Navtech 2023 is produced by Colibri Northwest.
SPEAKER BIOS
Hear from these industry leaders on December 5-6, 2023.
CAPT Paul Amos
Columbia River Pilots
Paul was born and raised in Denton, Texas. In 1974 he permanently relocated to the Pacific Northwest where he was employed continuously in the tug and barge industry for 16 years. From 1980 to 1990 he worked as captain on towing vessels on the Columbia/Willamette/Snake River system. He has a wide range of experience on various types of towing vessels but the majority of those years were spent on grain barge tows between Portland, OR and Lewiston, ID. For the last 32 years, beginning in 1990, Paul has been a Columbia River Pilot. As a member of the Columbia River Pilots (COLRIP) he served two years as treasurer and was vice president in 1999. He was re-elected as vice president in 2006. Shortly afterwards he became president and has served continuously in that position since then. He was also deeply involved in developing COLRIP’s AIS-based navigation system and continues to work on improvements to that system. He is a past president of the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association, a past chairman of the Lower Columbia Region Harbor Safety Committee and has served on a variety of industry related boards and committees.
Paul is married to a sailor, Della, one of the first women to graduate from Kings Point Merchant Marine Academy. He has 3 adult children and lives in Vancouver, WA.
Jorge Arroyo
US Coast Guard
Jorge Arroyo has served in the US Coast Guard for more than 36 years. Previously, he served as a commissioned officer involved in recreational boating safety, search and rescue, vessel traffic management, polar icebreaking, ship and shore-side operations; and since 1999, he has served as a program and management analyst with the USCG’s Office of Navigation Systems, and subject matter expert on shipboard navigation systems. He also serves as a US delegate-advisor at the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Navigation, Communications and Search and Rescue Sub-committee, vice-chair of the eNavigation Committee of the International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities, and, on the board of directors of the VHF Data Exchange Systems Alliance. He has participated in the development of numerous industry consensus navigation equipment standards, guidelines, and recommendations published by IMO, IALA, the International Electrotechnical Committee, and the Radio Technical Committee for Maritime Services, including all those related to automatic identification systems. He obtained a bachelor of science degree from the University of Illinois, a juris doctor from DePaul University School of Law, and has navigated the seven oceans and made landfall on every continent.
CAPT Alain Arsenault
National Center of Expertise on Maritime Pilotage
Captain Alain Arseneault is an active St. Lawrence River pilot. He is a graduate of Rimouski’s Maritime Institute. After being issued a master mariner certificate in 1998, and sailing worldwide, he pursued postgraduate studies, being awarded an MBA in 2005. He entered the apprentice program on the St. Lawrence River in 2003 and was issued a pilot license in 2005. Within the mid St. Lawrence Pilots Corporation, he held various management positions and acted as president from 2017 to 2021.
Fascinated by innovation and new technologies, Captain Arseneault participated in several technical maritime committees within his group and ultimately lead the technical committee of his National Association (Canadian Maritime Pilots Association) in addition to being elected national vice-president for the Laurentian in 2017. Captain Arseneault now serves as executive director of the Canadian National Center of Expertise on Maritime Pilotage, and he is actively involved in several technology innovation forum as a participant and speaker. He is also active at the IMO level on the Canadian delegation and IMPA delegation.
Captain Arseneault serves on various boards. Among others, he presides on the board of directors of the St. Lawrence Global Observatory (SLGO) and is the VP of the board of the eastern branch of the Canadian Marine Service Guild (CMSG).
Captain Gaetano Gigliotti (Captain G)
Carnival Cruise Line
Captain Gaetano Gigliotti is a native of Italy. He began his career in 1986 as a deck cadet officer with Carnival on the Mardi Gras. He has served in various positions on board almost all Carnival vessels. He was promoted to captain in 2000 on the Carnival Paradise. He served as master on Carnival Paradise, Carnival Pride, Carnival Victory,
Carnival Miracle, Carnival Fantasy, Carnival Valor, Carnival Elation, Carnival Glory, and Carnival Horizon.
In February 2007 Captain Gigliotti moved shoreside as port captain, and in 2008 he was promoted to the position of director of marine safety. In 2011 he was promoted to vice president of nautical safety and operations. In 2013 he moved to corporate as VP of maritime quality assurance. In 2016 he moved back on ships as master on the Carnival Elation and Carnival Horizon. In 2018 he again moved ashore to serve as VP of the Nautical, Fleet Operation Center and safety operations.
CAPT Richard Madden
Maersk Line
Rich was raised in Sackets Harbor, NY on Lake Ontario, where he began his maritime career working at marinas, cleaning charter boats and racing sailboats. He graduated from NY Maritime College in 1990 and worked for Military Sealift Command (MSC) on a variety of underway replenishment, cargo and towing vessels. After leaving MSC in the late 90s, Rich transitioned into the tug and barge industry in Hawaii and then in the Northeast, conducting coastal towing, ship tows and, occasionally, ship assist.
Transitioning back from brown to blue water shipping in the early 2000s, Rich began shipping on commercial deep-sea vessels. Over the past 19 years, these have ranged from contract survey vessels for the US Navy to heavylift/multipurpose vessels to his current command on a medium-sized container ship in worldwide trade. Working on a feeder container ship between the Middle East and East Africa afforded extensive experience during the height of Somali piracy, which lead to an increasing interest in security and safety.
Captain Madden has been an adjunct instructor at MITAGS since 2013. Courses he has been involved with range from operational to management level meteorology, hazardous weather avoidance, navigation (terrestrial, celestial, and electronic), safety, bridge resource management, leadership and management, and shiphandling courses. Rich particularly enjoys simulations and has been involved with port research projects and the Navigation Skills Assessment Program (NSAP) in a variety of roles.
Rich is an associate fellow of the Nautical Institute, member of the Council of American Master Mariners (CAMM) and has been an appointee to the US Coast Guard Navigation Safety Advisory Committee since 2015. He is founder of the Maritime Safety Innovation Lab LLC, a maritime industry consultancy and research organization. Through this organization, Captain Madden works to identify and promulgate best practices in both human and technical skills with the goal of keeping seafarers and vessels safe from harm.
Rich is married to Kelly, a former US Coast Guard boatswain’s mate who now runs the couple’s powerboat extensively on the Chesapeake Bay. They have three adult children and live in Glen Burnie, MD.
Peter Philips
President – Colibri Northwest
Chuck Stoffer
UHU Technologies
Chuck is a technology professional who holds a BSEE and an MBA and has 40+ years’ experience in the semiconductor test and measurement industry for commercial, medical and the aerospace and defense markets. His main areas of focus for the past 20 years have been in the RF wireless and GPS/GNSS market segments. His roles included senior management in sales and service, tactical sales, and strategic key account management.
Chuck specializes in GPS/GNSS simulation for test and characterization of all receivers and navigation systems for both military and critical infrastructure applications.
Edwin Thiedeman
US Coast Guard
Mr. Thiedeman presently serves in the Coast Guard Headquarters’ Office of C5I Capabilities (CG-761) supporting search and rescue capabilities and systems, such as the IMO GMDSS, the Cospas-Sarsat distress beacon system, and other distress alerting and communication services and systems.
A prior Coast Guard officer, his background covers shipboard and land-based communications, navigation, and command and control systems. His last duty assignment was as commanding officer at the Coast Guard Navigation Center, where he served as the deputy chair of the Civil GPS Service Interface Committee and operational commander for all electronic navigational services for the United States.