Editorial Staff

Janet Plume
Content Director, Breakbulk Events & Magazine
New Orleans, La.
United States
jplume@breakbulk.com
O +1-504-866-7076 | M +1-504-250-4539

Janet Plume is content director for Breakbulk Events and senior editor of Breakbulk Magazine, a specialty publication that covers the breakbulk, project cargo, heavy-lift, and ro-ro sectors. Breakbulk Magazine, its website and weekly newsletter, are owned by UBM Global Trade, a division of United Business Media of the United Kingdom.

Ms. Plume is a veteran journalist who joined The Journal of Commerce in 1988 to report on maritime and logistics news. In 1999, she was named Editor of Gulf Shipper magazine, a JoC regional publication covering shipping news in the Gulf of Mexico.

In April 2006, she became program director for The Journal of Commerce Events, which organizes conferences globally for the commercial shipping sector. Since 2009, she has focused solely on the breakbulk and heavy-lift shipping sector, directing Breakbulk Events & Magazines’ content in its publications online and in print, as well as the programs at its three successful conferences – Breakbulk Americas Conference & Exhibition, Breakbulk Europe Conference & Exhibition and Breakbulk Asia Conference
& Exhibition -- and three new congresses: Breakbulk Africa Congress, BreakbulkIndia Congress and Breakbulk South America Congress. She speaks frequently to transportation clubs and shipping associations around the world.

Before joining The Journal of Commerce, Ms. Plume worked as a staff reporter at daily newspapers and as a wire service staff writer for more than 14 years.

Janet Nodar
Editor Breakbulk Magazine, Breakbulk.com
Mobile, Ala.
United States
jcnodar@breakbulk.com
+1-251-473-2742

Janet Nodar is editor of Breakbulk Magazine and Breakbulk.com. She became a reporter and editor for Gulf
Shipper in 2006, covering the busiest project and breakbulk cargo region in the U.S., a region which stretchesfrom Florida to Texas. In 2009 she was named editor of Breakbulk Magazine, which is a sister publication of the Journal of Commerce and is owned by UBM Global Trade.

Before she began writing about the shipping industry, Ms. Nodar taught English at the University of South
Alabama in Mobile and was also a freelance writer covering such topics as food, wine, film, business and
literature for the Mobile Press-Register and various periodicals. She holds degrees in finance and English.
Ms. Nodar is married and has two children. She recently published a collection of short works entitled “TrumpetField and Other Stories.”

Leslie Meredith
Digital Reporter, Breakbulk.com
Salt Lake City, Utah
United States
asklesliemeredith@gmail.com
+1-801-661-0257

Leslie Meredith is the reporter for Breakbulk.com and responsible for the site’s daily news stories. She produced videos for the Breakbulk Americas and is currently working on a series of webinars for the breakbulk industry. She joined the publication in August 2010.

Leslie also writes for a technology news site. Her stories are regularly syndicated to MSNBC and Yahoo News. Her technology newspaper column is published across the country with a circulation of 1 million readers. She has launched social media programs for a variety of companies. She directed tourism and ski publications for the Salt Lake Visitor & Convention Bureau and managed promotions and events for Sunset Magazine. She has a bachelor's degree from UCLA in psychology.

Wendy Laursen
Contributor
New South Wales, Australia
wlaursen@bigpond.com
+61-2-4472-3205

Wendy started as a freelance journalist in 2004 after completing a Master of Science research degree in marine ecology, a diploma in journalism and a certificate in advanced communication skills. Initially writing on topics such as medical science, biofuels and chemical engineering for a number of international magazines and newspapers, she started writing for maritime magazines in 2005.

Wendy has made feature story contributions to Breakbulk magazine, The Maritime Executive, Baird Maritime, The Motorship, Marine Engineers Review, Tanker Shipping & Trade, Marine Propulsion and Offshore Support Journal, amongst others. Wendy was editor of Riviera Maritime Media’s Ballast Water Treatment Technology guide for three years starting from 2009.

Wendy provides feature stories and press releases direct to business clients including classification society Det Norske Veritas. Wendy was awarded Runner Up Environmental Journalist of the Year 2010 by the UK Seahorse Club and earlier won second prize in the Dialogica Awards for academic writing for the general public in 2003.

Leticia Lozano
Contributor
Brussels, Belgium
lozanoleticia@yahoo.com
+32-2-772-0247

Leticia Lozano is a Brussels-based freelance journalist. A former Reuters correspondent, she has reported on general and financial news across Latin America for both local and international media, and has helped draw up the programs for specialized conferences in South America. Ms. Lozano has published in magazines such as the U.S.-based Journal of Commerce, Gulf Shipper, Britain’s Euromoney, and Canada’s The Northern Miner. A graduate of Mexico’s prestigious Tecnologico de Monterrey university, she counts Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, award-winning New Yorker journalist Alma Guillermoprieto, and Magnum photographer Martin Parr among her tutors. She has worked across Central and South America, and recently spent five years based in Monterrey, Mexico, before moving to Brussels in 2011.