Advanfort Company News

Gulf of Guinea counter-piracy accord adds international ballast to company rebranding. AdvanFort International, Inc., a leading U.S. maritime security firm, has announced that the Government of the Republic of Benin has granted it permission—the first given by a West Africa government—to conduct counter-piracy operations for both domestic and foreign-flagged commercial vessels throughout Benin's waters. “It is with great pleasure that I can confirm that President Dr. Thomas Boni…

Global maritime security services provider the AdvanFort Company today praised new accreditation criteria for Private Maritime Security Companies (PMSCs) working on German-flagged vessels that raise required standards but are also professionally flexible. "Key to this process is that the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA) does not require a set of documents that is formally 'carved in stone,'” said AdvanFort Vice President for Sales and Business Development Axel Tuetken.

The AdvanFort Company has opened an office in Hamburg, Germany, as part of its growing worldwide customer service network, particularly for clients in Europe. “AdvanFort has made a substantial investment in the future of our clients in Germany and the rest of Northern Europe by inaugurating our office in Hamburg, the maritime crossroad in that region, thus ensuring that we are closer to our customers,” said company President William H. Watson. Axel Tuetken underlined the fact…

The study employs Michael Porter’s famous model designed to determine how competitive forces shape strategy in order to better understand the current state of, and contemporary and future challenges faced, by Private Maritime Security Companies (PMSCs). The model used allows companies to understand that competition extends beyond their professional rivals and includes many other factors that affect the framework in which the industry operates. Those PMSCs that lack a deeper knowledge of competitive considerations will find it difficult to stay profitable.

The AdvanFort Company has volunteered its counter-piracy vessels in the waters in and around the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean to join the U.S. Coast Guard-coordinated Automated Mutual Assistance Vessel Rescue System (AMVER). The AdvanFort fleet, which has vessels strategically positioned in key sea lanes surrounding the High Risk Area (HRA), is now “on plot” in the official USCG program, a computer-based voluntary global ship reporting system that is used by search and rescue authorities around the world to arrange for assistance to persons in distress at sea.

The Cyprus Department of Merchant Shipping (DMS) has licensed the AdvanFort Company, a world-leading provider of maritime security solutions for the commercial shipping industry, to supply the services of armed and unarmed escort guards on those of its flagged vessels transiting piracy high-risk areas, it was announced today. The decision by Cypriot authorities comes just six months following similar approval by the Panama Maritime Authority (PMA) to conduct counter-piracy operations aboard vessels flying the Panama flag.

As the threat posed by maritime piracy continues in several parts of the world, there is a growing debate among different governments, private sector analysts, non-governmental organization advocates and others about how bad the situation truly is; where and to whom it is the most challenging, what more needs to be done, and how much the private security industry actually benefits from this type of reporting. Like the famous phrase “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” different people find the same threats to be of varying degrees of worry. Yet the bottom line is that piracy’s frequency and growing transnational criminal reach, the people it hurts…

For the third time in nearly five years, the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) has stepped down from a three-month command of the multi-national Combined Task Force (CTF) 151, after coordinating operations to deter and disrupt maritime organized crime in the Gulf of Aden as part of international counter-piracy efforts. The fact that there were no successful hijacking incidents in the CTF 151's area of responsibility during Singapore’s naval leadership is only part of the story of its success.

The AdvanFort Company signed on Axel Tuetken, the former country president in Tokyo for Maersk Line and Safmarine, as its business development director in Northern Europe, AdvanFort President William H. Watson said. From Toyko, Tuetken supervised offices in Osaka, Kobe, Yokohama, and Nagoya, as well as a Shimizu joint venture. From his initial position with Maersk as Sales Representative in Bremen and Lower Saxony, Tuetken rose through the ranks by garnering experience in Northern Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, before becoming its branch president in Japan. www.advanfort.com

As international controversy continues about the “wheres,” “whys” and “how much” of maritime piracy in key international shipping areas, an important debate now focuses on the use of “floating armories” in efforts to restore security on the high seas. In particular, private security companies relying on unregulated floating armories—meant to avoid arms smuggling laws when they lay offshore ports in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean—have created their own, apparently-deepening concerns, as recent U.S. government efforts in this regard show.

"The revelation this week that the owner of an Algerian cargo ship whose crew was held by Somali pirates paid them $2.6 million in ransom is yet another indication that the rewards these denizens reap for their illegal, life-threatening work remain a serious stumbling block to ending maritime organized crime," AdvanFort Company President and COO William H. Watson said. “Those ship owners and operators who have still not hired a highly-reputable private maritime security company (PMSC) continue to risk paying what amounts to an illegal tax in support of further organized maritime extortion…

Maritime piracy is both ageless as a threat as well as ductile in its dramatically changing nature both in and around the Indian Ocean and, increasingly, in other parts of the world. Somali piracy erupted in the western Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden and commercial vessels transiting the area frequently fell prey to the seagoing criminals who captured numerous vessels and held them and their crews for ransom to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. Numerous maritime nations…

AdvanFort Company said attorney Sheila R. Schreiber has come onboard as its in-house legal counsel. Schreiber brings experience in the private and public sectors. She is a former litigation partner with Howrey LLP, served as counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary and has extensive experience in the national and international sales of industrial products. Her specialties include commercial, regulatory, employment, intellectual property, corporate and antitrust matters. Schreiber is a cum laude graduate of the University of Pittsburgh law school where she was a member of the Law Review. Her bar and court memberships include the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

AdvanFort Company appointed Nicholas-Andrew Iliopoulos business development director. Mr. Iliopoulos is a former Greek Navy Lt. Commander and a master mariner who for nearly a decade served as the personal liaison of HM the late King Hussein Bin Talal of Jordan to the seafaring community. “Nicholas Iliopoulos’s selection literally covers the waterfront as well as those seas of opportunity on distant shores,” said Captain William H. Watson, AdvanFort’s president. Since 2009, Mr. Iliopoulos has been a resident instructor at the Dalian Maritime University in China in addition to being an international representative for Videotel Maritime International. Receiving the accolades of colleagues and business representatives around the world, Mr.

AdvanFort Company say it already has a quality management system in place that exceeds the increasingly stiff requirements. “When it comes to counter-piracy operations, a lot of our competitors—faced with these new challenges—still seem to require others' faith in their words,” said Captain William H. Watson, AdvanFort president. German legislation about to be passed is both detailed and will surpass most standards and regulations already governing the market, observers say. Belgium and Cyprus, too, now employ highly pro-active systems to ensure that state-of-the-art standards are in place. AdvanFort’s continuing dedication to quality…

AdvanFort Company, approved by the Panama Maritime Authority (PMA) for Panama-flag vessel counter-piracy operations. “We at AdvanFort are very pleased that the world’s largest flag state has vetted our company and approved our highly-trained operators to protect their ships from piracy attack,” said Captain William H. Watson, president of AdvanFort. The Resolution (Number 106-26-DGMM) is dated 4 February 2013 and was later signed by the general director, following an extensive review by the PMA’s Technical Committee and Legal Department. The Republic of Panama is the largest ship registry in the world, with more than 5,700 ships flying the Panamanian flag.

Maritime professional will lead the next generation of global security solutions. The AdvanFort Company today announced that maritime professional William Hughes (Will) Watson has joined the company as president. Will comes to AdvanFort from the Office of the Maritime Administrator of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) where he has been Deputy Commissioner of Maritime Affairs and Special Agent since 2009. Additionally, Will served as delegate of the RMI to the United Nations…