We are very pleased to announce that Tobias Rennekamp has been selected as this year's Robin Travis Scholar.

Tobias joins us on 7th September 2015 and will spend a period of three months in Thomas Miller's London office and the London offices of selected lawyers, surveyors, insurance brokers and other shipping, transport and insurance businesses. The Robin Travis Scholarship programme is tailored to provide a breadth of practical and theoretical knowledge and experience and to build on the Scholar's commercial experience.

Tobias is currently an Assistant Operations Officer at Liberty One Shipmanagement GmbH & Co KG in Bremen and is actively involved in all aspects of managing their fleet of handy size bulk carriers. Drawing on this practical experience, Tobias wrote his bachelor degree thesis on "Earning and Profit Optimisation of a Handy Size Bulker Fleet using Different Procedures of Chartering - An Analysis of the Current Market Situation and Theoretical Considerations for an In-House Chartering at Liberty One Shipmanagement GmbH & Co KG".

His interest in all aspects of operations, and in particular the challenges and far-reaching legal and commercial implications of shipping incidents, naturally extends to the leading shipping insurance and shipping services in the London market, which will be the focus of the Scholarship. Tobias told us:

"My overall aim is to protect vessel' interests best possible and for this very reason I wish to further expand my knowledge in insurance, underwriting and legal processes. The Robin Travis Scholarship would give me an opportunity to explore my knowledge in a field which I have always found rather complex and fascinating at the same time. I hope that this in depth training helps me to improve the quality of my performance."

We look forward to giving Tobias a warm welcome at the beginning of September.