Partners Chris Vartzis, Huay Yee Kwan, James Quarmby and Stuart Beadnall from the firm's Piraeus, London and Singapore offices led panel discussions and presentations.

Cihan Ergenç, president of the Turkish Shipowners’ Association, provided the welcome address, which was followed by a series of panel discussions and presentations that explored a range of topics. These included:
"Decarbonisation in the maritime and shipbuilding industry"; "East meets West: PRC leasing and its role in Europe"; "How to keep it: an insider’s guide of how HNW (high net worth) people can protect and pass on their wealth"; and "Finding financing in the Turkish shipping market".

Stephenson Harwood partners Nigel Bowen-Morris and Shaun Park were also in attendance.
Panelists included: Channing Wang, regional manager of Bank of Communications Financial Leasing Co. Ltd; Elias Sakellis, CEO of Australis Maritime Limited; George Fikaris, managing director of Entrust Global; Ilias Katsoulis, global head of shipping of Deutsche Bank, AG; Iraklis Tsirigotis, director of origination of Neptune Maritime Leasing; Kevin Kou, senior manager of ICBC Financial Leasing Co. Ltd.; and Tobias Backer, co-founder of Fleetscape.

"We were pleased to welcome more than 100 representatives from across the shipping industry to this seminar in Istanbul" said Chris Vartzis, partner, Stephenson Harwood. "With experts present from a range of industries - shipbuilding, energy, shipping finance, banking, investment, private equity, tax and wealth management – including those involved in the Turkish shipping market, we were able to achieve our objective of initiating insightful and comprehensive discussions on key pertinent topics. We are proud of the seminar's success, the

insights it provided, and hope to host future sessions that will attract leading representatives and explore key issues and developments."

Stephenson Harwood is recognised as having one of the world’s leading shipping practices. With offices in key trading hubs, the firm offers comprehensive, specialist shipping advice across ship finance, marine insurance, maritime litigation and arbitration, corporate and tax services.