IRI moves into its second half-century

JANUARY 1, 2000 marked a significant milestone in the history of International Registries, Inc (IRI). After fifty years of administering the Liberian programme under a franchise arrangement with the Liberian government, IRI turned over its responsibility for the register to the government's designated agent.

Under the stewardship of IRI and its corporate predecessors, the Liberian register had grown to be the second largest in the world. Since 1990, IRI has also run the Marshall Islands ship register, which now figures in the top ten in the world, with a flourishing international and corporate programme. IRI has now in fact turned its full attention to the Marshall Islands programmes as the successor to the work successfully completed in Liberia. The Marshall Islands register is the direct continuation of programmes in place and benefits from the long-term experience and recognised expertise of IRI's staff in privatised management of national vessel registers.

In December last year, Clay Maitland, one of IRI's principals and managing partners, announced that William Gallagher and Melissa Hurst, both of IRI, had recently been promoted - Gallagher to the position of president and chief operating officer, and Hurst to general counsel, the position previously held by Gallagher.

In addition to their responsibilities in the legal field, both have been active in the company's operations - Gallagher with responsibility for the Hong Kong office, and Hurst for IRI's operations in Greece. Gallagher anticipates that increased attention will be devoted to developing business in these locations as well as in other key shipping locations around the world.

IRI has a long-established network of offices in major shipping centres, including New York, Hong Kong, Piraeus, London, Zurich, Rotterdam and Tokyo. Its main office is in Reston, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, DC. IRI plans to develop the capacity of its offices so that the full range of services will be available to its shipowner and corporate customers through these strategically placed centres. Maritime services include vessel inspection and registration, recording of mortgages and other security documentation, licensing of officers and issuing of seamen's identification books and radio licensing.

Corporate services include formation of corporations, limited liability companies, trusts and partnerships under Marshall Islands law and related services. IRI plans an initial expansion of its office network by opening a new office in Dubai in the first part of this year.

IRI employs a well co-ordinated team of 140 qualified and experienced personnel with qualifications as, for example, master mariners, US Coast Guard officers, maritime technical experts, systems experts and leading maritime and corporate lawyers.

IRI's main office was the first open register maritime administrator to be ISO- certified in 1995. The IRI UK Maritime Operations Department was ISO-certified in June 1997.

The Republic of the Marshall Islands, which provides a tax-free environment for non-resident businesses, lies nearly halfway between Indonesia and Hawaii. The country encompasses the easternmost island group in Micronesia. Named after John Marshall, a British sea captain and explorer in the 1700s, the Marshall Islands came under the trusteeship of the US through the 1947 Trusteeship Agreement between the UN and the US.

The Marshall Islands' Constitution, adopted in 1979, melds many aspects of the US Constitution into a parliamentary form of democracy. The corporate, partnership, trust and related laws of the Marshall Islands were developed on the model of the comparable laws in the states of New York and Delaware, and the maritime statutes follow basic US law regarding mortgage recording and priority. By expressly incorporating non-statutory US legal precedents into its body of law, the Marshall Islands claims to provide one of the most reliable, predictable and up-to-date legal regimes governing the formation and operation of modern business entities and corporate and maritime financing in the world.

To reaffirm its confidence in the country, IRI built - and, in March 1999, occupied - a new ultra-modern office building near Majuro, the capital of the Marshall Islands. In August last year, a special stamp was issued by the Marshall Islands to commemorate the entry into its shipping register of the newly built 280,000 dwt double-hull oil tanker Alrehab. The vessel is named after Rehab A T Bakhsh, a member of the Saudi business family, who lost his life tragically at the start of his career. It joins its sisterships, Eagle, Raven and Osprey, also under the flag of the Marshall Islands.