At Genco Shipping & Trading Limited our Chairman and board of directors have substantial experience in the shipping industry. Peter C. Georgiopoulos, the Chairman of our board of directors, is the founder of General Maritime Corp. (NYSE: GMR), a large, publicly traded supplier of international seaborne crude oil transportation services. Mr. Georgiopoulos oversaw the growth of General Maritime from a single vessel privately owned company to a publicly traded owner and operator of 47 tankers. Including Mr. Georgiopoulos, four of the six members of our board have extensive experience in managing private and publicly traded shipping companies.

We have an experienced U.S.-based management team. Our management team is based in New York City and includes several executives with extensive experience in the shipping industry who have demonstrated substantial ability in managing the commercial, technical and financial aspects of our business. Our management team is led by our President, Robert Gerald Buchanan, who has 40 years of experience in the shipping industry. Mr. Buchanan has a broad range of experience in the shipping industry and most recently served as the Managing Director of Wallem. Our Chief Financial Officer, John C. Wobensmith, has worked in the shipping industry for over 11 years before joining us. He has been involved in a wide range of ship finance projects both in the commercial and investment banking sectors. Our current management team has an average of over 25 years of shipping industry experience.

 

Peter C. Georgiopoulos has served as Chairman and as a member of our Board of Directors since our inception. Since 1997, Peter C. Georgiopoulos served as Chairman and CEO of General Maritime Corporation, a company he founded. Under the leadership of Mr. Georgiopoulos, General Maritime Corporation, grew from a single ship ownership company to what today ranks as the second largest midsize oil tanker company in the world. From 1991 to 1997, he was the principal of Maritime Equity Management a ship-owning and investment company that he founded in 1991. From 1990 to 1991, he was affiliated with Mallory Jones Lynch & Associates, an oil tanker brokerage firm. From 1987 to 1990, Mr. Georgiopoulos was an investment banker at Drexel Burnham Lambert. Before entering the investment banking business, he had extensive experience in the sale, purchase and chartering of vessels while working for shipowners in New York and Piraeus, Greece. Mr. Georgiopoulos is a member of the American Bureau of Shipping. He holds an MBA from Dartmouth College.


Robert Gerald Buchanan
serves as our President. Mr. Buchanan has 40 years of shipping experience, holding various senior operating, engineering and management positions. Before joining our company, Mr. Buchanan spent eight years as a Managing Director of Wallem, a leading technical management company. As the senior executive at Wallem, Mr. Buchanan was responsible for the safe and efficient operations of close to 200 vessels, as well as management of approximately 500 onshore and seagoing staff. From 1990 to 1996, Mr. Buchanan was Technical Director of Canada Steamships Lines of Montreal, overseeing a fleet of bulk carriers. Before this, Mr. Buchanan managed an oceanographic research vessel for NATO from 1986 to 1990, was Superintendent Engineer of Denholm Ship Management's United Kingdom office from 1982 to 1986, and Chief Engineer of Denholm Ship Management from 1969 to 1982. Mr. Buchanan was educated at Glasgow Nautical College and obtained a First Class Engineers license for the both steam and motor ships. Among his industry affiliations, Mr. Buchanan was a member of the International Committee for Gard Protection & Indemnity Association.


John C. Wobensmith
serves as our Chief Financial Officer and Principal Accounting Officer and is responsible for overseeing our accounting and financial matters. Mr. Wobensmith has over 11 years of experience in the shipping industry, with a concentration in shipping finance. Before becoming our Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Wobensmith served as a Senior Vice President with American Marine Advisors, Inc., an investment bank focused on the shipping industry. While at American Marine Advisors, Inc., Mr. Wobensmith was involved in mergers and acquisitions, equity fund management, debt placement and equity placement in the shipping industry. From 1993 through 2000, he worked in the international maritime lending group of The First National Bank of Maryland serving as a Vice President from 1998. He has a bachelors degree in economics from St. Mary's College of Maryland, and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.


Stephen A. Kaplan serves on our Board of Directors. From 2001 to the present, he has served as a director of General Maritime. Since 1995, Mr. Kaplan has been a principal of Oaktree Capital Management, LLC, a private investment management firm, where he co-manages Oaktree's Principal Activities Group which invests in majority and significant minority positions in both private and public companies. Mr. Kaplan currently has in excess of $3.5 billion in assets under his management. Since 1993, he has served as portfolio manager of all of Oaktree's Principal Opportunities Funds, including OCM Principal Opportunities III Fund, L.P. and OCM Principal Opportunities Fund IIIA, L.P., which collectively owns approximately 66.5% of Fleet Acquisition, our sole shareholder. From 1993 to 1995, Mr. Kaplan was a Managing Director of Trust Company of the West. Before joining the Trust Company of the West, Mr. Kaplan was a partner of the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Mr. Kaplan currently serves as a director of numerous private and public companies.


Nathaniel C. A. Kramer serves on our Board of Directors. Mr. Kramer is a principal at Mercantile Capital Group LLC, a private equity firm with offices in New York and Chicago, and Managing Director of his firm's New York office from 1999 to present. He brings over 20 years of investment experience in both the public and private capital markets. He started his career with Allen and Company, a private equity firm, and recently served as its Vice President. Mr. Kramer has led investments in a wide range of industries including telecommunications, wireless infrastructure, waste management, data communications, B2B commerce and Internet infrastructure sectors. Mr. Kramer also serves on the boards of MoveOnIn, Inc. and Environmental Asset Management.


Mark F. Polzin has served as a director of our company since July 27, 2005. Mr. Polzin is President of Ranch Fiduciary Corporation, Farms Fiduciary Corporation, and Laurel Fiduciary Corporation. Mr. Polzin is also Managing Director of The Oversight Company and Manager of Wyoming Consulting LLC, and a senior consultant to Cymric Family Office Services and Family Office Exchange. On July 1, 2007 Mr. Polzin retired as President and Chief Executive Officer of Moreland Management Company, where he had served as an officer since 1989. Prior to joining Moreland he was an executive and director of several mid-western community banking organizations. He holds a B.S. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a J.D. from Marquette University Law School. Mr. Polzin is a Regent of Concordia University Wisconsin.


Rear Admiral Robert C. North, USCG (ret.) serves on our Board of Directors. Since his retirement from the active duty with the U.S. Coast Guard in April of 2001, Rear Admiral North has served as the president of North Star Maritime, Inc., a marine industry consulting firm, specializing in international and domestic maritime safety, security and environmental protection issues. While on active duty with the U.S. Coast Guard, Rear Admiral North reached the position of Assistant Commandant for Marine Safety, Security and Environmental Protection, where he directed national and international programs for commercial vessel safety, merchant mariner licensing and documentation, port safety and security and waterways management. He is a graduate of the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, State University of New York Maritime College at Fort Schuyler and the U.S. Army War College.


Basil G. Mavroleon serves on our Board of Directors. Mr. Mavroleon is Manager of the Projects Group of Charles R. Weber Company, Inc. one of the largest ship brokerages and marine consultants in the United States. Mr. Mavroleon also serves as Managing Director of WeberSeas (Hellas) S.A.. WeberSeas is a comprehensive sale & purchase, marine projects and tanker chartering brokerage based in Piraeus, Greece. Mr. Mavroleon is a board member of Genco Shipping and Trading Limited, a NYSE listed international ship owner, a member of the Baltic Exchange and is on the board of the Associate Membership Committee of Intertanko, a member of the Association of Ship Brokers and Agents, on the advisory board of NAMMA (North American Maritime Ministry Association), a board member of NAMEPA (North American Marine Environmental Protection Association), is Vice Chairman of the New York World Scale Committee, a member of the Hellenic Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Connecticut Maritime Association and a member of NYMAR (New York Maritime Inc.).


Harry A. Perrin serves on our Board of Directors. Since 2001, Mr. Perrin has worked as an investment banker with Petrie Parkman & Co, an investment banking and financial advisory firm. Prior to joining Petrie Parkman, Mr. Perrin was a partner for ten years in the business finance and restructuring group for the Houston office of Weil Gotshal & Manges. Throughout his professional career he has been involved in a broad range of complex financial, legal and accounting matters including mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, restructurings and recapitalizations, litigation, and private placements of debt and equity securities. Mr. Perrin received his BBA in Accounting with Honors from the University of Texas at Austin in 1975 and received his J.D. with High Honors from the University of Houston in 1980. Mr. Perrin is a member of the State Bar of Texas, and is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in the State of Texas.