Secretary General, International Windship Association

Gavin Allwright


Gavin Allwright is the Secretary General of the International Windship Association (IWSA). Established in 2014, this grouping of maritime wind propulsion companies and projects supported by ship owners, ship builders, class, research institutes, academia, NGO’s and seafarers is working to promote and facilitate the uptake of wind propulsion solutions in commercial shipping. Alongside his work as association secretary, he also leads the policy work stream, requiring regular attendance at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), where IWSA has consultative status, and he sits on the stakeholders advisory committee for the MTCC network there too. Other policy fora include the European Sustainable Shipping Forum, IRENA’s Coalition for Action and numerous reference groups and advisory committees focused on decarbonisation in shipping.

Gavin holds a Masters degree in Sustainable Development, specialising in small scale sustainable shipping and logistics in developing countries. He has contributed to numerous studies, projects, books and articles on alternative propulsion solutions and helped coordinate and contributed to the UN-affiliated IRENA technical brief – Renewable Energy Options in Shipping and more recently was an expert reviewer for the IPCC special report on 1.5C climate change.