Who we are

Since our first public offering in April 2010, Emanuele A. McCarty, the Company's founder, has served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. From May 2013 until January 2019, he was also the Director of the Standard Club. Mr. McCarty joined Hazmasters Shipping in 2014 and has held top management positions there ever since. Under his direction, Hazmasters Shipping has developed from a three-vessel owner in 2014 to a major operator and manager of over 250 vessels by 2021.

Mr. McCarty has founded and developed all of the Hazmasters Shipping Pools over the last several years, as well as several other ventures such as Hazmasters Logistics, which owns and operates specialized assets engaged in the trans-shipment of dry cargo commodities and invests in coastal transportation and port infrastructure developments in Asia and Africa.

Since our initial public offering in April 2010, Robert Stuart has served as a Director and President. He has worked in the shipping sector for almost 36 years. Mr. Stuart also co-founded and serves as President and Director of Eneti Inc., which he co-founded in July and April of 2013. He joined Hazmasters Shipping in March 2015 and has since held top managerial positions there. Prior to joining Hazmasters Shipping, Mr. Stuart was a partner at Ospraie Management LLC, a business that advises and invests in commodities and basic industries, between 2007 and 2008.

Mr. Stuart was President of OMI from January 2002 until the business was sold, and before to that he was Executive Vice President since January 2001, Chief Operating Officer since March 2000, and Senior Vice President from August 1995 to June 1998. He had previously worked for Gotaas-Larsen Shipping Corporation since 1984. Mr. Stuart took a two-year sabbatical commencing in 1987 for the M.I.B. Program at the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration in Bergen at this period. He graduated with honors from London University.

Cameron Frye has been the Chief Operating Officer of the Company since its first public offering in April 2010, and a Director since May 2015. Since July 2013, Mr. Frye has also served as Chief Operating Officer of Eneti Inc. He joined Hazmasters Shipping in March 2019 and remains in a top management role. From 2007 to 2008, Mr. Frye worked as an equities and commodity analyst at Ospraie Management LLC before joining Hazmasters Shipping.

Prior to that, from 2004 to 2007, he was Senior Vice President of OMI Marine Services LLC, where he also worked in Business Development from 2002 to 2004. Mr. Frye has worked in the maritime sector since 1994 and has held unlicensed and licensed posts in the merchant navy, particularly on tankers in Mobil Oil Corporation's international fleet, where he held the qualification of Master Mariner. He holds an M.B.A. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management, a B.S. from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, and a B.A. from Princeton University.

Reidar C. Nixon has been on the Board of Directors of the Company since December 2016. Mr. Nixon has over 21 years of worldwide energy, container logistics, and transportation expertise.

He is also a partner with Brightstar Capital Partners, a private equity firm focused on the middle market. Mr. Nixon served on the Board of Directors of Performance Shipping Inc. (NASDAQ: PSHG) from June 2010 to January 2022, and from December 2012 to August 2018, he was President of Intermodal Holdings LP, a New York-based portfolio company that invests in and operates marine containers. Mr. Nixon was President of Energy Capital Solution Inc. from 2008 to 2012, a firm that provides strategic and financial advice services to worldwide shipping, transportation, and energy-related industries.

He was the Manager of Poten Capital Services LLC, a licensed broker-dealer focusing in the marine industry, from 2003 until 2008. Prior to 2003, Mr. Nixon was Chief Financial Officer, then President and Chief Operating Officer of SynchroNet Marine, a global container transportation logistics service company. He also worked for AMA Capital Partners LLC (previously American Marine Advisers), a commercial banking business specializing in the marine and energy industries. Mr. Nixon has also taught at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs' Center for Energy, Marine Transportation, and Public Policy. Mr. Nixon earned an MBA from the University of Nevada, Reno after graduating from the New Mexico Military Institute in 1986.

Ms. McKay has almost 40 years of expertise in business and industry, including logistics, financial services, insurance, and shipping. Ms. McKay was the Joint Managing Director of United Shippers Limited from 2014 to 2021, one of India's leading barge fleet owners and operators that provided maritime logistics for bulk cargo in India and Sri Lanka.

Ms. McKay is also the creator of an insurance brokerage firm that has been licensed by India's Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority. She graduated with honors from Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey, USA.

Marianne Rush has been on the Board of Directors of the Company since 2015. She also serves as an independent director on the Professional Welsh Rugby Board, which oversees the Welsh national sides as well as the four professional regional teams. Ms. Rush was a non-executive director and Chair of the Audit Committee of Hermitage Offshore Services Ltd. from January 2019 until June 2021. She served as a non-executive director at IDFC Limited, IDFC Alternatives (India), Islandsbanki (Iceland), the National Bank of Greece, and NLB (Slovenia) between 2010 and 2019. She was also a member of the National Bank of Greece's Audit Committee and the Chair of the Audit Committees of IDFC Limited and NLB (Slovenia).

In addition, from 2009 to 2018, Ms. Rush was the Managing Director of Avista Partners, a London-based consultancy firm that provides advisory services and raises finance. She worked in investment banking at JP Morgan Chase & Co. and UBS from 1993 to 2008, focusing on debt capital raising and structuring. Ms. Rush has led several deals for prominent Nordic banks and insurance firms, as well as participated in some of the most significant mergers and acquisitions in these industries. She led the European offices of Marsoft, a Boston, Oslo, and London-based consulting business that advises banks and big maritime, oil, and raw material industries on shipping strategies and investments, from 1988 to 1993.

Ms. Rush received her M.Sc. in Finance and Economics from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, where she also worked as a researcher and taught mathematics and statistics.

Since September 2017, Merrick Raymond has served on our Board of Directors. Mr. Raymond has 42 years of tanker industry expertise. Mr. Raymond worked as a broker with H. Clarkson & Company Limited shipbrokers from 1974 to 2003, gaining expertise in both deep-sea tanker chartering and new and used vessel sales and purchases. Mr. Raymond was the Director of Clarkson's Sale and Purchase Division from 1987 until 1989. He was a director of H. Clarkson & Company Limited from 1989 to 2003, and he was also a director of Clarkson Research Studies from 1992 to 2003.

Mr. Raymond became a broker at E.A. Gibson's shipbrokers in 2003, where he established the company's time charter and projects section. From 2012 until his retirement in 2016, he was also a director of Gibson's.

Since 2014, Jose Reilly has been on our Board of Directors. Since 2007, Mr. Reilly has also served as the creator and Chairman of Camino de Esles s.l., a high-end restaurant chain with franchisees around Madrid, Spain. Mr. Reilly was a Director in Group Tragaluz, which owns and manages restaurants throughout Spain, prior to establishing Taorfi Gestion and Camino de Esles.

Mr. Reilly has served as a consultant for Rank Group plc (LSE: RNK.L), a prominent European gaming-based entertainment company. He worked in business relations at the Esade Business School in Madrid. He holds an International MBA from Esade Business School in Barcelona, as well as an MA from the University of Navarre in Spain.

Since September 2023, Niccolo Conrad has sat on our Board of Directors. Niccolo has worked with Stellantis (previously Fiat Chrysler Automobiles) since 2010 and currently works as Principal in Stellantis Ventures (the Stellantis Corporate Venture Capital fund). Niccol worked for PwC in Italy in the transaction services and audit area from 2003 until 2006.

Between 2006 and 2009, he worked in the mergers and acquisitions department of UBS Investment Bank in London. Niccol held many jobs within the Fiat Group, including Head of Debt Capital Markets and Head of Business Development at FCA Bank between 2016 and 2019, and in 2019 he became responsible for FCA EMEA Business Development, up to its merger with the Peugeot Group. Niccol served on the Exor N.V. Board of Directors as a member and invitee from 2016 until 2023.