I am leveraging both my seagoing and my shoreside IT and communications expertise to help customers reap the benefits from an industry that is seeing some remarkable changes occur in a very short span of time.Having worked closely with both operations and technical managers for over twenty years, I have a clear understanding of the realistic and practical needs for satellite services and a thorough understanding of the impact communications has both on ships' crews and on the ability of shoreside departments to safely, efficiently, and economically manage a fleet of vessels. I graduated from the US Merchant Marine Academy with dual deck and engine licenses and sailed for several years on each of them. I went back to school for my masters in Computer Information Systems and subsequently spent twenty years managing the IT and communications department for a medium sized shipping company. I have first-hand experience upgrading vessels from Inmarsat-B and Fleet-77 to Fleet Broadband, performing the satellite and shipboard LAN/workstation installations myself, and I have completed hands-on technical training courses for VSAT. I understand full well the benefits and the avoidable pitfalls when choosing between available technologies, and the impact they can have on the corporate business model.An advantage of working with Mackay is that we are not committed to any one vendor but are a premier partner with almost all of them. As a result of our strong commitment to training and our ongoing tracking and analysis of service issues, we are able to give you an honest evaluation of the attributes of every product we sell and can offer superior advice on the industry's best practices for implementing them.