Coffee Chat with INSEAD | Finance for Executives

I came in thinking that the focus of the programme would be on accounting, but it was really more about how we can build value for a company.

Vinay Gupta is the Managing Director of Union Marine Management Services (UMMS), a company that provides ship management services. This service covers the spectrum from assisting owners in ship purchasing and crew hiring all the way to day-to-day operations on the high seas. 

Vinay’s story is an inspiring one. Trained as a marine engineer, Vinay spent eight-and-a-half years of his career sailing on the high seas, before joining the ship management industry in 2003. In 2012, he started his own company, UMMS, and in just 10 years grew his portfolio to 61 vessels worth over US$2 billion . To provide a sense of scale, this makes USMS the 8th largest ship management company in Singapore and the 100th largest globally.

You meet such a lovely diversity of people from so many different sectors, businesses and geographies. These are people that you simply wouldn’t meet in your day-to-day working life, and what is so striking are the degrees of difference and similarity.