Sergey Frank President & CEO of Sovcomflot
On 26 May 2015 an agreement was signed on cooperation between PAO Sovcomflot and the Admiral Nevelskoy Maritime State University. The document was signed by the company’s President and CEO Mr Sergey Frank and the university’s rector Mr Sergey Ogay.
The Admiral Nevelskoy Maritime State University is the highest profile institute for training and qualifying seafarers to work in the Russian Far East. SCF Group’s partnership with the university is constantly developing.
Under the existing memorandum on partnership, Sovcomflot employees sit on the university’s examination board, while every year seminars are organised at the university for senior officers of SCF Group. Between 2010 and 2014 Sovcomflot sponsored the modernisation of the training ship the Professor Houston as part of the Russian Geographic Society’s ‘Floating University’ project, and also financed the repair and technical fitting out of one of the university’s auditoriums. The company regularly makes social investments into the famous sail training ship the Nadezhda.
The agreement signed on 26 May 2015 regarding partnership between the two organisations is the logical next step in their cooperation. It foresees the involvement of SCF Group specialists in teaching important disciplines and academic work, organising training for the university’s teachers on board SCF vessels, preparing groups of students for future employment in the company’s fleet, the creation of grants for outstanding students, and also further modernisation of the university’s infrastructure and technology.
In addition to the signed agreement the University supervisory board, chaired by Mr Frank, took the decision to create an endowment fund for the university, and to develop a new model for cooperation between the university and the business community with an interest in training qualified maritime professionals.
On the same day, at a meeting of the academic council of the Admiral Nevelskoy Maritime State University, PAO Sovcomflot’s Chief Executive Officer Mr Sergey Frank was elected as the university’s honorary president. In thanking his colleagues for the trust placed in him, Mr Frank vowed to do all he can to help his alma-mater to develop. In his speech to the members of the academic council, Mr Frank noted:
“The 21st century is the century of the ocean, and the interests of the global economy are closely tied to the Russian Arctic and Far East. We already feel our government’s increasing focus on these regions. Our launch opportunities, on a technological as well as intellectual level, often allow us to leave our foreign competitors behind. Russian manufacturers are already creating technology more advanced than that made by foreign enterprises. The best example of this is the successful implementation of the Prirazlomnoye project, which involved the operation of the unique shuttle tankersMikhail Ulyanov and the Kirill Lavrov, which were constructed by ship-builders in St. Petersburg. Our priority today is developing highly-qualified staff specialising in Arctic disciplines; in this I see a great chance for a renaissance in the maritime industry and maritime education. The Maritime University, and its teaching staff, have knowledge about work in the Eastern Arctic that no-one else has. Of course we won’t see massive progress overnight, but I am certain that by working together we will solve the issues that have appeared in recent years, and achieve a higher level of maritime education in the Russian Far East.”
