Bangladesh’s Tanjil Ahmed Ruhullah Addresses 789 Delegates at the IG Correspondents’ Conference at the IMO — and Returns Home to the BMLS Maritime Emerging Leader Award
LONDON / DHAKA — Tanjil Ahmed Ruhullah FCILT, Managing Director & Head of Claims of Interport Group, Bangladesh, addressed the 7th International Group of P&I Clubs’ Correspondents’ Conference (IGCC) at the headquarters of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in London on 30 September 2026. The conference, organised by the International Group — whose member Clubs collectively insure the large majority of the world’s ocean-going tonnage — drew 789 registered participants from 103 countries, including Club Correspondent Managers and claims handlers from across the Group.
His presentation, “From Blackout to Business Continuity: Contingency Planning from a P&I Correspondent’s Perspective,” drew on Bangladesh’s nationwide internet shutdown of July 2024, when Interport’s team famously kept its round-the-clock obligations to international ship insurers (P&I Clubs) running by borrowing satellite internet from a vessel at Mongla anchorage and establishing an overseas communications desk in the Maldives within twenty-four hours — keeping Clubs and Members informed daily throughout the ten-day blackout.
Yet the heart of the presentation was a candid admission: that this survival was “resilience by fortune,” not design. Mr. Ruhullah walked the global audience through how Interport has since built and tested formal contingency plans in line with Section 09 of the IG Guidelines for Correspondents — a business continuity plan including provisions for cyber events, and a plan for handling large claims and major casualties — governed by a cross-functional committee and proven through tabletop drills that exposed many gaps, each since closed, and the process continues. “A contingency plan is half paper and half people,” he told delegates. “Contingency planning is not forecasting — it is preparedness.” (Nassim Nicholas Taleb)
The session was moderated by Joanna Koukouli, Co-Global Claims Director – Senior Vice President / Managing Director at SCB (Hellas), Inc., the managers of The American P&I Club in Piraeus. Mr. Ruhullah shared the panel with Adrian Scales of Brookes Bell LLP, Mauro Sammarco, Managing Director of Brazil P&I, and Ismael Sánchez Delfín, Partner at Grupo Delmex. The presentation was warmly received, with delegates from Brazil to Turkey noting how readily the lessons translated to their own jurisdictions.
Days after returning home, Mr. Ruhullah was honoured with the Maritime Emerging Leader Award at the BMLS Maritime Excellence Awards, held on 8 October at The Westin Dhaka by the Bangladesh Maritime Law Society — a member of the Comité Maritime International — as part of its World Maritime Day observance. Accepting the award, he dedicated it to his colleagues at Interport Group and to the company’s founder, Capt. Mohiuddin Abdul Kadir, Master Mariner and maritime lawyer.
Interport Group serves the international shipping community as a listed P&I correspondent for the International Group Clubs in Bangladesh, alongside ship agency and marine surveying services, from its offices in Chattogram, Mongla and Dhaka, for the past two decades.
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N.B. We met Tanjil Ahmed Ruhullah, nearly a month ago during the Workshop organised by Irene Rosberg of the Copenhagen Business School’s BLUE MBA, at Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC).
