Alastair King joins Maritime UK
A Deck Officer in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, Alastair King joined Maritime UK on 1 May 2018.
During his sixteen years at sea he has worked in twenty six countries across the world, embracing a variety of roles including diplomatic engagements, amphibious landings, and counter drug and piracy operations to support the Royal Navy.
Prior to his RFA career, Alastair worked in Dyson's research and development department.
As Programmes Manager he is responsible for driving forward the work of Maritime UK's cross-sector initiatives in support of the strategic objectives.
Alastair's first week
I left RFA Fort Rosalie and its counter piracy operations three weeks ago. To say that my first week with Maritime UK has been varied and interesting would be an understatement.
Day 1 - Tuesday
To kick things off on my first day in the job I attended the Maritime UK Policy WG meeting at the Baltic exchange. The Policy WG is the vehicle for coordinating and agreeing joint policy positions amongst Maritime UK’s members – making real the “One Voice” function of the organisation.
It was a very productive meeting - showing me first-hand how united and committed the maritime sector is to collaborating to achieve responsible and sustainable growth.
Members discussed joint positions across Maritime 2050, Air Quality, Sustainability and Brexit.
From there I spent the afternoon at the British Library at a joint DfT-DIT workshop with the maritime sector. The workshop was designed to ensure the sector’s interests are properly reflected in emerging trade strategies. This covered both the sector’s role as the facilitator of trade – focusing on customs arrangements – and the sector’s role as an exporter of maritime products and services. Here we continued to make the case for increased and more efficient government support for boosting our exports.
Day 2 - Wednesday
On my second day, I joined the UK-India Opportunities Forum that Maritime UK had organised with the DIT and UKIBC.
The Forum, through the variety of companies in attendance, demonstrated the breadth and quality of what the UK has to offer the rest of the world in pursuing their own maritime ambitions.
It also showed the maritime ambition of India and how the UK should best capitalise to benefit from that ambition, demonstrated not least in the form of ‘Sagarmala’. Companies and associations in attendance agreed to make the Forum a regular event, establish simplified sharing of opportunity details and explore outward trade visits.
We were joined by the First Secretary from New Delhi who was pleased to see the genuine interest from UK companies in India, and has pledged to increase their activity in post as a result.
Day 3 - Thursday
My third day saw a significant amount of time in the office running through logistics, induction processes and getting to know the rest of the team.
I also started work on action plans from the previous two days of activity.
Day 4 - Friday
My week finished in style – aboard the MV Ventura in Southampton!
I attended the launch of the Maritime UK-Solent LEP report into the value, role and contribution of the maritime sector in the Solent region. Key members of Maritime UK, the Solent LEP have worked with us to produce this significant report that shows:
- £77.5bn worth of trade passes through the Solent’s ports
- 85% of that trade is with non-EU countries
- There were 2 million cruise passenger movements from Southampton last year
- The sector contributes £5.5bn to the Solent economy
- Maritime makes up 20% of the Solent economy
- The sector directly supports 36,000 jobs in the Solent
Thank you to everyone I have met over the last week for welcoming me into this new and fascinating role. I look forward to working with you as we seek to promote the sector, influence government and drive growth.