The Management Team is supported by an Advisory Board made up of individuals with significant experience in the shipping and trade arenas.  Their contribution to ESS includes giving advice and mentoring:

Barry Williams

In addition to being former chairman of ESS, Barry Williams is also the current Chairman of Amber Road (formerly Management Dynamics), a leading player in the provision of Global Trade Management (GTM) services. He was previously with P&O Nedlloyd where he held numerous executive-level positions in a career that spanned over 35 years across an organization of 6,000 staff in 120 countries, most recently responsible for worldwide operations and business and strategic e-commerce systems. Mr Williams is best known for his ability to improve carrier operations by applying information technology and realize results through effective change management programs. He is also a former Non-Executive Chairman of INTTRA, the largest multi-carrier e-commerce platform for the ocean shipping industry.

Jim Davis
Mr Davis has been actively involved in the maritime industry for over fifty years. He served in the Royal Navy, and was then recruited by P&OSN Co for whom he worked in Calcutta, Kobe and Hong Kong. He was appointed a Director of P&O Lines from 1967 to 1972, and then became Director of Shipping for Kleinwort Benson, retiring in 1988. His multitudes of commercial and advisory appointments include the presidency of IMF and his post as non-Executive Director of Dept. Chairman of Hanjin Eurobulk .

Fritz Heidenreich
Mr.Heidenreich is acknowledged as being among the most original thinkers in maritime industry software development . He is currently the President of Heidenreich Innovations and was previously Chief Information Officer at Heidmar. Mr  Heidenreich is best-known for the Q88.com web site, a product he successfully developed at a time when many in the industry were spending vast sums in pursuit of complex e-commerce solutions. Heidenreich Innovations, headquartered in Greenwich Connecticut, launched the website Q88.com in 2001 and currently has over 470 shipowners, managers and operators managing their fleets daily on the system. Q88.com currently hosts the industry standard Questionnaire 88 originally developed by Intertanko along with 700 vetting, commercial and logistical questionnaires for numerous vetting departments, charterers, terminals and many others across the industry. More recently, Heidenreich Innovations has developed the Baltic99 dry bulk questionnaire and also offers the Milbros Chemical Information System database for chemical tanker owners. Mr Heidenreich is a graduate in Aerospace Engineer from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Graham Edmiston
Mr Edmiston completed his training with Hill Dickinson in 1967 after graduating in law from Oxford University. He subsequently practiced as a solicitor in London and in Greece before joining A Bilbrough & Co Ltd, managers of the London P&I Club (shipowners' liability insurance mutual) as a Marine Claims Adjuster in 1972. He was appointed Claims Director in 1975, opened A Bilbrough's Greek office in 1981 and was the resident director in Greece from 1986-1990. He was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive of Bilbroughs from 1995-2002 and was their Consultant from 2002 - 2003. Graham joined Hill Taylor Dickinson  as a consultant March 2003.  He is a member of the Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights.

Mr. Eng is currently EVP - Systems and Technology at JetBlue Airways.  Prior to that he was President and CEO of Spectrum Systems, Inc, one of the leading technology consulting firms.  From April 1999 until joining Spectrum in October 2006, he was the Chief Information Officer at the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT).  There he was responsible for global product development, technology and operations for the worldwide mission critical provider of financial messaging infrastructure.  In addition, he had responsibility for enterprise wide security.  During his extensive career, Mr. Eng has held several senior IT positions for companies such as Ameritech and Bellcore.  CIO Magazine recognized him as one of the world’s top 100 CIOs in both 2005 and 2006.

Stathes Kulukundis
Mr Kulukundis has served as a Director of Rethymnis & Kulukundis Ltd (R&K) and sits on the councils and board of directors of several national and international maritime industry associations.

Sue Probert
Ms. Probert focus is on the area of paper and electronic documentation production requirements particularly in the international trade and transport arena. Recently she has worked on formats and uses of standard in international trade, transport, financial transactions and customs working with Sitpro, UN/CEFACT, UK HoD and the World Customs Organisation.  Her specialities include: paper and electronic documentation production requirements particularly in the international trade and transport arena, trade facilitation, data exchange standards, data modelling, message implementation for B2B, B2G and G2G and document rationalization and interoperability.

Paul Windfield
Mr Winfield has served as a Director of P&O Nedlloyd, London, in which capacity he was responsible for all sales, marketing and electronic commerce globally.  He has extensive experience working with customers, suppliers and shipping lines in Europe, the United States, Asia and Australia/New Zealand.  A founding Director of INTTRA and a current Director of Summitt Global Logistics Inc. 

Dennis Paul
Mr. Paul is a partner in the Rosenau/Paul Group at UBS, co-managing $700 million in long-equity equity and fixed income investments for 110 families and private foundations.  At UBS, he holds the title of Senior Portfolio Manager.  His career has been focused around portfolio management and his sector expertise has been in the energy area.  Prior to asset management, Mr. Paul worked for two years as a Financial Analyst at Schroders Plc, working solely for the energy investment banking team in New York and London.  Before joining Schroders, Mr. Paul worked for three years as a Senior Program Officer at the IIE Energy Group based in Washington, DC, where he managed energy and environment programs funded by US AID, the World Bank, and the UNDP.  While earning his BA in Political Science from Columbia College, Mr. Paul worked as an Assistant Financial Analysis in the real estate investment banking group of Lazard Freres & Company LLC.  A native Washingtonian, Mr. Paul received his HS Diploma from the St. Albans School for Boys in Washington, DC.

Tony Vlasto
Mr Vlasto was with the International Law Firm Clifford Chance for 30 years until November 2003, a Partner from April 1981 and latterly Head of the firm's Shipping and International Trade Group. Since then he has operated as an independent consultant, performing a variety of charity work (primarily as Chairman of the City of London Branch of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI)) and has served as a Non-Executive Director of an independent oil and gas production and services company.

Mark Pickering
Mr. Pickering has over 25 years' experience in finance and energy sector Information Technology. He joined EDF Trading, a major European energy trading company that is also expanding into the U.S., as CIO in September 2008. Before that, Mr. Pickering was CIO for Shell Trading, responsible for the Trading IT group's oil transformation strategy and representing the group on the IT Executive Committee that managed Shell's strategic IT direction. Previously, Mr. Pickering was with Enron as head of front office systems development, CIO for Enron Europe's IT function, and Enron corporate CIO. Mr. Pickering's earlier career focused on investment banking with Bankers Trust (as VP of Global Derivative Systems) and with HSBC, James Capel Bankers and Bank of America.