Experience

11 years leading seaborne dry-bulk chartering for one of Eastern Europe's largest steel and mining groups, through the full pre-war, wartime and rebuild cycle of Ukraine's Black Sea export logistics. Fixtures executed under Fayette International Holdings Ltd (BVI) and Fortify Freight.

Lead the seaborne dry-bulk programme through the most disruptive period in Black Sea shipping since WWII, managing pre- and post-fixture operations across the Mediterranean and Black Sea.

• Fixed 237 dry-bulk port calls in 2025 — 122 unique vessels under 24 flags, totalling ~2.25 million tonnes of cargo through Odesa (149 calls), Pivdenny (50) and Izmail (38)
• Chartered ~2.14 million tonnes of seaborne steel exports in 2025 — approximately 44% of all steel shipped from Ukrainian ports that year, cross-checked against State Hydrographic Service open data
• Arranged Capesize and Panamax backhaul liftings — six fixtures totalling ~139,000 mt of imported steel coils and breakbulk, including two voyages on the 175,464 DWT EMIL into Pivdenny — converting return legs of ore-export tonnage into paid voyages
• Oversaw freight cost modelling and delivery-expense calculations for CIF and CFR contracts; central point of contact for all operational escalations across the maritime supply chain
• Built stable owner relationships — 18 vessels returned for 3+ fixtures during 2025
• Coordinated daily with sales, inland logistics, port agents and brokers across three ports under active wartime conditions (Black Sea security risks, port disruptions, war-risk insurance constraints)
• Built a private cargo-circular triage and extraction system using n8n, Gmail and Google Sheets with an AI extraction layer — parsing daily broker circulars into structured data (cargo, laycan, stem, load/discharge ranges) to surface relevant business faster than manual reading
• Developed an in-house freight-economics web tool converting TC daily rates into USD/ton freight equivalents with full voyage cost breakdowns, backed by a vessel/port/distance database

Promoted to Head of Chartering following the departure of the previous director from Ukraine at the outbreak of the war.

• Led the seaborne chartering desk for Metinvest Group cargoes during the first full year of wartime operations, holding fleet coverage together while the deep-sea Black Sea corridor was closed
• Directed the operational pivot to river, sea-river and barge routes to maintain supply-chain continuity when Ukrainian ports were shut, transitioning deep-sea routes within weeks

Fixed and operationally managed up to 30 vessels per month for in-house cargoes, covering Voyage, TCT and TC period fixtures.

• Coordinated operational handovers between chartering, sales and logistics teams
• Calculated delivery expenses and freight costs for CIF/CFR contracts; maintained detailed voyage analytics

• Calculated and optimised door-to-door delivery solutions for project and heavy-lift cargo
• Booked heavy-lift vessels and organised transloading operations at ports
• Managed dry and wet chartering for both voyage and period fixtures

• JSSC Ukrrichflot, Kyiv — Operations Manager (Apr 2010 – Apr 2011). Independently managed post-fixture operations for a fleet of seven general cargo vessels ('Sormovsky' and 'Omskiy' type, ~3,000 mt DWT each)
• South River Shipping Ltd., Kherson — Senior Chartering Manager / Fleet Operator (Mar 1998 – Sep 2009). Independently ran the dry-cargo chartering and operations division; fixed vessels up to Handysize; conducted voyage and laytime calculations; participated in S&P transactions