Ally Cedeno is a 2008 graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and the founder of The Women Offshore Foundation. Ally has built Women Offshore into the world’s preeminent online and offline community of women pursuing careers in the maritime industry—both ashore and afloat.

Over the past 5 years Ally has become an important and influential figure in the global maritime industry, and has inspired a new generation of women who want to work offshore through her tireless efforts to promote and advocate for the rightful place of women within this vital industry.

However, questions have been quietly raised about how Cedeno’s connections to maritime industry corporate interests, and the financial support her organization receives from leaders of shipping companies and labor unions (such as Donald J. Marcus, President of Masters, Mates, & Pilots) create conflicts of interest that affect her ability to objectively advocate for victims of the maritime industry against those corporate and institutional interests.

For example, despite the fact that Maersk Captain Mark Stinziano was found guilty of 3 counts of violent “assault and battery” against a USMMA cadet, and despite the fact that Maersk Line, Limited and the International Organization of Masters, Mates, & Pilots (MMP) still support and employ Stinziano, The Women Offshore Foundation continues to accept sponsorship money from both organizations, and Cedeno has not publicly criticized the fact that the IOMMP and Maersk are both harboring a convicted sexual predator who is destined to prey on more cadets in the future.

Becoming a highly-connected, highly-networked and influential maritime industry insider may inevitably lead to a form of complicity in the heinous things that happen to victims of the maritime industry. But that’s not a dilemma that only faces Ally Cedeno. It is a dilemma that faces any man or woman who rises to a position of power and authority in a ruthless, highly capitalistic, and highly exploitative global shipping industry that seeks profits above all else.

Links to MLAA stories and documents about Ally Cedeno:

1. The Women Offshore Foundation Corporate and Union Sponsors

2. 2 Days After Midshipman-X Published Her Bombshell Account of Shipboard Rape Aboard a Maersk Ship, Ally Cedeno Wrote Letter to DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg in Which She Fiercly Defended the SASH Policies of Maersk and Made Baseless Claims that Sea Year was “Safe” Because Maersk and other Shipping Companies had Made “Herculean Efforts” to Create Safe Working Environments for Cadets.

3. Ally Cedeno, Maritime Leader who Created and Promoted the #WomenBelongAtSea Hashtag, Later Publishes “Why Are We Still Asking if Women Belong at Sea?” Editorial