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Our Team

Our leadership team is a combination of professionals with deep experience in the industry as well as of the business. Each one of us has built a formidable network of people across departments of the industry. This enables us to be agile in our response to clients’ needs. We are also focused on making Nautilus a place where our people can grow and contribute to the business, the clients, and the industry.

Captain Ajay Handa

Executive Director

With a career spanning 41 years, he’s played an active role in the Marine industry. Started as a Mariner in 1976, a career that spanned 12 years. He then moved into an active shore role in various companies starting from JM BAXI & Indsotra. He went on to lead companies in the shipping and logistics business including Rostra Overseas, Sotra, Essar Shipping, Tradex Group and Finally Martrade. Capt. Handa currently spends time mentoring his two passions – Cleaning lakes through The Pavitra Foundation and Ship Management through Nautilus Shipping.

Anil Cariappa​

Executive Director

Anil has an extensive sea going experience as a Marine Engineer and he started his shore career in 1994 and elevated to MD of ITM shipping (Wilhelmsen, Norway), now part of V Group. He has recently retired from that position and plays an advisory role with Nautilus.

Manikandan

CEO & Managing Director

Mani has had extensive sea going experience as a Marine Engineer. Was with V Ships between 2007 & 2020. He headed V Ships India as MD before taking over as CEO in Nautilus

Narayan Rajan

Co-Founder & Managing Director

A passionate and aggressive first-generation entrepreneur, Narayan Rajan, co-founded Nautilus Shipping in 2005.  During his 15+ years stint as the CEO and CO-Founder of Nautilus, Narayan has been the driving force behind the company’s commercial operation. A keen observer of business and technology trends, Narayan constantly looks at ways to customize existing offerings and new possibilities. Narayan holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Electronics from St. Joseph’s Arts and Science College, Bangalore.

Ajay Krishnamani

Co-Founder & Managing Director

Ajay is the founder Director and CEO of Nautilus Shipping. He has sailed in various capacities in the merchant navy fleet and worked with reputed organizations ashore. He has over 15 years of experience in the field of manning and management. He also is an internal auditor certified by Lloyd’s. He has over the years established a wide network in the shipping industry is known for his straight forward, ethical and principled approach.

K.Viswananth Iyer

VP – Technical

 K.V Iyer comes with 40 years of experience in Merchant Navy vessels of which 21 years are in the rank of Chief Engineer. He possesses expertise and has vast knowledge of Crude/Product Oil tankers, Liquid Petroleum Gas Carriers, Bulk Carriers, Refrigerated Cargo ships, Container ships and General Cargo ships of various tonnages. Over the course of his long-standing career, K.V Iyer has been involved in all kinds of ship machinery repairs including steel renewal.

Capt. Ajay Gangaadharan​

Head Training​

Master Mariner served in command on tier 1 tankers. Certified trainer, vetting inspector and lead Auditor. Comes with over 15 years of shore experience and has setup the entire training division at Nautilus Shipping.

Capt. Eshwar Visweswaran

Head Chartering

Master Mariner with a double masters in logistics & law, prior to joining Nautilus Capt Eshwar was the head oil & gas for Karaikal Ports. He has had over 20 years of experience in various aspects of shipping.

Deepak

Commercial Head

Deepak has over 20 years of long experience as commercial head with leading shipping lines, also as an Independent Shipbroker from Singapore / Malaysia and Dubai. He had been a consultant for NVOOC container liner operations. His strengths include providing shipping service(Liner) and find solutions to bridge the gap between shipper and consignee. He is keen on developing the commercial strengths of Nautilus to the next level.

Nagendra Kumar

Superintendent / DPA

1994 batch DMET – A marine engineer and Entrepreneur with 9 years of professional experience in the maritime industry 10 years of Experience as an Entrepreneur with an Auto component manufacturing sector. 2 Years of Experience as a Tech Superintendent in ship Maintenance/operation/management. Nagendra runs the day to day management of the tanker fleet. He also ensures that the performance of the vessels are optimum whilst ensuring its compliance.

Saptarshi Basu

Superintendent / DPA

A professional engineer (IEI), Manager Automation and Control OERC Academy, Ex-Technical Superintendent, Ex-Senior manager HSQE, GL Trainer, General secretary MRDS, MIE, FIMarE, MIMarEST, Chartered Engineer(IEI), Electronic Specialist, MBA Shipping and Logistics, PGDNA Mumbai university. He has been teaching gas tanker safety course advance level and is very familiar for the gas operation, reliquification plants, gas compressor cascade refrigeration system, was also trained by Mitsui for the nakilat project. Saptarishi runs all compliance, safety and day to day management of vessels whilst also ensuring enabling training of all Nautilus Crew.

Pranav Chandok

Technical Consultant

He is an MEO Class I license holder. He is a Mechanical Engineer from Venkateshwara College. He has been at Sea over 15 years. At present, he is involved in Technical management. He has carried out surveys and pre-purchase inspections for various clients.

Mahesh Mehndiratta

Technical Superintendent

Mahesh is a Chief Engineer with a vast amount of experience on product /chemical Tankers, Bulk carriers and offshore vessels. He has worked as Superintendent with V Ships and Coeclarichi, Italy. He has worked as onboard trainer with M/s Ocean Sparkle private limited. He is the appointed trainer to carryout STCW courses at NUSI Maritime Academy. He is associated with Institute of Marine Engineers (India), Goa Branch for Class II MOT preparatory courses. Mahesh oversees the day to day management of all the vessels under our management, which include routine and planned maintenance, troubleshooting, dry-dock preparation, procurement and audits.

Vinod Kumar V R

Manager-HR/Admin

He heads Administration, Human Resources and Operations at Nautilus. Has over 9 years of experience in the field of Administration and HR. He accomplishes staff results by communicating job expectations. Plans, monitors, and appraises job results. Coaching, counseling, and disciplining employees; initiating, coordinating and enforcing systems, policies, and procedures. Coordinate with all department heads to ensure that the company’s objectives are met.