Our Team
Meet our experts in the industry:
Partners
Brian Malone
Brian Malone is the President and Managing Partner of MID-SHIP Group LLC. Raised in New York City, Brian currently resides with his wife on Long Island. During his 45-year career as a ship broker (he joined MID-SHIP in 1986), he has lived and worked in New York, Oslo, and Singapore. His focus and commitment to helping our staff and our clients succeed drove innovation, technology, and growth at MID-SHIP. In addition to his broking expertise, together with our founder initiated the start-up and managed MID-SHIP businesses in Singapore, Brazil, Turkey, China, United Arab Emirates and Korea. In his leadership role, he is responsible for the end-to-end development and management of the talented and dedicated professionals throughout MID-SHIP’s worldwide operations and the management of our global business. He has built upon our founder’s vision of training and qualification in ship broking as a profession and continues our founding philosophy of providing our clients with service based on hard work, integrity, and professionalism. Brian is a father of six and a founding member of the Ascent Funding Organization and The Ascent School for Individuals with Autism.
Steven Rzehak
Steve Rzehak has worked with the MID-SHIP Group of companies since 1989 and has been a General Partner since 2003. He managed MID-SHIP’s JV office in Singapore, United Chartering Brokers, from 1991-1995. Commodity concentrations over the course of his career include biomass, soda ash, industrial minerals, petcoke, cementitious products (even though he does not think “cementitious” is a real word) fertilizers, coal and agri products among others. Steve has a BA in Asian Studies from Georgetown University, an MA in International Trade from the National Political University in Taiwan and received his MBA from New York University.
Aysan Ay
Aysan Ay was born in 1966 in Turkey. He worked for Zihni Shipping Eregli in a branch office from 1984 to 1989. He became the youngest agency manager in Turkey at the age of 18. From 1989 to 1992, Aysan worked for Borachart Istanbul as agency manager. He also worked as agency manager at Balmar Shipping in Istanbul from 1992 to 1993. Aysan joined MID-SHIP New York as a ship broker in 1993. In 2004, Aysan returned to Turkey to open MID-SHIP’s Istanbul office and was subsequently promoted to Executive Vice President and became a Partner in MID-SHIP Group.
Douglas Aprahamian
Doug Aprahamian joined the company in 2003 and became a Partner in 2012. He is currently an Executive Vice President of the MID-SHIP Group and the Head of Worldwide Operations. Prior to joining MID-SHIP, Doug spent 10 years with a commodity trader where he worked in all areas of international trade and developed his expertise in chartering, post-fixture operations and international banking including extensive work with letters of credit. Doug graduated from Babson College in 1991 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance, Investments and Economics.
Sean Banker
Sean Banker is a 25-year veteran and a partner of the MID-SHIP Group and President of MID-SHIP Brazil. Originally from New York, Sean is currently residing and working for the past 10 years in the Belo Horizonte, Brazil office specializing in connecting our clients in the maritime industry to grow their business for a positive impact for themselves and the global community. Sean is a 1996 graduate of Maritime College State University of New York and holds many accreditations from A.S.B.A. in maritime law and chartering.
Jeremy Flores
Jeremy Flores has been in the shipping industry for 27 years and spent the earlier part of his career with a cement company in the shipping department and then working for a European ship owner/operator. Jeremy has worked with the MID-SHIP group for over 23 years and is a partner and director of Latin America based out of the group’s Miami office. Originally from Mexico, Jeremy has spent several years abroad and has used his language, experience, and relationships to help grow the MID-SHIP brand in the global shipping community. Jeremy is a 1997 graduate of Boston University where he studied international relations and business.
Robb Heath
Robb Heath is a 14-year veteran and partner of the MID-SHIP Group, based in New York at the headquarters in Port Washington. Robb’s focus is keeping our clients’ interests a top priority by ensuring successful voyages through proper execution and professionalism. This is achieved by being detail-oriented and being able to support clients in a competitive global market. Previously, Robb worked in logistics for OneSteel Recycling. Robb is a 2008 graduate of Stony Brook University in NY with a BA in Finance.
Murat Kahya
Murat Kahya joined the MID-SHIP Istanbul office in 2005 as a ship broker. Murat was promoted to Chartering Manager in 2011 and was later promoted to Vice President. In recognition of his commercial success and 18+ years of commitment to the company, Murat became a Partner in MID-SHIP Group in 2023.
Management Team
Craig Ahrens
As COO & CIO, Craig Ahrens ensures MID-SHIP’s critical operations and business systems are running at maximum efficiency. Craig climbed MID-SHIP’s ranks over the past 20+ years with an unwavering work ethic and drive to positively impact all areas of the business. His passion for innovation through technology services has created valuable commercial solutions for multiple Fortune 500 clients. Craig graduated from Penn State University in 2000.
Joao Tonucci
Joao Tonucci is a 16-year veteran and Vice-President of MID-SHIP Brazil, overseeing our Chartering department in Belo Horizonte. Joao has had great success in expanding and diversifying our business in South America, achieved with his relationship building skills and dedication to clients. Joao has vast experience and knowledge of the local market and at the same time he has developed strong partnerships with players across the globe. Joao graduated in Foreign Trade and post-graduated in Business Management and has solid operational background with 5 years post-fixture experience.
Kasper Simonsen
As Vice President and General Manager of MID-SHIP Australia, Kasper Simonsen has 23 years of shipping experience in various chartering roles in dry bulk and chemical tankers. He has been with MID-SHIP for 13 years, including four years as General Manager of MID-SHIP Dubai. Kasper is a graduate from the Danish Maritime Shipping Trainee program, which includes study of Maritime Law, Operations, Accounting, and Chartering training rotation in formalized liquid tanker Owners training program. He is also a graduate of Svendborg (Denmark) Business College with specialization in Sales and Marketing, International Economics, Commercial Law. Kasper manages regional operations and business development for MID-SHIP, along with marine and logistics consulting services provided to new and existing clients either for tender requirements or informal studies. He speaks both English and Danish.
Omar El Beialy
Omar El Beialy born in Abu Dhabi, UAE is the General Manager in our Dubai Office. He joined the company in 2010 and helped establish MID-SHIP as one of the leading broker companies in the region. Omar currently oversees the management and business strategy of MID-SHIP Dubai expanding portfolio in Dubai and helping our clients to grow and discover new markets. After being the consultant of several Royal Family members and private offices for the Family, working across various business units and sectors. Omar earned in 2009 a bachelor's degree in science in information technology from Halifax University in London, UK. Along with certificates from A.S.B.A in maritime law and chartering in 2010.
Paolo Bolla
Paolo Bolla Pittaluga, born in Genoa, Italy where he obtained a law degree class of 1996, began his shipping career with a prominent Italian Maritime Insurance broker. He spent three years with MSC (NYC and Baltimore offices) and then three years in Genoa on the Panamax and Cape chartering desk of Coeclerici, one of the largest ship owners. Love brought him back to New York in 2004 when he joined MID-SHIP as a broker. He has managed MID-SHIP Genoa since 2014 applying his innate negotiation and relationship skills combined with almost 25 years of experience in the shipping industry to identify and maximize opportunities for his clients.
Patrick Krebs
Patrick Krebs has been a member of the MID-SHIP team in the Port Washington office for 36 years. Prior to joining MID-SHIP, Pat worked with the New York-based shipping company T.J. Stevenson for eight years in their liner and chartering departments. Since joining MID-SHIP, he has worked with a wide range of exclusive clients, including trading companies and industrial concerns. Pat graduated from SUNY Cortland in 1977 and from SUNY Albany in 1979 with a master’s degree in public administration.
Thomas Tsimourtos
Thomas Tsimourtos is a Chartering Manager for MID-SHIP Group LLC (Dubai Branch). He joined the MID-SHIP Group LLC in 2014. Thomas started his career as an intern with Seatrade Inc., Athens whilst still studying at the Panteion University of Social Sciences in Athens. In 2006, Thomas joined Antarctic Chartering in Belgium, an inhouse chartering outfit of the Conti-GMT Group of Hong Kong. In 2009, he moved back to Greece where he worked at Shiptrade Services SA until 2014 when he moved to Dubai. In his career, Thomas has worked closely with shipowners and cargo interests as well. At MID-SHIP, he is mainly focused on the cement, petrochemical byproducts, and fertilizer industry. Managing local and international clients, always trying to provide tailor made solutions for their transportation needs and add value through the experience Thomas has gained through his 20 years of experience in shipping.
Vasanth Venkatachalam
Vasanth Venkatachalam has an MBA (Operations) from University of Wales and a BE (Mechanical) from Regional Engineering College, Trichy, India. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers, London. Vasanth has 28 years of multi-faceted experience in dry cargo shipping business, with sailing experience on board a Handymax bulker and a Panamax tanker. He has looked after the entire technical operation of Handymax vessels and efficiently managed both technical and commercial operations including dry-dock of a geared Panamax. Vasanth successfully executed multiple Contracts of Affreightment (CoA) all over the world, fixed and operated tonnages for third party cargoes and executed and arbitraged two Forward Freight Agreements. He manages post fixture operations of 15+ biomass Contracts of Affreightment. Vasanth has two decades of experience in operating Supramax and Ultramax vessels under time charter operations.
Zeeshan Agha
Zeeshan Agha is the Commercial Director of MID-SHIP Dubai. Working closely with our Middle East and Indian ocean clients for over 11 years; he has developed strong interpersonal client relationships. Zeeshan has a business major postgraduate in marketing and sales with a strong focus on client favored representation, addressing their diverse logistics and transportation needs. He is driven by a problem-solving approach and likes to explore possibilities. Over the years he has successfully expanded our regional footprint into various commodities for dry bulk and breakbulk, across vessel size segments.