Mark Slemeck

Managing Director of Kingfish Trading, Mark was educated in South Africa and England. He began his shipping career in 1982, as a specialist in the tanker trades, with involvement in oil transportation for a number of well-respected commodity trading companies.

Mark spent ten years with Cargill International in Geneva, working initially as a chartering broker and then in freight trading, focused on the refined petroleum product trades.

In 1992 Mark moved to London, to join the Marc Rich group of companies, later re-named Glencore International. Mark helped to consolidate their presence in the product carrier market, and establish them as extremely active participants in the oil freight trading markets.

At the end of the 1990s Mark saw the opportunity to develop the concept of combining shipping management and freight trading. By minimizing risk and maximising efficiency through combining cargo trading and vessel operations, he helped establish a process whereby oil companies became major participants in the tanker markets.   Kingfish Trading Limited was created to continue to expand on, and rationalise this concept.

Frank Mertens

A founder member of Kingfish, Frank is Business Development Director.

Frank graduated in 1988 from IMEDE (IMD) Lausanne, with a Masters degree in Business Administration. He began his shipping career in 1990, working on the tanker shipping desk at Cargill International in Geneva.

He progressed to become a pool manager on dry cargo freight trading, covering sizes 20 – 65K DWT in the dry bulk sector. In 1997, Frank moved to Marc Rich Investments in London, managing their chartering activities in both the dry cargo and tanker markets.

He later also worked with Noble Europe, managing their Atlantic basin business, covering their dry cargo business and creating a freight trading book.

Frank has extensive knowledge of the shipping markets, ranging from crude oil and its products to vegetable oils. He has also worked in the dry bulk market, shipping grain, coal, iron ore and minor bulk cargoes.

Deepak Laishram

Deepak is the Kingfish Trading Manager of Operations.

Deepak graduated from university of Manipur in India with honours in Physics, Mathematics and Electronics.

Deepak spent 10 years at sea on international trades serving on bulk carriers, OBO’s and tankers. He finished his time at sea as an officer on Oil tankers and OBOs in 2005.

On coming ashore Deepak finished his education taking a Masters degree in International Maritime Studies: Ship & Shipping Management at the Southampton Solent University. In 2006 Deepak joined Blue Star Investments Ltd in London as a Shipping Coordinator handling movements of grain, cement and salt. In 2007 he joined Frontline Commercial Operations, based in the V.Ships UK Ltd office in Glasgow.

Deepak was responsible for the smooth running of eight VLCC’s from pre-fixture through post-fixture operations to laytime and demurrage calculations.

Deepak brings a strong seagoing and operational dimension to Kingfish