At the Annual General Meeting of the International Institute of Marine Surveying held at Murrills House, Portchester on 16th June 2020, Geoff Waddington took up the position of President of the Institute, a position he will hold for the next two years. Geoff replaces Dubai based Capt Zarir Irani who has held the position since 2018.
In normal times, a short ceremony would have taken place as the President’s medal was formally handed from the outgoing to the incoming President, but this year, for obvious reasons, the Annual General Meeting was held in an online only capacity. However, a short video had been pre-recorded showing Capt Zarir Irani seeming to hand the medal through a Zoom screen to Geoff Waddington who appeared to take delivery of it. The wonders of modern technology and a fun gesture not lost on the large online audience.
As he accepted the President’s medal from Capt Zarir Irani, Geoff took the opportunity to thank him for his two years of unequivocal service to the Institute. Geoff went on to say how keen he was to see the membership entry level to Institute membership being maintained and spoke passionately about the need to raise standards throughout the marine surveying profession. He also made a point of thanking the IIMS head office staff for their dedication during what has been the most challenging of times in recent months.
With Geoff’s elevation to the post of President, Peter Broad has moved up to Vice President, and Capt Ruchin Dayal was elected by the membership to the vacant role of Deputy Vice President.
Geoff Waddington will be known to many IIMS members. For a number of years, he was Chairman of the IIMS Education Committee and instrumental in developing and shaping the distance learning Diploma programme.
Having started his career as a junior marine engineer fifty years ago on ex-second world war steamships, Geoff was trained to be an engineering technician (artificer) and later a shipwright. Being a shipwright involved surveying ships’ structures for the Royal Navy and also smaller vessels for the Royal Marines, but his other job was small craft surveying. Having retired from the Royal Navy Geoff took up a career as a ship repair manager in a Southampton shipyard. He then took to small craft surveying which led to small craft shipping, which in turn led to breakbulk cargo, out of gauge cargo and dangerous goods.
Geoff said, “In never ceases to amaze me that there was no qualification to be a marine surveyor and this has been my goal ever since. I look forward to working with the IIMS CEO as we move towards implementation of a formal accreditation scheme which recognizes marine surveyors worldwide for their specialisations”.
