Maritime Cook Islands (MCI), administrators of the Cook Islands Ships’ Registry, has announced the appointment of a newly-formed Management Board comprising Moeroa Matheson, Paolo Favilli and Eleanor Roi.

In a statement, MCI said effective from December 1, 2022, the Management Board will serve as co-CEOs, succeeding the role and responsibilities of the chief executive officer of the company.

Matheson joined Maritime Cook Islands in 2002 and was appointed Registrar of Ships in 2006.

“Moeroa has seen the registry flourish in her 20 years of service in the company and has successfully led the Fleet Management team through the development of an online registry system that is fully integrated with the MCI Quality Management System,” the statement said.

Favilli joined MCI in 2014 as a fleet manager and in 2016 was promoted to Head of the Technical Department, leading a team of maritime technical experts who oversee the technical mechanisms of the registry.

MCI says Favilli has been instrumental in developing technical capacity and expertise through the formation of the technical team, enhancing service delivery. He is also the Cook Islands representative at several International Maritime Organisation committees and sub-committee meetings.

Roi is also Head of the Seafarer Training and Certification Department and is responsible for the implementation and management of the Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW) Convention across the Cook Islands Ships Registry.

In her time at MCI, she drafted the Cook Islands Maritime (STCW Rules) 2020 and 2021 and led the MCI team through the IMO STCW Regulation I/8 audit which resulted in the Cook Islands being confirmed on the IMO STCW Whitelist in November 2022.

Roi is also the Cook Islands representative at the IMO Human Element, Training and Watchkeeping subcommittee and holds several Cook Islands Government directorships.

The new management board will maintain their departmental roles in addition to their new appointments.

MCI director Glenn Armstrong said: “MCI is the only privately owned, open registry that actually operates from the State that it represents. The directors are very proud of this fact and have a plan to ensure that MCI remains in the hands of Cook Islanders and continues to be based in the Cook Islands.”

“We are very happy to have homegrown talent that we have complete confidence in. We are sure that they will drive the company forward and will achieve the potential which MCI undoubtedly has as a world class registry for ships and yachts.”