The Last Dinosaur - Maritime Shipping In the Digital Age

Episode 140: Maritime Digitalization: What We Still Haven't Learned For more than four decades, Giampiero Soncini has helped shape maritime technology, from his early days in the Italian Navy and NATO to leadership roles at SpecTec, ShipNet, and Oceanly. In this episode, he shares hard-earned lessons on digitalization, data quality, AI, and why shipping's greatest challenge has never been technolo...

Episode 139: From Data Collection to Decision Making with Christian Treu   Digital transformation in shipping has moved beyond simply collecting data. The challenge now is turning that information into trusted, actionable intelligence that improves performance, efficiency, and decision-making. In this episode of The Last Dinosaur, Chris Aversano sits down with Christian Treu of Danelec, a GTT Grou...

Episode 138: Weather, Risk & Maritime Decision Making with Amy Buhl of Weathernews Guest: Amy Buh l, Service Operations Leader at Weathernews Episode Overview Weather impacts every voyage, every day, yet it often operates quietly in the background of maritime decision-making. In this episode of The Last Dinosaur , Chris sits down with Amy Buhl, Service Operations Leader at Weathernews, to discuss...

Episode 137: Fuel, Data, and Real Margins – Building a Modern Bunkering Business with Daniel Rose of Shipergy Guest: Daniel Rose , Co-Founder, Shipergy Episode Overview: What does it take to build a modern trading business in one of shipping's oldest markets? In Episode 137, Daniel Rose shares how he co-founded Shipergy and scaled it from zero to over $200M in revenue, all while building data-driv...

Episode 136: Translating Maritime Innovation – From Shipyards to Startups with Caitlin Hardy Guest: Caitlin Hardy , Founder & Managing Director, Ness Sea Episode Overview: Caitlin Hardy joins The Last Dinosaur to break down what it really takes to bring technology into maritime, from shipbuilding and subsea systems to startups trying to find product-market fit. Drawing on her experience across nav...

Episode Overview: A conversation that challenges how the industry defines "wellbeing." Meei Wong, Founder and CEO of Circle Digital Ventures , breaks down why compliance-driven metrics miss the real picture onboard—and why trust, culture, and incentives are the real barriers to improving life at sea. Timestamps: 00:05 – Introduction and Meei's journey into seafarer welfare 02:23 – A broken system:...

Guest: Tim Morris , Principal Engineer at Arup; Chair, ITS UK Maritime Forum Episode Overview: Maritime has no shortage of digital tools. What it lacks is connection. In this episode, Chris Aversano speaks with Tim Morris about why shipping still operates in silos while other transport sectors have evolved into fully connected systems. They explore what intelligent transport systems (ITS) really m...

Episode 133: The Human Side of Shipping: Seafarer Welfare in a Connected World Episode Overview Recorded live at CMA Shipping , this roundtable pulls back the curtain on seafarers' welfare in modern shipping. Chris sits down with Rev. Stephen Cushing , Julia Cooper , and Dr. Christopher Graham to explore how digital transformation is reshaping life for crews when ships come into port. From Starlin...

Episode 132: How Cargill Thinks About Decarbonization, Risk, and the Future of Shipping with Jan Dieleman Guest: Jan Dieleman President, Ocean Transportation — Cargill Chair, Global Maritime Forum Episode Overview In this episode of The Last Dinosaur , Chris Aversano speaks with Jan Dieleman , President of Ocean Transportation at Cargill and Chair of the Global Maritime Forum . Cargill charters hu...

Episode 131: Driving Change in Maritime, and Why Port Calls Still Feel Like Orchestrated Chaos Guest: Léon Gommans , CEO and Co-Founder, Teqplay Also: Host of the vodcast Driving Change in Maritime with Teqplay Special Note: This is a co-produced episode and will be released on both The Last Dinosaur and Teqplay's vodcast Driving Change in Maritime with Teqplay Episode Overview: This one is a true...

Guest: Thomas Nordberg CEO, The Swedish Club Episode Overview Shipping has always been about risk. But the nature of that risk is shifting. In this episode, I sit down with Thomas Nordberg, CEO of The Swedish Club, to explore how maritime risk has evolved from vessel-centric, event-driven incidents to complex systemic exposures shaped by geopolitics, regulation, cyber threats, and digital transfor...

Guest: Gordana Ilic, PhD — Co-Founder & Co-CEO, BetterSea and host of The  Wavemakers Podcast Episode Overview: Gordana Ilic didn't come up through shipping.   Gordana's path was through sustainability, entrepreneurship, corporate innovation, then into Maersk's decarbonization work before returning to entrepreneurship. In this episode, we go beyond regulation talk and into what's really happening...

Guest: Capt. Ankur Arora , Global Market Leader, Commercial at Bureau Veritas Group Episode Overview: Capt. Ankur Arora has lived shipping from all sides.   Years at sea, senior roles with shipowners, and now inside a leading class society. In this episode, he breaks down what changes when innovation stops being a slide deck and starts living onboard: design choices that affect daily work, the rol...

Guest:  Akanksha Batura Pai , PD Executive Director,  Sinoda Shipping Agency Pte Ltd | IMO Goodwill Maritime Ambassador (Emerita) | #1 Top 100 Women in Shipping Episode Overview: We kick off 2026 with a grounded, practical conversation with Akanksha Batura Pai PD, one of my favorite interviews to date. We talk about what digital transformation actually looks like inside a ship agency, why incremen...

Guest: Evan Efstathiou , CEO of Burmester & Voge l and Founder of SkySail Advisors Episode Overview: For the fourth year in a row, Evan joins The Last Dinosaur to unpack the big storylines in maritime tech. From AI hype vs. reality and sector consolidation, to decarbonization, hardware innovation, and the next wave of corporate venture investing, this episode is your annual "state of the union" fo...

Episode 125: Leveling the Playing Field in Global Trade with Carmit Glik of Ship4wd Guest: Carmit Glik, CEO, Ship4wd Episode Overview: Global trade isn't just mega-shippers and Fortune 500s. It's thousands of small and mid-sized businesses trying to move a single container without getting crushed by complexity. In this episode, Carmit Glik, CEO of Ship4wd, explains how her team is building a digit...

Connecting Ships with Local Experts Guest: Manos Koukouvio s, COO,  Vsltec Episode Overview: Former seafarer and now COO of Vsltec, Manos Koukouvios shares how a real off-hire HVAC failure in West Africa sparked the idea for a vetted, location-based network of technical service providers. We talk about building a two-sided marketplace in shipping, managing expectations in a "WhatsApp world," and w...

Episode Overview: Crews are still getting paid with cash, FedExed checks, and manual wires. ShipMoney is trying to end that. In this episode, Stuart Ostrow explains how digital payroll and controlled payout options are changing how seafarers get paid, how owners manage cash, and how operators stay compliant in a sanctions-heavy world. This episode of The Last Dinosaur is produced in proud partners...

Episode 122 : Why Maritime Needs a Data Utility, Not Another App – Ari Marjamaa , Raa Labs Episode Overview: Raa Labs helps maritime businesses  collect, organize, and share high-quality operational vessel data —onboard and onshore—so owners and operators can run analytics anywhere. Ari explains why Raa Labs acts like a "data utility layer" .   This turns messy inputs into trusted signals, and wha...

From Excel to Foresight: Ingrid Kylstad on Building Resilient, Low-Carbon Supply Chains Guest: Ingrid Kylstad , Managing Director, Klaveness Digital Episode Overview: Ingrid Kylstad joins Chris to unpack how Klaveness Digital's CargoValue helps industrial shippers shift from day-to-day firefighting to foresight-driven planning . They dive into digital twins for the seaborne supply chain, AI-enable...

Episode Title Episode 120: From F1 to Wind Wings: John Cooper on Data-Driven Decarbonization Guest: John Cooper, CEO, BAR Technologies Episode Overview: How motorsport-grade simulation, digital twins, and on-deck feedback are turning wind-assisted propulsion into real fuel and CO₂ savings—especially for smaller operators. Key Points: F1 → fleets: Simulation culture applied to ship design. Digital...

Episode 119: Project-Led Growth, Practical Decarbonization & Startup Bridges with Tabitha Logan Guest: Tabitha Logan , Director of Projects, Cetus Maritime ; Co-Founder, The Captain's Table Episode Overview: From fleet renewals to digitalization to sustainability-linked financing, Tabitha Logan brings a project leader's perspective to maritime's transformation. She also shares how The Captain's Ta...

Episode 118: Driving Strategy and Scaling Maritime Tech with Aleksander Askeland of Manta Marine Technologies Guest: Aleksander Askeland, Chief Financial Officer, Manta Marine Technologies Episode Overview: Aleksander Askeland's career journey has taken him from the Arctic coal trade to leading strategy and finance at Manta Marine Technologies, one of the most forward-looking players in maritime d...

Episode 117: Steering Shipping's Future – Sustainability & Energy Transition at Swire Guest: Susana Germino , Chief Sustainability & Energy Transition Officer, Swire Shipping & Swire Bulk Episode Overview: In this episode, part of The Last Dinosaur's partnership with the Captain's Table Challenge , I sit down with Susana Germino to explore how one of the world's oldest shipping companies is tackli...

Digitizing the Forgotten Majority: Small Shipowners & Big Impact with Joy Basu Guest: Joy Basu , CEO of Smart Ship Hub Episode Overview: In this episode, Chris Aversano speaks with Joy Basu, CEO of Singapore-based Smart Ship Hub, about how small and mid-sized shipowners, often overlooked in the innovation conversation are finding measurable value in digital platforms. Joy shares how Smart Ship Hub...