Mees van der Wiel is business consultant strategy & innovation at Portbase, the Netherlands, General Manager of the PROTECT secretariat at IPCSA, member of the executive committee of IPCSA and UN/CEFACT expert. Born and raised in the middle of the Port of Rotterdam, he always had a huge interest in maritime transport and port operations. He has been working in the domain of information exchange in transport & logistics since 2005 in several companies and in different positions, but always focused on improving information flows in supply chains. His main focus at Portbase is on policy, legislative and standardization changes on EU and national level, such as the European Maritime Single Window Environment (EMSWe), ICS2, BREXIT and several digitalisation projects with the Port of Rotterdam and the Dutch government. Next to this, Mees manages the PROTECT Secretariat. PROTECT supports the electronic reporting required by authorities for vessels entering or leaving a port or port area. PROTECT is the port message design group within IPCSA and has established harmonised worldwide recognised EDI standards.