Alongside: Future Thinking
Episode 1: The Geopolitical Forecast for 2024
In this episode of Future Thinking, we look at the state of the world at the start of 2024 and look ahead to some of the key geopolitical events of the next 12 months. Mike Salthouse is joined by Dr Dominick Donald, Director at Autolycus Advisory. He is a geopolitical advisor and analyst with 25 years’ experience in business intelligence, diplomacy, media and academia.
Episode 1: Meet our guests
Mike is Head of External Affairs at NorthStandard and his primary goal is to build collaborative networks and relationships with global and regional government and industry bodies, interest groups and non-commercial sector contacts. This includes working with NorthStandard’s local communities worldwide to raise awareness of the importance of global shipping and insurance.
Dr Dominick Donald has spent 25 years helping corporations, governments, the media and multinational organisations understand the implications of global and regional developments.
He has a PhD in War Studies from King’s College London and a Modern History MA from Magdalen College Oxford, and his analysis has appeared in publications ranging from UN Security Council resolutions to The Times. He has advised the Joint War risks Committee of the Lloyds insurance market since 2004, helping it to anticipate major threats to shipping such as the Somali hijack gangs and the second Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Episode 2: Ship Security in the Red Sea and Beyond
In this episode of Future Thinking, we look at the crisis in the Red Sea. John Thompson from Ambrey, a provider of maritime security, discusses with Mike Salthouse how the attacks in the Red Sea have impacted the sector and what the medium and long term impact could be.
Episode 2: Meet our guests
Mike is Head of External Affairs at NorthStandard and his primary goal is to build collaborative networks and relationships with global and regional government and industry bodies, interest groups and non-commercial sector contacts. This includes working with NorthStandard’s local communities worldwide to raise awareness of the importance of global shipping and insurance.
John is the Group Commercial Director of Ambrey, a global market leader in maritime and offshore security risk management. Established in 2011 Ambrey employs over 100 staff in 8 offices around the world supporting over 1000 deployed security personnel and marine crew. The company operates, owns and charters a fleet of over 30 specialist vessels supporting clients on over 7000 commercial voyages per year with their risk, intelligence, software, security, crisis and insurance services.
As a co-founder, John has led the business commercially from start up, with responsibility for client and market strategy and implementation. Prior to Ambrey, John worked for a global security risk management consultancy on major projects in southern Africa and the London Olympic Games. He served in the British Army as an Officer in The Parachute Regiment. During his career, he was awarded the Sword of Honour at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and served with the Special Forces Support Group. He has an MA and an MSc from St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford.
Episode 3: What To Expect from a Second Trump Presidency
In this episode of the Alongside: Future Thinking mini-series from NorthStandard, Mike Salthouse is joined by David Peyman, who serves as counsel to the world’s largest maritime, financial, energy, pharmaceutical, and public sector actors. David served in the Trump Administration as the State Department’s economic sanctions and AML/CTF chief between 2018 and 2020, and was responsible for managing 25 sanctions programs including Iran, Russia, China and Venezuela. Mike and David discuss what a second Trump term might look like for the shipping industry.
Episode 3: Meet our guests
Mike is Head of External Affairs at NorthStandard and his primary goal is to build collaborative networks and relationships with global and regional government and industry bodies, interest groups and non-commercial sector contacts. This includes working with NorthStandard’s local communities worldwide to raise awareness of the importance of global shipping and insurance.
Peyman advises governments, the world’s largest maritime actors, financial institutions, energy companies, digital currency issuers and exchanges, DeFi companies, and pharmaceutical manufacturers on sanctions, export controls, AML, FATF evaluations, U.S. government relations, and corporate compliance.
Peyman is the former United States Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Counter Threat Finance and Sanctions. Peyman lead the State Department’s Office of Threat Finance Countermeasures and oversaw the State Department’s international engagement on anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing (AML/CFT) issues. Peyman’s Division represented the State Department in the Financial Action Task Force. As the State Department’s economic sanctions chief during the Trump Administration, he was the key policy architect of over 25 sanctions regimes, created the first ever economic sanctions targeting team within the State Department that now enforces sanctions in addition to OFAC, and created a Public-Private Initiative to reward private sector actors for complying with U.S. sanctions. Peyman created new financial mechanisms to allow for the financing of commodity, medicine, food, and other humanitarian exports to sanctioned jurisdictions. He was also responsible for leading the publication of the first Global Maritime Sanctions Advisory.
Prior to his government service, Peyman was Global Lead for Sanctions for the world’s largest asset manager, with compliance oversight of several trillion dollars in assets in over 30 countries. Peyman is a former U.S. federal and state prosecutor and adjunct law professor.
Episode 4: Russian Oil Price Cap enforcement
In this episode of Future Thinking, Mike Salthouse is joined by Olga Dimitrescu, Head of Engagement, Oil Price Cap, at the UK Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), HM Treasury. They discuss the objectives of the Oil Price Cap, its achievements so far and implications for the shipping industry. They also talk about changes to the attestation process planned to take effect on February 19 2024.
Episode 4: Meet our guests
Mike is Head of External Affairs at NorthStandard and his primary goal is to build collaborative networks and relationships with global and regional government and industry bodies, interest groups and non-commercial sector contacts. This includes working with NorthStandard’s local communities worldwide to raise awareness of the importance of global shipping and insurance.
Olga is Head of Engagement for the Oil Price Cap in the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, HM Treasury. Her team is responsible for setting and implementing the sanctions engagement for the Russian oil price cap as well as promoting compliance with the UK regulations implementing it.
Episode 5: Sanctions Compliance – tracking the untrackable
In this episode of Future Thinking, Mike Salthouse is joined by Brendan Moore, CEO of SynMax, a Houston-based satellite analytics and intelligence company to discuss the issue of sanctions avoidance and how the Parallel Fleet breaks sanctions by avoiding detection. They review how sanctions breakers manipulate the vessel’s AIS signal, and consider how these practices might be countered.
Episode 5: Meet our guests
Mike is Head of External Affairs at NorthStandard and his primary goal is to build collaborative networks and relationships with global and regional government and industry bodies, interest groups and non-commercial sector contacts. This includes working with NorthStandard’s local communities worldwide to raise awareness of the importance of global shipping and insurance.
As CEO of SynMax, a cutting-edge geospatial intelligence startup, Brendan is recognized for a leadership journey marked by rapid ascension and strategic innovation. With over 20 years of intelligence experience, Brendan has been at the helm of high-stakes operations and strategic initiatives both in the public and private sectors, exhibiting a steadfast commitment to tackling some of the most pressing challenges.
Brendan began his career in the UK’s law enforcement and intelligence community, swiftly climbing the ranks from Intelligence Assistant to Head of Intelligence for tactical operations. His tenure at the National Crime Agency was distinguished by teamwork, technical innovation and utilising intelligence fusion to protect the public.
Transitioning to SynMax, Brendan brought his expertise to the burgeoning field of geospatial intelligence, becoming the third founder alongside Bill Perkins (company president and lead investor) and Eric Anderson (CTO). Under his leadership, SynMax has seen outstanding growth, built innovative new capabilities, and achieved significant real-world wins.
With an unwavering resolve to drive positive transformation and a passion for intelligence fusion, Brendan continues to influence the future of geospatial intelligence and close the gap between private and public intelligence capabilities.