Club News & Events

Last Thursday, Jonathan Lux (award winning mediator, arbitrator, barrister and solicitor, ex partner of Ince & Co., awarded Global Shipping & Maritime Lawyer in several editions, featured in Lloyd's List’s Top Ten Legal Personalities, currently founder member of Lux Mediation) who gave a very informative speech on mediation to all attendees.

After Mr Lux's brilliant speech, enriched by a good interaction with the attending members, the evening continued with a pleasant standing dinner, masterfully prepared and served by Villa Principe Leopoldo team; the evening went on till late as it seems to be a tradition of our Propeller.

Don’t miss our next event: the unmissable PCL Summer Cocktail Party, that will take place on 20th July 2023, again in the stunning location of Villa Principe Leopoldo, with its breathtaking view.

Stay tuned …

(Pictured: Paola Bazzana, Gianluca Corradi, Giovanni Marchelli, Michel'Angelo Piccinini, Riccardo Talenti, Diego Bardocci, Marco Graziotto and Jonathan Lux)

Great event on 11 May last for our Propeller Club Lugano! With the participation of Andrea Censi, member of the Parliament of Canton Ticino, we held an interesting roundtable that made it possible to clarify many aspects of the always increasing attractiveness of the Canton for maritime operators. 

The attendants exchanged ideas and figured out initiatives intended to improve the relationship between the territory and the local shipping and trading interests. Indeed, our Propeller intends to promote other future opportunities for the parties to further interact.

What’s next? On 15th June we will have the honor to have with us Mr Jonathan Lux who will be entertaining us on alternative dispute resolution methods and in particular on mediation and what it has to offer to the parties in dispute. 

Follow us on our social networks to know more!

On 13 April last, the General Meeting of the Propeller Club Lugano was held at the wonderful location of the Grand Hotel Villa Castagnola, where members joined up to take the relevant statutory decisions and enjoyed an opportunity to catch up after sometime. 

After reviewing the many activities that took place in 2022, members exchanged in relation to the club's events planned for the remaining part of 2023. The forthcoming opportunities to get together were fixed on the 11 May, 15 June, 20 July, 28 September, 16 November. Members and Guests are invited to save the dates and take part to the forthcoming activities.

The evening went on with a pleasing social time with excellent food and drinks provided by Villa Castagnola catering.

The Russia  - Ukraine conflict is ongoing, a short term resolution of the conflict does not seem to be on the cards. Wide ranging sanctions are continued to be imposed by the U.S., EU and UK on Russia. The primary response for those market participants who have operations, or contracts, with an Ukrainian and/or Russian nexus has been to comply with the sanctions. But the players need to work out what impact the conflict and sanctions as well as the wider disruption caused by them have on their contractual rights and obligations.

On Thursday 29 September, date of our first autumn event, we had the honor to have David Pitlarge (English solicitor and partner at HILL DICKINSON) exploring with us the major issues in relation to frustration, force majeure and war clauses in English law contracts also in connection to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

We hosted the Event at Collina D'Oro Resort, a new venue for us; as often happened at our Propeller's Events, the social session went on for sometime and last guests left the gathering well beyond midnight.

Special thanks go to Alberto Ravano and BulkTrade who sponsored the Event.

(Pictured above Taddeo Peirano, John May, Riccardo Talenti and Giandomenico Dormio)

Last Thursday, the Propeller Club Lugano's Summer Cocktail Party was held at the beautiful location of Villa Principe Leopoldo. 

The night was a good opportunity for members and guests to catch up; unfortunately few members could not join as they were enjoying their deserved summer breaks elsewhere and few others invited guests had to cancel for reasons somehow related to the pandemic reviviscence; notwithstanding this the exclusive party was successful and went well over midnight.1 a.m. 

Don't miss the next PCL event in September, which will have, as always, a pleasant social time, but will also be preceded by a speech on current shipping topics. Stay tuned. 

(Pictured above a very late party moment with members and guests unwilling to leave the venue)

Dear Members:

The location has been finally confirmed: our party will be celebrated at Villa Principe Leopoldo that is now requiring us to provide realistic attendance numbers. It is now time to confirm your presence at our Summer Cocktail Party !

You can confirm your presence  by email to info@propellerclublugano.ch, or by clicking the following link:

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSey8nPR2soHSsk0bbWSfd0I1tf8UwCRWuPxD_lq9pXb7fE4Mg/viewform?usp=sf_link 

VENUE

The Gazebo Bar @

Villa Principe Leopoldo

Via Montalbano 5

6900 Lugano, Switzerland

From 7.30 p.m.

EVENT'S TICKETS

Members' Ticket : 100 CHF

Guests' Ticket : 110 CHF

We are grateful to LCTA giving us the opportunity to play our part as institutional partner of the 2022 Global Commodities Conference (GCC) held at Lugano LAC on the 23-24 June.

As community focusing on shipping and trading, we had our President moderating the Shipping Panel formed by Andrea Organista (our member), Gemma Carbone and Harris Antoniou who were given fifty minutes to respond to a tricky question: "Shipping and  Logistic: are we still sailing stormy waters?".  The panelists gave perspectives on dry bulk market, decarbonization and shipping finance.

We look forward to keep developing our relationship with LCTA and wish to further contribute to the forthcoming editions of the GCC.

The resipiscence of Covid forced us to cancel our 3rd February event and left the door open to some doubts as to whether our 2022 events' calendar (see the below post of the 18 Nov 21) was to remain stable and reliable.

But we never give up, kept our focus and worked hard on the event of the 7th of April. 

Robert Dorey, chairman of ASTAARA Group, gave a very interesting presentation on Cyber Risk starting from the current deployment of cyber attacks in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and then landing on the possible solutions offered by the insurance market to protect businesses in their daily operation. Robert has made available his presentation slides for those interested.

If you want a copy please write to us at: info@propellerclublugano.ch. 

The event was hosted for the first time at the Swiss Diamond Hotel in Morcote who provided members and guests with delicious finger food and beverages. As it happened in several other occasions, the attending crowd (about 25) stayed socializing beyond midnight, a rewarding KPI of our club's events success.

Stay tuned for more ... the Summer Cocktail Party is already under construction.

After a long period of forced inactivity due to the health emergency, the Propeller Club of Lugano is back in business for its Members and Guests.

The new series of events that will characterize the activity of the Club in the next months kicked off on the 18.11.2021, with the second General Members Meeting, followed by a very interesting lecture held by Trifon Tsentides from Ifchor, who together with Nicolas Girod from ClearBlue Markets, gave an overview of the current developments in Shipping Decarbonisation.

 Trifon brilliantly reported the real and current need for meaningful and decisive cooperation at all levels in order for Shipping to achieve its goals of reducing carbon emissions and together with Nicolas Girod,  explained what is involved in implementing projects suitable to the scope and the related economic implications. 

The last part of the event was left to members and guests to socialize in the warm and elegant atmosphere offered by the Salone del Camino at Grand Hotel Villa Castagnola, venue chosen for the event.

Stay tuned for updates on upcoming events.

This General Meeting was due from sometime: initially fixed for December 2019 was then postponed to April 2020; the number of restrictions imposed by the authorities in connection with Covid 19, prevented us to meet in 2020 and for most of 2021. Finally we manage to reconnect on the 18th November 2021.

The General Meeting endorsed all the activities carried out by the Board that run the Club up to the GM date and that will do up to the 31st December 2021. 

Paola Cuzzilla, Marco Passalia and Edoardo Tassinari resigned as members of the Board; the will continue to support our Chapter as founding members. 

Leonardo Bussi candidated to join the Board as from the 1st January 2022. The GM with unanimous consent voted the Board that will run the association for the incoming 2022 and 2023, as follows:

Michel'Angelo Piccinini (President)

Giovanni Marchelli

Paola Bazzana

Giandomenico Dormio

Gabriella Reccia

Thomas Schwenke

Leonardo Bussi.

Finally, the dates for the events to be held in 2022 has been anticipated as follows:

Thu 03 Feb Speech + Social Drinks from 7.00 p.m.

Thu 07 Apr Speech + Social Drinks from 7.00 p.m.

Thu 09 Jun Summer Cocktail Party from 7.30 p.m.

Thu 08 Sep Speech + Social Drinks from 7.00 p.m.

Thu 06 Oct Speech + Social Drinks from 7.00 p.m.

Thu 24 Nov Annual GM | PreXmas Rec. from 6.00 p.m

Stay tuned for updates on upcoming events and make a note on you diaries !

Great privilege to make the acquaintance and meeting with Philippe de Gauw  and Michel Derrouazi (respectively, the International Second Vice President and the Western European Region – Regional Vice President), visiting our Propeller Club Lugano and handing us the Propeller charter, banner and pins.

Thank you again Philippe and Michel and very sorry that – due to current crisis -you will not make it to join us in March for our first 2020 event.

(Pictured: Philippe, Michel’Angelo, Michel).

The 12 December we had our first Propeller Club Lugano Xmas Dinner Party. The dinner for the first time was seated (as opposed to standing) and catered by Artè Restaurant; good quality wine was provided by the Club cantine.

About 20 people (members and guests) attended from Lugano, Genova, Zug and St. Petersburg.

Drinks kicked off at 19.30 and the evening closed at about 1 a.m.

It was important for the Club to celebrate its first Xmas Dinner. This event is – together with the Summer Cocktail Party – one of the two purely social events organized this year and to be repeated in the years to come.

We want these two parties to become our traditional summer and end-of-the-year gatherings, designed to have fun and promote the Club in either the local and international community.

We must thank LCTA to give us the opportunity to play our part as institutional partner of the 2019 Global Commodities Conference (GCC) held at Lugano LAC on the 13-14 November.

As community focusing on shipping and trading, we had our President moderating the Shipping Panel Debate. IMO 2020 and China vs. U.S. Trade War were the main topics discussed. There was not much time available to discuss issues of such complexity but the good quality of the attending panelists helped to work out a very interesting session.

We look forward to keep developing our relationship with LCTA and wish to further contribute to the forthcoming editions of the GCC.

Where are we ?

Yesterday we were at Villa Castagnola and we had really good time.

35 people attended the presentation given by Eleni Nassopoulou on Shipping Finance. The rather technical cut given to the presentation, together with the ability of the speaker to interact with the attending public, made of this event our biggest success so far.

Special thanks go to the speaker that travelled on purpose from Monaco to see us, but also to all non resident members and guest that managed to join us from London, Milan, and Zug. Very nice to have with us some friends of the Propeller Club Monaco, that helped us from the very beginning to form the Lugano Chapter and endorsed our initiative with the U.S. headquarter.

Social drinks were rather well arranged by the very efficient personnel of Villa Castagnola, a location that we are planning to use again in the future.

Next is Christmas Party … stay tuned.

(Pictured: Edoardo Tassinari and Federico Farolfi Morelli)

On the 18 July 2019 we hosted our first Propeller Summer Cocktail Party. The event was hosted at the outside terrace garden of the Hotel Splendide Royal. Although the weather did not help much to emphasize the beauty and the colors of the lake during the summer period, we enjoyed social time with 25 between members and guests. Few members travelled from Italy and Belgium and I hope that they enjoyed the evening. Many attending guests showed interest in our new Club and we sincerely hope to welcome them in the near future as new members. Other guest joined us from Zurich, most of them members of the Zurich Shipping Network, an association we look forward to establish a productive cooperation in the near future.

Social time clicked well and the party went on till very late. 

Special thanks go to SSY Simpson Spence Young (Zug and Geneva branches) and Piccinini & Partners for sponsoring the event.

Genoa and Lugano have a well established relationship since many years; this is why we have arranged a Propeller Lunch over the Genoa Shipping Week. This was held in Portofino on the 28 June 2019 at the local establishment of the eldest yacht club in Europe: the Yacht Club Italiano (founded 1878).

It was very warm … but worth the effort. This was our first happening outside the Swiss border; at the Portofino clubhouse of the YCI (Yacht Club Italiano) our members entertained – over a light lunch – few guests visiting Genoa for the Shipping week. 16 people in total attended; feedbacks received do encourage the repetition of the event.

On the 8th May we presented our new website propellerclublugano.ch and delivered the Propeller certificates to founders and new members; this was also the opportunity to host our first event.

We thank our member, Vittorio Cornaro, for entertaining members and guests illustrating the services made available by CORNER BANCA to the shipping and trading communities operating locally and internationally.

Social drinking after the presentation went on till late at the Metamorphosis Anfitheatre; 35 people attended, some of them travelling on purpose from Genoa, Zug, Antwerp and London.

On the 28 February 2019, our Propeller president attended the Propeller Club Monaco speech and dinner event on Ship Finance.

This was an opportunity for us to thank our Monaco friends for supporting the admission to the big network of the Propeller Clubs of the U.S.

This evening Coeclerici kindly hosted the first Board Meeting (BM). All Board members attended. Many thanks again to Giandomenico and Thomas who travelled on purpose respectively from Zug and Hamburg.

After ratification in charge of the current president, vice-president and secretary, the Board officially opened the membership campaign; applicants supported by two existing members can now submit their application to join the Propeller Club Lugano.

Membership fees will become due on the 1st January and shall be settled by the 31 March 19 of the relevant association year, upon receipt of a Non-Tax Invoice by the Club.

The Board has further resolved to organize 7 clubs events between March 19 and the end of the current year.

This evening the Propeller Club Lugano had its first General Meeting that was chaired by the current president. 21 members (out of 27) were attending, including three travelling on purpose from London, Hamburg and Zug.

The president made official the admission of the association to the International Propeller Clubs of the U.S. that formally communicated its endorsement on the past 19 November 2018. The association is now up and running under the name of “Propeller Club – Port of Lugano”.

In accordance to the determinations taken upon the set-up of the association, the existing board members presented the list of candidates willing to enter the board to support the Propeller Club Lugano. The 6 candidates have been elected with unanimous consent and have now joined the board.

The General Meeting was closed at 8.00 p.m. and a picture was taken to eternalize the momentum. Members and few selected guests then joined the Havana Deck Bar for the drinks and social session scheduled to last at 10.00 p.m. but reaching the remarkable hour of 1.00 a.m. (i.e.: when members have been gently invited to leave the Bar).