole of the UK to showcase the wealth of talent in the maritime sector and the range of maritime services we have to offer. I am keen to ensure that we nurture the skills and expertise of our young professionals and the extra 25% funding to support maritime training for sea cadets, demonstrates this commitment. I would like to thank SPNL for the support and encouragement their network provides for young professionals in the shipping industry.“

SPNL is proud to feature in the official London International Shipping Week (LISW) promotional video.

Our events offer SPNL members opportunities to hear experts and respected leaders in the UK maritime industry present their thoughts and opinions on topical issues in various fields in the industry. These fields range from ship valuation, maritime law, ports, piracy, ship classification, shipping finance, maritime economics, research and much more.

Although organising events is at the core of what we do, the SPNL is also involved in supporting tomorrow’s young shipping professionals by way of the SPNL Prize for the top Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers (ICS) student and the SPNL Prize at Plymouth University for the best maritime-business related dissertation for the Bachelors degree programme. We also raise awareness within our industry by hosting educational port visits and tours of the City of London, at the same time supporting our host maritime centre of London (by the SPNL FutureLondon project) and selected charities.

Management

The SPNL is managed by an elected executive board consisting of members from companies and organisations across the shipping industry. The executive board manage SPNL in their ‘spare’ time, as they all have full time professional careers.

Active database

Our active member database contains over 1,500 young shipping professionals. Our events are attended by our members, our sponsors and by new participants.

LinkedIn and social media connections

SPNL has its social media presence on the following channels:

• Twitter
• Instagram
• Facebook
• LinkedIn

We also host a very popular Group on LinkedIn, which is free and open to anybody in the shipping industry with a particular interest in London shipping. The group has over 13,000 members and provides access to a lively discussion forum and plenty of shipping industry news.

Past Annual Reviews

• Annual Review 2016:Download here (PDF)
• Annual Review 2015:Download here (PDF)
• Annual Review 2014:Download here (PDF)
• Annual Review 2013:Download here (PDF)
• Annual Review 2012:Download here (PDF)
• Annual Review 2011:Download here (PDF)
• Annual Review 2010:Download here (PDF)
• Annual Review 2009:Download here (PDF)