The ACMF welcomes three new board members
The ACMF added three (3) new members to its board over the last two months of 2017. Cynthia Hudson, Vincent De Orchis, Esq. and Robert O’Connor, Esq, bring to the board strong backgrounds in the maritime sector and a deep commitment to education as a lynchpin to alleviate poverty and a key aspect of economic development in the Caribbean.
Cynthia Hudson, CEO, HudsonAnalytix & Hudson Marine, a global maritime risk consultancy serving the maritime transportation sector to provide emergency response, maritime project management to maritime transportation interests; oil and energy, vessel owners/operators and insurers. Ms. Hudson was most recently honored by the Organization of American States (OAS) Inter-American Committee on Ports with the 2016 Maritime Award of the Americas: Outstanding Women in the Maritime and Port. She worked on numerous claims assessments and provided coordination for several major marine events such as the COSCO BUSAN incident in San Francisco Bay; the grounding of the BT NAUTILUS in Bayonne, NJ; and the oil spills of the SARAH FRANK off Staten Island. Post 9/11 Hudson led the firm into maritime security for ports and vessels providing port vulnerability security assessment work at hundreds of ports and facilities worldwide, including the Ports of Montreal, Gothenburg, Beirut, Tangier-Med, Morocco, at the Kingston Freeport Terminal, Jamaica and Terminal Varreux in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Vincent DeOrchis, Esq., is a partner in the Litigation Department of Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads, LLP, and Co-Chair of the firm’s Maritime and Transportation practice group. He has handled many of the leading cases in U.S. Maritime law involving cargo, charter party, limitation of liability and hull claims. He co-authored “Negotiation – An Attorney’s Manual” and “Inside the Minds: Founding a Law Firm.” He is past member of the Board of Directors of the Maritime Law Association of the United States, and was the chairman of the MLA’s Committee on Carriage of Goods, which proposed a revision of the U.S. Carriage of Goods by Sea Act for submission to Congress. He has also served on the Board of Directors of New York Maritime, Inc. (NYMAR). Mr. DeOrchis is also an advisor to the U.S. State Department in respect to the UNCITRAL project to draft the Rotterdam Rules Convention.
Robert O’Connor, Esq. is a general litigator and a member of Montgomery McCracken’s Maritime and Transportation practice group. He represents insurers, owners and operators of vessels, and marine fuel suppliers among others. He specializes in environmental matters relating to oil pollution and coral damage under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, emissions regulations under MARPOL, and criminal investigations under the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships. He has significant experience handling claims arising from major marine casualties such as collisions, allisions, and fires under the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act and the Shipowners’ Limitation of Liability Act.
Of the new additions to the board, President Geneive Brown Metzger, LLD Hon, has high praise for not only their professional achievements, but their strong commitment to the ACMF mission, including their appreciation of the role of education in lifting people out of poverty.