Mykola
Aleksyeyev
Marine Surveyor. Port Captain. Consultant & Mentor. 20+ years in the maritime industry, distilled into independent practice at the Port of Leixoes.
Born to It
Before Mykola Aleksyeyev ever set foot on a ship’s deck, the sea was already part of his story.
His grandfather was a captain and an entrepreneur. A man who built a network of fish shops across Ukraine from nothing but determination and the understanding that trust, earned slowly and kept carefully, is the only currency that truly compounds. He was Mykola’s first mentor. Not the kind who gives lectures. The kind who teaches through example: a life lived with purpose, a reputation defended every single day.
That grandfather is no longer with us. But he is present in every survey Mykola conducts, every client he advises, every decision he makes when the easy answer and the right answer are not the same thing.
His grandfather wanted him to become a lawyer. Mykola applied to the Marine College anyway. In secret. As one of the youngest applicants in his class.
He got in.
“The sea does not grade on effort.
It grades on outcome.”
The First Watch
His first placement came directly from the Marine Academy. Not a passenger ferry or a well-crewed container ship. A fishing boat. Mykola was still a teenager.
He stepped aboard with the full weight of that decision on his shoulders and not a trace of hesitation. Where others might have read a difficult start as a sign to reconsider, Mykola read it as exactly the right beginning: honest, physical, and unforgiving of shortcuts.
That first boat taught him things no classroom can simulate. The cold. The schedule. The particular discipline of working a vessel where there is no margin for error and no one arriving to cover for you if you fall short.
The sea asked for everything. He gave it.
The Path
M.A. Marine Veritas Consulting
My own name on the door. Operational work across the Atlantic corridor, and mentorship for the next senior professional ready to build their own practice.
Maritime Consultant, Worldwide
Survey, advisory, and training on my own terms. 500+ professionals trained and counting. P&I claim investigations across the map.
Safety Superintendent, Coach and Mentor
At Bahri in Dubai I led behavioural safety, claims investigation, and fleet wide training. One hundred percent vetting success. Zero PSC detentions.
Port Captain, Supercargo, Surveyor
With MAREA in Koper I stepped onto the quay. Project cargo, supercargo operations, and marine survey. The same eye, a new vantage point.
Chief Officer and Master, Global Fleets
Wallem in Hong Kong. OSM. MSC. GNV as Staff Master. Shoei Kisen in Japan. Bahri. Responsibility for the ship, the cargo, and every person aboard.
Learning the Ship from the Keel Up
Watchkeeping. Cargo. Heavy weather. Crew. The years where theory meets a rolling deck and you find out what you are made of.
Graduated the Marine Academy
Five years after I walked in, I walked out with my diploma. I was nineteen. The examinations were real and the standards were high. I left the Academy qualified to start my life at sea.
The Marine College
I applied at fourteen, and I got in. Most people that age do not know what they want. I did. The sea was not a backup plan. It was the plan.
Cadet to Officer
From that first fishing boat, Mykola’s career moved with the same quiet determination that had taken him to the Marine College without his grandfather’s blessing. Cadet to officer. Each rank earned, not handed over.
He built his career on some of the most demanding vessel types in commercial shipping. ConRo ships carrying project cargo, heavy lift equipment, and military cargoes. PCTC and PCC car carriers. RoRo and RoPax fleets. These are not vessels where you learn your trade quietly. The cargo complexity, the loading precision, the operational judgment required at every stage: any mistake is visible, consequential, and remembered.
He worked across major operators including NYK Group, OSM Thome, MSC, and Bahri. Along the way, foreign colleagues gave him a nickname. Mike. Easier to remember across accents and time zones and the long night watches that define a seafarer’s life. Both names belong to the same man.
The Superintendent
At Bahri, one of the world’s leading shipping companies, Mykola took on a role that signalled the direction his career was always heading. Safety Training Superintendent and Behaviour Based Safety Facilitator.
The shift from operating a vessel to shaping how an entire organisation thinks about safety culture. The kind of work that requires not just technical knowledge but the ability to read people, earn trust across cultures, and influence behaviour where the stakes for getting it wrong are high.
Safety audits on vessels where the gap between the paperwork and the reality required someone willing to say so. Inspections aboard ships where trust had to be established in the first five minutes or not at all.
The Turn
Toward Shore
There is a moment in many maritime careers when the question changes. Not what can I do on this vessel, but what can I build from everything I have learned.
For Mykola, that moment led to Porto. Portugal offered something rare: a working commercial port, an international maritime community, and the space to build something genuinely independent. MAMVC was not a departure from the sea. It was the natural next chapter.
He established M.A. Marine Veritas Consulting at the Port of Leixoes and brought with him the full weight of that career: Deep Sea Captain Certificate of Competency, BBS Facilitator certification, ISM and STCW credentials, and a track record spanning ConRo operations, PCTC and PCC fleets, RoRo and RoPax vessels, cargo handling, safety management, and vessel assessments across multiple flag states.
Marine Surveying · Port of Leixoes
What He Brings
The certificates matter. They are the verifiable record of a career built properly, step by step, to international maritime standards.
But what sets him apart is harder to frame and hang on a wall. It is the ability to walk onto a vessel and read the atmosphere before reading the paperwork. To understand what the official condition tells you and, more usefully, what it does not. To know the difference between a finding that can wait until port and one that cannot wait at all.
To speak honestly to a client about a vessel’s condition even when the answer is not the one they were hoping for, because in this industry, an honest answer given early is always less expensive than a flattering one given late.
His grandfather built his business one fish shop at a time, in communities where reputation was everything and word travelled fast. Mykola has carried that instinct into marine surveying, port captaincy, and consulting, where the stakes involve vessels worth millions, cargo worth more, and crews whose safety is not a line item.
From those who have worked with him
Porto, and What
Comes Next
From the Port of Leixoes, Mykola looks out at the water the same way he always has: with clarity, with respect, and with the quiet confidence of someone who knows what the sea demands and has spent a lifetime meeting those demands.
The sea is not behind him. It is the foundation everything is built on.
His grandfather would be proud. Even if he never quite used those words.
20+ years in the maritime industry teaches you things no certification can.
- A vessel tells you the truth. The reports don’t always.
- Safety is not a checklist. It is a culture built one conversation at a time.
- The question asked before departure is worth more than the report written after arrival.
- Reputation in this industry is earned vessel by vessel, port by port. There are no shortcuts.
- The best advice is the one you can act on today, not the one that requires another meeting.
Three ways to work together
Marine Survey
Vessel condition surveys, pre-purchase inspections, P&I investigations, vetting and ISM audits. Independent findings, delivered without compromise.
Learn more →Port Captaincy
Port captain and supercargo services across ConRo, RoRo, PCTC, and car carrier operations. Complex cargo handled with precision from the first line to the last.
Learn more →Sea to Shore
One-to-one mentorship for senior maritime professionals building independent consulting practices. Twenty years of experience, shared directly.
Learn more →Ready to talk?
A 15-minute call to see whether we are the right fit. No obligation. Honest from the first conversation.