And so to that Commercial Court decision on whether or not a vessel detained by pirates is on or off hire…

A hero for our times, and one whose like will not be seen again was how former Lloyd's List editor and Spinnaker chairman Michael Grey described Professor David Moreby in his tribute in Lloyd's List and, as a former student, our current chairman was proud to deliver a tribute at his funeral on Friday…

Spinnaker and the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers recently joined forces to promote the value of training and informed careers advice and we are delighted to say that ICS director Alan Phillips will be adding his might to Changing Course in the coming months. This month he reminds us of the quite staggering numbers of candidates who take the ICS exams each year…

The annual meeting of the Maritime HR Forum took place in London this week. Maritime industry employers compared notes on bonus trends, salary negotiations, treatment of expats, succession planning, integration, retention and engagement at a time when the economy, hopefully, is in the process of kick-starting…

HR Insights newsletter draws our attention to research by Mercer Consulting on the cost of overpaying, or underpaying your staff. While it may be obvious that over remunerating staff is going to cost you more, underpaying them will also affect the bottom line…

The joint Spinnaker and International Marine Purchasing Association salaries survey has so far produced over 100 responses. A full analysis of the results will be published in the June issue of IMPA's Marine Trader magazine and online in the Changing Course Blog…

Charitable foundations seem to do well by their employees, at least so it would seem from one out-of-office message we received…

As we all absorb the outcome of the UK election, it may be worthwhile to reflect on the characteristics that make a good or bad prime minister. Apparently more than 100 people applied to an ad placed by Run the Country Ltd for the prime ministerial role by JobsGoPublic…

On the subject of politicians, whether politicians and shipping are oil and water will be the topic for debate at the next Cadwallader lecture to take place at Lloyd's of London on October 6…