Speakers

Vice Admiral Andreas Krause,
Chief of the German Navy

Vice Admiral Andreas Krause is Chief of the German Navy. He joined the then Federal German Navy in 1976. He studied Education at the Bundeswehr University, Hamburg before joining the Submarine Flotilla in 1981.

From 1986 to 1989 he was the Commanding Officer of Submarine U 22. After Advanced maritime operations training (antisubmarine warfare), he took the 32nd Admiral Staff Officer Course at the Bundeswehr Command and Staff College, Hamburg.

After staff assignments in the Submarine Flotilla and the Ministry of Defence, Vice Admiral Krause was Branch Chief in the Joint Headquarters Northeast, Karup/Denmark from 1999 to 2001, followed by assignments as Branch Chief Naval Staff III 1 (Concept Development and Planning Guidelines, International Cooperation), Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff, Armed Forces Staff V (Joint Operations) and Deputy Chief of Staff, Naval Staff III (Concept Development, Planning and Operations) in the Federal Ministry of Defence.

From 2006 to 2008 he was Commander, Flotilla 1 and Director, Centre of Excellence for Operations in Confined and Shallow Waters (COE CSW) and from 2008 to 2009 Deputy Commander in Chief, German Fleet. After another assignment in the Ministry of Defence as Director, Joint Operations Staff, Vice Admiral Krause became the Deputy Commander, NATO Allied Maritime Command, Naples (Italy). He was Vice Chief of the German Navy from 2013 until October 2014 when he took over as Chief of the German Navy.

Vice Admiral (Rtd) Lutz Feldt

Lutz Feldt joined the German Navy in 1965. He was commissioned in 1968. Sea duty assignments for 13 years with leadership functions on all command levels, including two tours as a commanding officer, provided a wide experience at sea with emphasis on operations, communications and electronic warfare.

Shore duty assignments in naval staffs, the Federal Ministry of Defence, in NATO as Assistant Chief of Staff Operations and Logistic. He became Commander Military District Coast, a national joined command, Commander in Chief of the German Fleet and Commander in Chief of Naval Staff in Bonn and Berlin. He retired in 2006, after having served in the Armed Forces for 41 years.

Since then, Vice Admiral Feldt has taken over several posts of honour: he was the President of the German Maritime Institute until 2012 and President of EuroDefense Germany until 2017. He has been contracted by the European Commission for the “Instrument for Stability”- Critical Maritime Routes”.

From 2009 to 2010 he was contracted by the European Defence Agency (EDA) as a member of the “Wise Pen Team”, working on the topic of maritime surveillance and maritime security. Another Study for EDA about European Naval Capabilities has been completed in June 2012.

He is now a Director of “Wise Pens International Limited” and is engaged by the EDA, the European Commission and several other institutions, dealing with the whole spectrum of maritime safety, security and defence matters. In this period he was involved in several Arctic studies and Conferences. Besides these topics he has given several lectures about leadership responsibilities and the interaction between military and political leaders.

Vice Admiral Lisa Franchetti,
Commander, U.S. 6th Fleet

Vice Admiral Franchetti is Commander, U.S. 6th Fleet, Commander, Task Force 6, Commander, Striking and Support Forces NATO, Deputy Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe and Africa, Joint Force Maritime Component Commander Europe. She received her commission in 1985 through the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps Program at Northwestern University, where she received a Bachelor of Science in Journalism. She also attended the Naval War College and holds a master’s in organizational management from the University of Phoenix.

Her operational tours include auxiliaries officer and first division officer on USS Shenandoah (AD 44); navigator and jumboization coordinator on USS Monongahela (AO 178); operations officer on USS Moosbrugger (DD 980); combat systems officer and chief staff officer for Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 2; executive officer of USS Stout (DDG 55); and assistant surface operations officer on USS George Washington Strike Group.

She commanded USS Ross (DDG 71) and DESRON-21, embarked on USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74). She also served as commander of Pacific Partnership 2010, embarked on USNS Mercy (T-AH 19). Ashore, Franchetti’s assignments include commander, Naval Reserve Center Central Point, Oregon; aide to the vice chief of naval operations; protocol officer for the Commander, U.S. Atlantic Fleet; 4th Battalion officer at the U.S. Naval Academy; division chief, Joint Concept Development and Experimentation, on the Joint Staff, J7; deputy director of International Engagement and executive assistant to N3/N5 on the Navy staff; and military assistant to the Secretary of the Navy.

Her flag assignments include commander, U.S. Naval Forces Korea; commander Carrier Strike Group 9; commander, Carrier Strike Group 15; and chief of staff, Joint Staff, J-5, Strategy, Plans and Policy. Vice Admiral Franchetti assumed duties as commander, U.S. 6th Fleet, Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO; deputy commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe; deputy commander U.S. Naval Forces Africa; and Joint Force Maritime Component Commander on March 1, 2018.

Rear Admiral Christian Bock,
COE CSW

Rear Admiral Christian Bock is Director NATO Centre of Excellence for Operations in Confined and Shallow Waters (COE CSW). He joined the Navy in July 1988, subsequently achieved a Master “Business Administration” and served on minehunting- and support vessels, holding command of a minehunter from 1998 until 2000.

After a period at the German MOD (Naval Staff Plans and Policy) and following the staff course at the German Armed Forces General Staff and Command College in Hamburg, he was seconded to SACT as Military Assistant for the 2* and 3* level in 2003.

Back to sea from 2005 – 2007, he served as the Deputy Squadron Commander of the 3rd Minesweeper Squadron in Kiel, followed by a posting at the German MOD Joint Staff Current Operations Branch.

From 2008 to 2010, Commander Bock was appointed Commanding Officer of the 5th Minesweeper Squadron, including a detachment as Commander German contingent UNIFIL.

Following a second assignment at the German MOD Joint Staff (conceptual planning), he joined the Federal Chancellery as Deputy Division Head "Military Aspects of Security Policy" in 2011.

From 2013 to 2015, promoted Captain (N), he was responsible for Maritime Operations (Horn of Africa region) at the Bundeswehr Joint Forces Operations Command in Potsdam.

Back to the MoD again, he held a Branch Chief post in the Planning Directorate until 2018, since when Rear Admiral Bock has been serving as Commander Flotilla 1 and Director NATO COE CSW.

Associate professor and researcher in politics, security and international relations, The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, adjunct researcher at the Centre for Arctic Policy Studies at the University of Iceland, Reykjavík as well as at Ruhr University Bochum (Germany)

Originally from Montréal, Canada, Dr Marc Lanteigne is an associate professor and researcher in politics, security and international relations at The Arctic University of Norway, . He received his Ph.D. from McGill University, Montréal, Canada. He has conducted research and fieldwork in numerous parts of the Arctic and Northern Europe, including Alaska, Denmark, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden as well as Northern Canada, as well as in China, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia and has teaching and research experience in Canada, China, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom. He has taught courses in international relations and comparative politics, including Asia and Europe and guest lectured on Arctic and Antarctic issues in China, Japan, North America and Western Europe, including a regular summer short course at Peking University and a lecture on China’s developing polar policies at The Bookworm, Beijing, July 2017. Dr Lanteigne is the editor of OtC, Over the Circle, Arctic Politics and Foreign Policy and the author of several articles on Chinese and East Asian politics and foreign policy, as well as the book Chinese Foreign Policy: An Introduction, which had its third edition released in 2016, and a fourth edition in July 2019.

REAR ADMIRAL (MC) DR STEPHAN APEL

Rear Admiral (Medical Corps) Dr. Stephan Apel is Surgeon General, German Navy. He joined the Bundeswehr as a conscript on 1 July 1976 and was transferred to the Navy as a Medical Service officer candidate in October the same year. From October 1976 till October 1982 he studied Human medicine at Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster. His military career began with a residency at the Bundeswehr Hospital in Kiel. From January 1984 to December 1985 Dr Apel served on board the Federal German Navy Frigate Bremen, before taking over as Commander, Medical Center, and Flight Surgeon, Naval Air Wing 1, Kropp/Jagel. After an assignment as Senior Medical Officer, Destroyer Flotilla, Wilhelmshaven from October 1991 to December 1995, he served at the Federal Ministry of Defence, Office of the Surgeon General, Bundeswehr, II 1 Chief, Situation Center Bosnia until 30 June 1996, when he became Senior Officer of the Medical Service and Deputy Command Surgeon, Fleet, at Fleet Command, Glücksburg. From September 2000 till March 2002 Dr Apel was Commander, Navy Medical Command East, Rostock, followed by assignments as Chief, Regional Medical Center 110, Kiel, Regional Medical Command I, Kiel, Chief of Health Affairs Division and the Bundeswehr Medical Service Headquarters, as DCOS, Directorate A. Since 16 March 2016 Dr. Apel has been Surgeon General of the Navy at the German Navy Command, Rostock. Special Missions/Assignments include: six-month observership at Naval Environmental Health Center, Norfolk/VA, USA, including a tropical medicine course in Puerto Rico, Senior Medical Officer, Naval Task Force Somalia, for the evacuation of German Army Contingent Somalia, Senior Medical Officer, National Commander, NATO EX "Strong Resolve 1999" and "Battle Griffin 2000", Commander, Medical Task Force, 8th Contingent KFOR and Commander, Medical Task Force, 27th Contingent KFOR.

Michael Howlett, COE, ICC Commercial Crime Services

Michael Howlett is CEO of ICC Commercial Crime Services. He joined the ICC International Maritime Bureau (IMB) in May 1994 and closely co-ordinates with the IMB’s banking, shipping, insurance and trading company members with regards to loss prevention and advice. He also works closely with the IMB Piracy Reporting Centre (PRC) based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The IMB PRC is a single point of contact for the shipping community to report acts of piracy and armed robbery from anywhere in the world. The IMB PRC is regarded as the primary source of information on piracy attacks globally. Michael has travelled on investigations to many countries, spoken at numerous conferences and seminars worldwide and written papers on areas connected with the subject of piracy, fraud and malpractice in trade finance and international trade. In January 2020, Michael Howlett became the CEO of ICC Commercial Crime Services – the anti-crime unit of the International Chamber of Commerce – of which IMB is a part.

Captain (Navy) Peter Tolderlund,
Marcom Nato Shipping Centre

Captain Peter Tolderlund is the Director, NATO Shipping Centre, MARCOM Northwood, UK. A native of Aarhus, Denmark, he graduated from Danish Naval Academy in 1985, completing his naval officer’s education, with a Ships Master’s Degree.

His initial nine years of service were on Willemoes class fast attack craft, five of which as commanding officer. He dedicated his next years of service to strategic and joint positions, as advisor to a US Marine Corps General, SACLANT/CINCUSACOM from 1994-1997, as Policy advisor in Defence Command Denmark (1998-2000), as Section Head Procurement in the Danish Ministry of Defence (2001-2003), as Commander of the Danish Joint Senior Staff Course (2006-2009) (a MASTER), as the Chief of Defense liaison to the US Joint Forces Command (2009-2013) and as Inspector General for Physical Training and sports Danish Defence (2013-2017).

Captain Tolderlund returned to the navy for an XO position on a frigate in 2000, and later on he commanded frigates from 2003 to 2006. He has spent 13 years at sea, of which eight years were in command. In 2018 he became the Director of the NATO Shipping Centre - “very much back in the navy” - albeit from a NATO position, a very operational office, dealing with day-to-day challenges to civilian shipping, and how to manage the cooperation between civilian shipping and the military forces.

Commander, (S.G.) Dr. Robert Koch,
German Navy

Commander (S.G.) Dr Robert Koch received his diploma in Computer Science in 2002. After that, he had a comprehensive operational and technical training in the German Navy and built up a broad experience in the design, implementation, and operation of high-security networks and systems while being Deputy Weapon Engineering and Weapon Engineering Officer onboard of German frigates.

He received his PhD in 2011, his habilitation in 2017 and his Venia Legendi in 2018. Now Commander Dr Koch is a lecturer in Computer Science at the German Armed Forces University and the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn (University of Bonn), and research assistant at the Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics (FKIE).

His main areas of research are network and system security with a focus on intrusion detection in encrypted networks, attack detection and identification of manipulations, the security of Commercial off-the Shelf (COTS) products, anonymity in cyberspace, security visualization and the application of machine learning techniques.

After building up the penetration testing capability for the Bundeswehr, Robert is now Action Officer for Cyber Policy in the Federal Ministry of Defence.

Christoph Klein,
Thyssenkrupp Marine System, Germany

Christoph Klein is Project Manager Additive Manufacturing at thyssenkrupp Marine Systems. He studied International Sales and Procurement Engineering at the University of Applied Sciences, Kiel. From 2003 to 2013 he was strategic procurement manager at Rheinmetall Landsysteme, and lateron at thyssenkrupp Marine Systems.

Here he also qualified as a Value Engineer for project optimization and as such he came in contact with Additive Manufacturing in Naval Shipbuilding. Since 2019 Christoph Klein has been Project Leader Additive Manufacturing at thyssenkrupp Marine Systems.

Vice Admiral Carsten Stawitzki,
Federal German Ministry of Defence

Vice Admiral Carsten Stawitzki studied Electrical Engineering at the Helmut Schmidt - Bundeswehr University in Hamburg and afterwards served on various assignments on board and in staff functions. He took the 40th Admiral Staff Officers Course at the Bundeswehr Command and Staff College, Hamburg and was deployed to Afghanistan as Second-in-Command ISAF Regional Command North in 2013.

From 2013 to 2016 he was Commnadant Marineschule Mürwik (Naval Academy) and then led the Bundeswehr Command and Staff College. Vice Admiral Carsten Stawitzki was appointed National Armaments Director (NAD) and Head of the Directorate-General for Equipment within the Federal Ministry of Defence in April 2018.

Christoph Fenske,
RENK AG, Germany

After graduating from Technical University of Hamburg in 1999 where he got a degree in Marine Engineering, Christoph Fenske joined MTU Friedrichshafen as Project Engineer for Marine Propulsion Systems working on yacht and fast ferry programmes as well as on various naval projects such as the Littoral Combat Ship programme of the U.S. Navy.

In 2012, Christoph was promoted Director of Naval Application Engineering and was eventually responsible for the mechanical, electrical and automation engineering for MTUs’ naval projects. In July 2019, he became General Manager Marine Special Gears of Renk AG and thus is responsible for the business unit of marine gear boxes typically used in demanding naval, yacht, fast ferry and special purpose vessels.

Dr. Hans Christoph Atzpodien,
Federation of German Security & Defence Industries (BDSV)

Dr. Hans Christoph Atzpodien (born 1955) studied Law at Bonn University where he also earned his doctorate degree. He started his professional career as a mem¬ber of the legal department of Otto Wolff AG, Cologne, in 1982. In 1990 he joined Thyssen Industrie AG, Essen, followed by several high level management positions in the Thyssen-/thyssen¬krupp-Group, amongst them as Managing Director/CEO of Thys¬sen(Krupp)Transrapid System GmbH (1997-2001), Member of the Executive Board of ThyssenKrupp Technologies AG (2001-2009), CEO/Chairman of the Executive Board of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems AG (2007-2012), CEO/Chairman of the Executive Board of ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions AG (2013-2015) and Chairman of various Supervisory Boards, amongst them ThyssenKrupp Ma-rine Systems GmbH and Atlas Elektronik GmbH (until end of 2016). In August 2017 Dr. Atzpodien took over as Managing Director of the Federation of German Security and Defence Industries (BDSV e.V.), Berlin.

Dr. Sarah Kirchberger, Institute for Security Policy,
Kiel University (ISPK)

Dr. Sarah Kirchberger (b. 1975) is the Head of the Center for Asia-Pacific Strategy and Security at the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University (ISPK) and Visiting Research Fellow, European Institute for Chinese Studies (EURICS). She is the author of Assessing China's Naval Power: Technological Innovation, Economic Constraints, and Strategic Implications (Springer, 2015). Sarah Kirchberger holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Sinology from the University of Hamburg.

Before joining the faculty of the Asia-Africa-Institute at the University of Hamburg as an Assistant Professor of Contemporary China in 2010, she had served for three years as a naval analyst with shipbuilder Blohm + Voss, Hamburg, charged with analysing naval developments world-wide in cooperation with technical departments and naval sales executives.

Originally trained as a specialist of Chinese Communist Party history during studies in Hamburg, Trier, and Taipei, Sarah Kirchberger began researching China's naval development during 2011, and has since continued to focus on related topics. Other current research interests include domestic Chinese reform discourses within the CCP; military-technological co-operation between China, Russia and Ukraine, the strategic importance of the South China Sea for China's military planners and China’s space and naval strategy.

President, L3Harris Maritime International, Montreal, Canada

With a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering from Bangalore University, he started his career at CAE in 1984 and has accumulated over 35 years of experience in systems engineering, project engineering, proposals management, strategic planning, business development, contract negotiations, acquisitions, P&L and general management. Maritime International includes the MAPPS, Calzoni, Oceania, and Communications Systems Canada businesses of L3Harris. Rangesh is responsible for the global business of Maritime International comprising four businesses in eight countries on four continents and customers worldwide. He leads the continuing geographic and sectoral diversification & growth strategies of the business through organic growth and acquisitions. L3Harris Maritime International is a global provider of control and simulation solutions for the marine, nuclear power generation and space sectors, naval handling systems, visual landing aids, integrated navigation systems, and maritime domain awareness solutions. Rangesh Kasturi has been President of L3Harris Maritime International since July 2019.

Saman Sannandeji,
Modest Tree

Sam Sannandeji is CEO Modest Tree. He has demonstrated a passion for entrepreneurship since he was a child, having started his first business at 13. He graduated from NSCC Programming concentration in 2007, after which he dove into the world of video game development, working on such titles as EA’s NBA Live and FIFA.

He soon joined Atlantis Systems to develop interactive applications for the Canadian military and the aerospace and defence industry, where he noted the gap in the tools needed to create interactive applications, sparking the foundation of Modest Tree. Sam started Modest Tree in 2012 to pursue the development of a software that would democratize the creation of immersive training applications.

Director Sales Anti-Submarine Warfare, ATLAS ELEKTRONIK

Before joining ATLAS ELEKTRONIK in 2010 he served as an active duty officer in the German Navy with surface warfare training and experience on destroyers, frigates and minehunters. Mr. Bochentin's ultimate sea posting was as Principal Warfare Officer for Underwater Warfare on then newly commissioned first-of-class F124 type frigate "Sachsen". His experience at ATLAS ELEKTRONIK concerned heavyweight torpedoes, anti-submarine sonars and, especially, torpedo defence with the SeaSpider Anti-Torpedo-Torpedo. He holds advanced degrees from the German Federal Armed Forces University Hamburg and the University of Wales.