Simon Bennett (Secretary), General Manager, Sustainable Development, China Navigation Company, Swire Pacific Offshore

Simon Bennett is the General Manager for Sustainable Development for both of the Swire group shipping companies: The China Navigation Company, whose brand Swire Shipping provides high frequency liner shipping services in the Asia Pacific market, and Swire Bulk, the dry bulk trading division operating a fleet size of over 150 Handysize and Supra/Ultramax/Panamax vessels, and concurrently for Swire Pacific Offshore which owns and operates a diverse fleet of more than 70 Offshore Support vessels.

He started his career as a deck cadet with British and Commonwealth in 1974. He has worked for the Swire group shipping companies for the past 36 years, latterly at sea as Master before coming ashore in 1991, since when he has held a variety of roles; for the last 12 years as the General Manager for Sustainable Development.

Simon was on the Council of the Nautical Institute from 1989 – 1994 and was a Lieutenant Commander, RD, in the Royal Naval Reserve at the time of his retirement from the RNR in 1996 due to work commitments in Asia. He is a Director of the Sustainable Shipping Initiative and is on the Steering Group of the Ship Recycling Transparency Initiative. Simon currently lives in Singapore, where he has been a Director of the Singapore Environment Council for the past 4 years. He guest lectures at the four senior Universities in Singapore on Sustainability.

Leave a Reply