Panama's Arsenio Dominguez Velasco confirmed as next IMO Secretary-General

The IMO assembly approved the decision of the IMO council to appoint Mr Velasco as its next Secretary-General at its 129th session.   
Mr Dominguez Velasco will take up the office of Secretary-General on 1 January 2024 for an initial term of four years, ending on 31 December 2027, becoming IMO’s 10th elected Secretary-General, replacing outgoing Secretary-General Kitack Lim. 

Mr Lim congratulated his successor saying “I am confident that the membership as a whole has made a wise decision, and that Mr Dominguez Velasco will ably lead the Secretariat in promoting the mandate of the organisation and in the delivery of its objectives.”

Mr Lim said he would work with Mr Dominguez Velasco to ensure an orderly and successful hand-over and handed over a comprehensive briefing paper to assist in the preparation for the new role. 

Addressing the assembly, Mr Dominguez Velasco said "You have my full commitment to build on the great work that has been done by my predecessors, taking what is already a significant and influential organisation, to be an institution that will thrive in delivering its full agenda, from safety to decarbonisation, from digitalisation to the human element; an International Maritime organisation that not only looks towards the future, but does more in embracing change, diversity, inclusion and transparency; one that is dedicated to its people, from all the very professional staff that form the IMO Secretariat, to our seafarers worldwide and perhaps most importantly, a dedication to the younger generations, the ones we are obliged to hand over to, to hand over a planet that is a better place to live in."

Mr Dominguez Velasco is currently Director of IMO’s Marine Environment Division, a post he has held since January 2022. 
His maritime career began in 1996 as a port engineer at Armadores del Caribe in Panama, subsequently becoming a Drydock Assistant Manager at Braswell Shipyard in the Central American nation.  

In 1998 he moved to London to join the Panama Maritime Authority as Head of the Technical and Documentation Regional Office for Europe and North of Africa. And since then has represented Panama in a variety of roles at the organisation, culminating in his appointment as Panama’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to IMO between 2014 and 2017. 
That year he joined the IMO Secretariat as Chief of Staff to Kitack Lim. In 2020 he was appointed as Director of the organisation’s administrative division.

During this time, he chaired IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC), the Maritime Security – Piracy and Armed Robbery Working Group and in 2015, the Technical Committee of the 25th session of the IMO assembly.