Within Reach

Media Coverage

Lioyd's List - Thuesday, 8th June 2004

Got a problem? - call in Superwoman to fix it

Frazzled executives drawn to Posidonia this year have a new source of hope in terms of getting their needs attended to and problems sorted out in a professional and reliable way.

A new independent company specialising in office services and personalised help for executives has just set up shop across the road, two minutes walk from the Piraeus Port Authority Exhibition Centre.

Called 'Within Reach', the firm is truly within reach as far as the industry visitor to Posidonia is concerned and moreover appears to fill a general gap in what Piraeus provides by way of business services.

Within Reach offers everything from a fully-equipped boardroom or personal office for however little or long you might need such facilities, to simple internet connections, translation, secretarial help and all manner of personal executive help that has become the stock in trade of its founder.

The move is the initiative of Shelagh Ingledow, who has spent most of her career as a personal assistant to the chairmen and chief ex- ecutives of international companies.

This included stints with mining, pharmaceutical and other firms in the UK and Africa, before she landed a job as a programme co-ordinator and hostess on board a Greek vessel chartered by Thomson Holidays - the beginning of a near-30-year association with the Piraeus maritime (and particularly cruising) world.

Ms Ingledow spent 14 years with Sun Line, mostly as personal assistant to Sun Line's chairman Maurizio Keusseoglou - leaving before the company was subsumed into Royal Olympic Cruises.

She has since spent 13 years as management co-ordinator at Festival Cruises and personal assistant to its founder and chief executive George Poulides, watching the line expand from scratch to gaining a leading share of the European cruise market - only to collapse financially this year.

Although she knows the cruising industry back to front, years spent based on the Akti Miaouli and dealing with her companies' publicity, P&I and other activities have given Ms Ingledow a wider general grasp of shipping.

Before Festival, she served a brief tenure with a Piraeus-based firm called Crisis Consultants that specialised in company contingency planning and media emergency response.

As conference co-ordinator, she organised a forward-looking conference in Rotterdam in 1991 entitled Shipping at Risk, against the background of the Iran-Iraq war and OPA '90 legislating for double hulls.

While the trauma of Festival's meltdown has not been a pleasant experience, it clearly gave Ms Ingledow a push to establishing her own business and could prove a gain for both the visiting and locally-based shipping executive.

With financial help from her family, she set up offices on the Akti Miaouli in record time after accepting that Festival was fated either to disappear or, at best, survive in a far different form from the company that she had given her allegiance to.

The goal for Within Reach was for the premises and systems to be ready for the opening of Posidonia and thereafter the Olympic Games in August which will see a dozen cruiseships crowding the port.

"I hope there will be interest during Posidonia but I am not going on a marketing binge," says Ms Ingledow. "I think it is better to take it calmly and catch up with many executives from all walks of life which whom I have enjoyed working in the past.

"I want them, and new acquaintances, to consider our office as their comfortable base in Piraeus, feeling free to invite colleagues to meet up here, or to hold a last-minute meeting - we will be ready for all eventualities.

"We are here to help anyone who needs assistance during the exhibition if we can, but I aim to be here long after Posidonia and the Olympics," she says, explaining that the services are aimed not only at the problem-bedeviled traveller but also the local market.

"Many executives may have aspirations for a real executive assistant, someone capable of confidentially making every possible arrangement at the drop of a hat, advising and maintaining their PR profile when required, but simultaneously they do not have the need to employ one all year round," asserts Ms Ingledow.

Reading the list of services provided in Within Reach's launch brochure, one is tempted to think that it would take Superwoman to be able to perform such a wide range of tasks.

Apart from competitive renting of facilities and standard services, they include confidential keeping of files and messaging, PR events, making travel arrangements and restaurant bookings, organising special events such as christenings or weddings as well as meetings and conferences, and using a wide network of contacts to, for example, provide rapid medical assistance.

But those familiar with Ms Ingledow at her previous companies confirm that all this is well within her capabilities, and that moreover she gets the job done rapidly and with the utmost professionalism. "It is attention to detail that I believe usually makes the difference," she says. Anyone who starts feeling overwhelmed this Posidonia and needs professional back-up or a problem solved might try calling Within Reach on 210-4290270, or emailing Ms Ingledow at sdi@withinreachgr.com.

Seatrade Cruise Community Website - Wednesday, 14th July 2004

Ingledow forms executive services firm

Cruise industry veteran Shelagh Ingledow -- for the past 13 years the personal assistant to Festival Cruises founder and chairman George Poulides -- has formed her own executive services firm in Piraeus.
'Within Reach' provides offices, a boardroom, computer equipment and Internet access, a professional assistant, secretarial and translation services, public relations expertise and events organization. Personalized travel arrangements, VIP hospitality and other services are also available.

Ingledow, a UK national who has been based in Greece for the past 20 years, has spent much of her career working closely with the top executives of international corporations. Besides English, she speaks fluent Greek and conversational Italian. Her new company handles services in Greece and abroad through a network of international contacts.

Ingledow's industry career began with Thomson Cruises in the 1970s before she moved to Epirotiki, working as assistant cruise director on seven ships. She served 14 years at Sun Line, joining as on-board program coordinator, hostess and cruise consultant before moving to the Piraeus office as the assistant to chairman Maurizio Keusseoglou.

Ingledow signed on at Festival's 1991 inception as Poulides' assistant. She was responsible for myriad duties, including organising the christenings of Mistral, European Vision and European Stars, planning shipboard receptions for Prince Rainier of Monaco and Cuban officials including Fidel Castro, and coordinating the G8 summit on the European Vision, which drew world leaders like Silvio Berlusconi, Vladimir Putin, Jacques Chirac and Tony Blair.

Within Reach is not focused on the shipping business but rather seeks to serve the wider commercial sector, Ingledow said. However, it's likely she will gain cruise clients during the upcoming Athens Olympics, when Piraeus harbor is jammed with ships. 'Should my services be needed by any of them, I shall be more than happy to oblige. After all, we are only 150 meters away from them -- literally "Within Reach,"' she quipped. The office is at 97 Akti Miaouli.