News and Updates from the International Maritime Business department.
- June 9, 2025: IMB Students Welcome BOND’s VP of Marketing & MMA President and Commandant to Last Day of Class
- June 3, 2025: IMB Students Tour STEM Building Construction Site
A group of 12 students in the IMB major specializing in project management toured the construction site of our new STEM building with guide Ben Ross from Bond Construction.
- IMB News 2024 and Earlier
March 2024
The IMB Career Expo was organized at the Bay State Conference Center. The following employers attended covering a range of different organizations:
- Steven J. Smaracko with Kuehne+Nagel
- Leah Alessi with OW Ocean Winds
- Nicholas Curran and Colby Davis with FreightPlus
- Anthony McKillop with Sequoia Biotech Consulting
- Theo Marchal, Shannon Elwood and Stephanie Robbins with Clean Harbors
- Zack Merrill and Jonathan Eder with Port of Vancouver USA
- Eric Medeiros with General Dynamics Electric Boat
The IMB department hosted an Offshore Wind Career Panel on 3/1 that was attended by alumni working in this field in various capacities, representing some major players.
February 2024
Several MMA alumni met current IMB students in two sessions on 2/15. They provided valuable input regarding job search strategies and career paths. The alumni represented a broad spectrum of industries, both maritime and non maritime.
Mourning the untimely death of Ms. Angela Chao, CEO of Foremost Group. Ms. Chao was a huge supporter of the International Maritime Business program at MMA and was a member of our Advisory Board. She is pictured here with IMB student John Gallagher and visiting students from Shanghai Maritime University. We are deeply saddened by her sudden demise.
Two IMB grads, a decade apart, visit campus on 2/12 to talk about the practical applications of negotiation and utilization of the Veson nautical software for chartering and brokerage. Thank you Christian Mrozek (IMB 2011) and Matthew Gorman (IMB 2021) for your time today in support of current students.
Ms. Kim Gibson, MMA ’05, the Senior General Superintendent at Gilbane Building Company was our guest speaker on 2/8 as part of the IMB Project Management speaker series.
January 2024
Ms. Kathy Shediac, the Director of Agile Delivery at Veson Nautical was our guest speaker on 1/25 as part of the Project Management speaker series.
MMA will be hosting the IAMU (International Association of Maritime Universities) Annual General Assembly in October 2024. This will be the largest global conference ever hosted by MMA and maritime students, researchers and faculty from around the world will participate. The IMB department has had a long association with IAMU and our students have participated in the IAMU AGA since 2005. The most recent participation was in Finland in October 2023 when Keven Paul, Liam Howell and Kylie Maher prented their paper. MMA recently hosted IAMU officials Shigemi Matsuzaki and Yusuke Mori to start the planning process.
December 2023
Dr. Bani Ghosh, Dr. Portia Ndlovu and some Seniors were at the historic Fairhaven High School on 12/7/23 to talk about the exciting Experiential Learning Program of the International Maritime Business department. The presentation was well received and we are grateful to Ms. Marlene Sabeh for the kind invitation.
A Marine Insurance panel was hosted by Dr. Portia Ndlovu with Mr. Charles Pugliese and Megan Habel (IMB 2015) on 12/5. It was very interesting for our students to hear from practitioners in the industry and learn from their experiences.
November 2023
John Gallagher (IMB 2015) visited us on November 16 and spoke to the current students about financial risk management strategies. Jake is a Risk Control Analyst at ExxonMobil, working closely with trading, managing exposures, reporting market fundamentals and ensuring accuracy of profit and loss reporting. This was a great opportunity for current students to learn about the link between finance and maritime business. Jake also gave creative gifts to students who responded accurately to his questions; It did feel like an early Christmas.
Massachusetts Maritime Academy Celebrates Diwali
Massachusetts Maritime Academy celebrated Diwali, the Festival of Lights for the first time on campus. This major Indian celebration was attended by several members of the administration, faculty and students. There was also a wonderful recital by the dance troupe, Souls of India. Presentations were made by Dr. Ashok Pandey and Dr. Bani Ghosh explaining the concept of Diwali to attending guests.
On Tuesday 14 November, Project Engineer Nate McDermott IMB ’23 guided a group of 13 students (from freshmen to seniors) enrolled in the IMB Project Management concentration on a tour of Suffolk’s $150M expansion project at Cape Cod Hospital where a new 4-story state-of-the-art cancer and cardiac unit is being built.
It was a pleasure to host Mr. Nick Wordsworth, CEO and IMB Alum, Tim Mercer, Project Consultant of Offshore Construction Associates on Monday, 11/6. Mr. Wordsworth spoke about supply chain issues in the US Offshore sector. We look forward to several academic-industry partnerships with OCA.
