Kuala Lumpur · Athens · Piraeus — October 2026
This month Crossworld Marine Services has been where the industry’s people are. This week we were Bronze Sponsor of the WISTA International AGM & Conference 2026 in Kuala Lumpur. Earlier in October we backed the 25th Navigator Forum in Athens and joined the YES Forum mentoring programme in Piraeus.
Three events, one thread: the future of maritime talent.
WISTA International AGM & Conference 2026: Bronze Sponsor
The conference brought WISTA members and maritime leaders from around the world to the InterContinental Kuala Lumpur from 28 to 30 October. Marianna Michailidi, Executive Affairs Manager, represented Crossworld.
Co-hosted by WISTA Hong Kong SAR China, WISTA Malaysia and WISTA Singapore, it ran under the theme Bridging Borders, Driving Change: Asia Shaping the Future of Maritime and Trade.
What is WISTA?
WISTA (Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association) brings together women in senior and leadership roles across shipping, trading and maritime services.
For more than 50 years it has worked to make the industry more open, more connected and better prepared for what comes next. At this year’s AGM it announced that membership now exceeds 6,500, across more than 60 national associations.
Why women in maritime matter to a crew manager
Our business is people. We’ve learned one simple thing: the best crews and the best companies draw on the widest pool of talent.
Women remain underrepresented at sea and in shipping leadership. The 2021 BIMCO/ICS Seafarer Workforce Report estimated women at about 1.2% of the global seafarer workforce — roughly 24,000 people.
The 2026 edition brings a more hopeful signal: growth in women seafarers is concentrated in officer positions. That matters, because the same report estimates a global shortage of around 39,100 officers.
“The industry is short of officers and still reaching only a fraction of its talent. WISTA is where that starts to change.”
— Marianna Michailidi, Executive Affairs Manager, Crossworld Marine Services
Why Asia, and why the Philippines
The Philippines is the world’s largest seafarer supply country, and Filipino is the leading nationality in the world merchant fleet, according to the 2026 BIMCO/ICS report. India and China follow.
Crossworld is headquartered in Manila, and many of the seafarers we work with are Filipino. A WISTA conference hosted in Asia puts the talent conversation where much of that talent is — including the women who will become the region’s next officers and leaders.
25th Navigator Forum, Athens: sponsor and contributor
On 13 October our COO, Makram Daouk alongside Marianna Michailidi, Executive Affairs Manager, joined the 25th Navigator Forum at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) in Athens. Crossworld took part as sponsor and as contributor.
Navigator is not a one-day event. It starts with the Navigator Assembly in March, where shipping leaders work through the industry’s challenges in closed roundtables. The conclusions are presented and debated at the Forum in October.
What we heard: crews stay at the centre
The Human Element was one of this year’s three core pillars, alongside decarbonisation and geopolitics. For a crew manager, it was the conversation that mattered most.
- Seamanship still leads. AI, telemetry and digital platforms can enhance safety, but experience and human judgement remain at the core of safe operations. Full automation of ships is still a distant prospect.
- Training must be targeted. Technology helps most when it is combined with focused crew education and training.
- Multinational crews and wellbeing. Managing multinational crews and supporting seafarers’ mental health were named as priorities.
- Generations working together. The experience of senior seafarers needs to be paired with the digital skills of younger professionals.
- Seafarer protection. With conflicts from Ukraine to the Red Sea, keeping seafarers safe has become a critical priority.
This is the daily work of crew management: training, welfare, and building crews that bring nationalities and generations together.
“Ships are getting smarter, but they’re still run by people. Navigator kept crews at the centre of the conversation, which is exactly where they belong.”
— Makram Daouk, COO, Crossworld Marine Services
YES Forum Mentoring, Piraeus: the next generation
On 21 October we joined the YES Forum Mentoring Matching Event at the Piraeus Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as part of the YES Forum Mentoring Programme 2026–2027.
Young professionals. Different backgrounds, real ambition. We didn’t go to hand out answers. We went to listen first, because that is where good mentorship starts.
The maritime industry is only as strong as the people coming into it.
One thread: talent at sea and ashore
The three events tell one story. WISTA is about widening the talent pool. YES Forum is about the next generation stepping in. Navigator reminded the industry that, however smart ships become, people still run them.
The 2026 BIMCO/ICS report shows progress — one officer cadet for every 3.8 qualified officers, up from one in 4.8 in 2021. But the officer gap is still real.
Crossworld has spent more than 45 years in crew management and manning. Today we support 300+ vessels and 9,000+ seafarers.
As we grow, our commitment to the community around us grows too. That means backing the associations, forums and people shaping the industry’s future — from women leaders at WISTA to the young professionals at YES Forum.
Work with a crew manager invested in people
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