Koji Sekimizu of Japan has been elected as the Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), effective January 1, 2012, for an initial term of four years.
The vote took place during the 106th session of the IMO Council, which is meeting from June 27 to July 1. The decision of the Council will be submitted to the IMO Assembly, which meets for its 27th session from November 21-30, 2011, for approval.
Sekimizu, 58, is currently Director of IMO’s Maritime Safety Division. He studied marine engineering and naval architecture and joined the Ministry of Transport of Japan in 1977, working as a ship inspector and moving on to senior positions in both maritime safety and environment related positions within the Ministry. He began attending IMO meetings as part of the Japanese delegation in 1980 and joined the IMO Secretariat in 1989 as Technical Officer, Sub-Division for Technology, Maritime Safety Division, becoming Head, Technology Section in 1992, then moving on to become Senior Deputy Director, Marine Environment Division in 1997 and Director of that Division in 2000, before moving to his current position in 2004.