The Costas Grammenos Centre for Shipping, Trade and Finance at Bayes Business School, City St George’s University of London held its 11th London Biennial last week.
More than 800 global business leaders, diplomats, policymakers and academics gathered at the International Maritime Organisation last week for the 11th City of London Biennial Meeting.
Organised by the Costas Grammenos Centre for Shipping, Trade and Finance at Bayes Business School, City St George’s, University of London, and sponsored by the Maria Tsakos Foundation, the Biennial’s theme was “The world is changing‘’.
The conference, which was held at the International Maritime Organisation HQ by the Thames, opened with a session on the world economy – specifically, AI’s impact on growth, productivity and efficiency.
Co-Chairing that discussion, Onassis Foundation President Dr Anthony S. Papadimitriou said that AI is very much here and already changing the industry. In fact there are several companies that use AI tools to improve the efficiency plant maintenance operations, reduce bunkers consumption and have a better understanding of market dynamics.
That comment was reinforced by Co-chair of the session Professor Michael Mainelli, Chairman of the Z/Yen Group, President of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry and former Lord Mayor of London, who said he’d been designing AI-type systems for much of his career.
The long history of AI
“It’s not a new technology at all. I have produced about 50 systems going back to the 1970s, about ten of which are still running. I’m here to tell you that in a largely un-regulated sector we do have a recognised standard. ISO 42001 is a well-established standard but it can be seen as a barrier to trade given the broad definition of AI used in EU regulations and more than half of the American states,” he said.
The conference heard a range of views on whether the impact of AI is exaggerated.
Professor Charles Baden-Fuller, Centenary Chair in Strategy at Bayes Business School, also picked up the employment theme.
“Much is written on the jobs that will be displaced but what will the effect be in reality? In very asset-heavy sectors such as shipping, it is going to have a rather modest impact.
“The focus will be on making those assets more efficient; but that means new technology has to be integrated with old tech and we know that is very difficult. The need to put additional capital into a new ship means it will be an evolutionary process. You need investor confidence and good management – which requires bringing in people with new skills.”
However, the technology is already, affecting specialist firms that provide services to the shipping sector, he said.
“Shipowners are already bringing legal services back in-house rather than paying expensive specialist lawyers.”
Other in-depth sessions included:
- Challenges and opportunities for the shipping and related industries in a new era, chaired by Lord Jeffrey Mountevans and co-chaired by Professor Michael Tamvakis
- Dry markets, chaired by Dr Sadan Kaptanoglu
- Tanker markets, chaired by Professor Siri Pettersen Strandenes
- Finance – banking and capital markets, chaired by Dr Nikolas P. Tsakos and co-chaired by Mr Nicolas Bornozis
- Shipowners discussion on major topics, chaired by Dr Nikolas P. Tsakos.
Delivering the first keynote speech of the event, Apurv Bagri, an Honorary Visiting Professor at Bayes and President and CEO of the Metdist Group of Companies, voiced concern about the impact on developing nations of the backlash against globalisation. The rush to erect trade barriers, he said, left companies and countries in need of “a moral compass to guide us when the new ethos is every nation for itself”.
“When does self-interest become self-harm?” he asked.
Apurv Bagri speaks to the conference.
Lord Mayor Alastair King used his conference address to issue a rallying cry on behalf of the City of London and the UK’s broader financial sector. He said the City is suffering a crisis of confidence – one exacerbated by an overly-bleak media perspective that foreign investors do not share.
“I sit here in London and I get an extraordinary feeling of a slight nervousness, and potential feelings that life is getting very difficult and all quite challenging. Yet when I go abroad, there is an extraordinary respect for what London and the United Kingdom does, particularly in the financial, legal and maritime sectors.”
More than 40 per cent of aviation and maritime insurance is still brokered in London, he pointed out.
“London has been a major port city for 2000 years and it continues to be so important for the maritime sector and related services. For investors, it still provides good investment returns in a stable environment with low risk.”
He lamented that an appropriate ‘fixation’ on governance and processes has triggered a culture of risk aversion – “where even India is now seen as ‘too difficult’ to do business with”.
Opening the conference, Bayes’ Executive Dean Professor Andre Spicer said: “This is a very special event for Bayes because it celebrates the great work of Professor Costas Th. Grammenos and his colleagues. The shipping, trade and finance centre that he founded and which now bears his name, has focused on the education that has helped so many people – including many at the conference – build fantastic careers.
“The centre’s academics also undertake world-leading research. Perhaps most importantly, they and our students also promote dialogue and interaction with professionals in the sector, which helps deliver practice-based learning.”
Professor Grammenos thanked the conference sponsors, the Maria Tsakos Foundation, and recalled the research centre was launched in 1983 – a time of economic and social turbulence, much of it attributable to oil price shocks in 1973 and 1979. The hit to global trade had a big impact on the shipping industry, he recalled.
However, more than 40 years later, he was able to look back at both the innovation and impact of the centre.
“We were the first to take the shipping industry into the City of London – and we took the City of London into the centre. We have published more than 150 papers in high quality academic journals and we advise companies and policymakers.”
City St George’s President Sir Anthony Finkelstein lauded the centre for its contribution to the global shipping industry and trading system.
“More than 4,600 students, from 160 countries, have graduated from its programmes. Many hold leading positions in the international banking, shipping, trading and manufacturing sectors. The centre has created a platform for international dialogue between senior business executives, government and academia.”
In the final session, titled Shipowners’ discussion on major topics chaired by Dr Nikolas P. Tsakos, international shipowners voiced their concerns about the public image of the industry, the lack of trained personnel onboard, the growing and technologically advanced fleet and the confusion over the future engine designs that will allow the industry to achieve its net zero goals.
To conclude, Dr Tsakos on a more positive note reminded all that the industry has been in similar situations to the current one, referring to the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA90), and has always successfully navigated stormy seas.
Finally, he thanked everyone for attending the Grammenos two-day marathon that he said was full of new ideas and thoughts.
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First published Wednesday, 8 October, 2025 by Chris Mahony
