Patrick Donner

Professor, Department of Maritime Transport and Commerce at Frederick University

Trainer

Patrick Donner qualified for the bar in Finland in 1977 and served on the bench as deputy judge and acting chief judge of the Court of Mariehamn for several years in the late 1970’s. Professor Donner served the Sally Shipping group for 12 years as chief legal counsel, company secretary and deputy managing director with responsibility for the legal affairs of the group (oil tankers, ferry operations in Scandinavia and the United Kingdom and cruise operations in the Caribbean). After the Sally Group he was managing director for Delfin Cruises Ltd. in Finland, operating cruises in the Baltic, after which he ran his own law and management consultancy firm for a few years. During all this time (and until 2020) he taught maritime law (part-time) at the Maritime Academy of Aaland. He also held numerous non-executive positions on boards of directors of shipping and insurance companies. From January 1995 to January 2017 Professor Donner was at the World Maritime University in Malmo, Sweden as Associate Professor in Shipping Management teaching post-graduate students from more than 150 countries in commercial aspects of shipping, particularly maritime and commercial law. For over a decade he served as the WMU’s Associate Academic Dean and was also Programme Director for the Postgraduate Diploma in Marine Insurance course offered by distance learning. WMU awarded him the title of Honorary Professor in 2018. Professor Donner has been teaching in the Department of Maritime Transport and Commerce of Frederick University since 2014.