A passionate maritime advocate, Ms Wood joins from Peel Ports where she spent eight years in the Port of Liverpool owner’s marketing function, the last two years  in a senior marketing role. Tony McDonough reports

Mersey Maritime has added an experienced marketing professional and passionate sector advocate as its new commercial manager.

Ruth Wood, formerly Ruth Hodgson, joins from Peel Ports where she spent eight years in the Port of Liverpool owner’s marketing function, the last two years  in a senior marketing role. She has seen huge change in maritime during that period – much of it for the better.

Significant change

“When I joined Peel it was still the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company and it was a traditional and reactive organisation,” she said.

“That has changed significantly over the past few years and Peel Ports is now an innovative and progressive business that has become an expert in articulating its plans and vision.”

“I think Mersey Maritime and the wider maritime sector in the Liverpool city region have been on the same journey. The maritime sector is so important to  to Merseyside – worth almost £4bn annually, representing 13% of the region’s GDP.

“Other industrial sectors have been better at communicating their role in the past, but now we in maritime are doing the same. I love maritime – it is diverse and exciting – and I want to play my part in helping support the growth of the sector within the region and beyond, encouraging new talent to join the industry and help improve awareness of the role maritime plays to the economy. 

Multi-faceted role

Ruth is returning to work following the birth of her baby, Lyla, who was born eight months ago. It was the second daughter for her and husband Tom – elder daughter Emilia is now aged four.

Her role at Mersey Maritime will be multi-faceted, encompassing marketing and commercial activity, membership growth and engagement and deputising for chief executive, Chris Shirling-Rooke, in his absence.

“Our members are the most important part of what we do and my role will be to both bring in new members and communicate to our existing members how much we can benefit their organisations,” explained Ruth.

“Mersey Maritime used to be dependent on EU funding. Now it has transformed itself into a confident, self-sufficient and growing organisation. We are taking our members with us on that journey and offering our support to help them grow, too.”

Real coup

Welcoming Ruth to Mersey Maritime, Chris Shirling-Rooke added: “Bringing Ruth on board represents a real coup for us. She has a huge knowledge of the maritime sector and possess the skills and dynamism to help drive the sector in the City Region forward.  

“Myself the board and the entire team here at Mersey Maritime are really looking forward to working with her as we embark on the next stage of our journey.”