In this episode Mehmet Belibagli from Volvo Penta UK shares his proudest moment - an impressive sales milestone, his joy at travelling and meeting people in the commercial marine industry, a scary moment at sea, his passion for Mediterranean food and some thoughtful comments on the future of the industry.

Mehmet Belibagli is in charge of all Marine Commercial engine sales activities for Volvo Penta UK, across UK and Ireland.
Mehmet has over 12 years’ experience on project and sales management in the marine industry, and 7 years’ sales manager experience on marine engine sales.
He holds MBA and Naval Architecture degrees.

In this episode of Seawork "Behind the Badge" we find out more about Mike Besijn, Sales UK for Damen Shipyards. We chat about his love of tugs, keeping up with technology, his favourite cities, fears for the future of the world and, on a more positive note, some great advice for the commercial marine industry.

About Mike

Mike Besijn has been in shipping just about all his adult life.

After starting as a galley boy on deep sea going tugs, he rose through the ranks and spent 10 years at sea. Time ashore, at night school, gave Mike the title of mechanical engineer. This is how sales (not engineering) became his new life.

He has been in sales of maritime equipment for just over 35 years. Ships, as one may expect, are at the fore front of all the products sold by Mike.

Mike’s passion in shipping are workboats. The lovely, smaller yet sturdy and powerful boats are the ones he likes most (after all, says Mike, "who needs a super yacht?").

It is the tugs, both old and modern, and the cargo carrying, landing craft vessels with cranes doing the errand jobs in the field, and earning money for their owners, that inspire Mike.

Mike says, "This is a field in which I thrive and make a difference".

This is the next episode in the Seawork Behind the Badge series. Podcasts where we get to know Seawork exhibitors just that little bit better.

In this podcast we find out more about exhibitor, Ross Negus who heads the successful company Southampton Freight Services. Ross shares some exciting news with us about the company's expansion and we find out how one colleague left Ross totally shocked...

Ross Negus joined the world of international freight forwarding 31 years ago, aged 17, working his way through the accounts department initially and then onto road export, ocean export, imports and finally airfreight export, gaining a wealth of experience along the way.

Then, 25 years ago, he started Southampton Freight Services (SFS) from the family home with his brother and father, taking over the reins as Managing Director in 2010 and overseeing a steady and structured growth plan for the business.

Delighted to catch up with Philip Williams from Williams Shipping to ask him some fun but probing questions. Listen to find out what makes Philip proud, what his last meal on earth would be and what frightens him...

This is a recording of the live session of Commercial Marine Network "Get Set for Workboat" 2050 Series 3 Session 3.  

To view the slides and visual material, and for more information on the speakers, go to seawork.com/on demand page 

For more information on the conference series and to sign up for forthcoming conferences register or sign in at seawork.com 

This is a Seawork on demand audio and video recording of the live session of "Get Set for Workboat 2050" Series 3 Session 2, held

Please note the Q and A function is not available.

Series 3 of Get Set for Workboat 2050 will look at practical applications of decarbonisation and provide examples of businesses and workboat operators who are successfully employing technology, innovation, and design to reduce the carbon footprint.  

Episode One  - Tony Birr, Century Maritime

He then set up his business consultancy, Century Maritime and, for the last seven or eight years, has worked for a number of clients but predominantly Goodchild Marine.

Tony has attended Seawork many times in his various roles and we are delighted he is our first Seawork Connect “Behind the Badge” interview.