Capt. Herman was born in England in 1945 and still maintains his British nationality, although his family emigrated to South Africa in 1947 and he was brought up and educated in Cape Town. Apart from a period of 3 years in the late 1990's when he was based in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, he has lived in Hong Kong continuousely since 1965 and has permanent resident status in the Hong Kong S.A.R..

Capt. Herman served as a seafarer from 1991 until 1977, a period of about sixteen years, which included about 5 years as master, deep sea and coastal. He learned his trade the "hands on" way, as an apprentice with a British tramp-ship company and as a junior officer with a Hong-Kong-based British liner company. He then served as second officer, chief officer and master on a number of vessels, mainly Hong Kong-based and British-registered. He had a very broad-based career at sea, serving mainly on conventional dry cargo tweendeckers, both in the liner trades and tramping, but also on cargo-passenger vessels, log carrier/mini-bulker vessels, coastal cargo vessels, hydrofoil passenger ferries, semi-refrigerated vessels, container feeder vessels, and a tanker.

Since coming ashore in 1977, Captain Herman's career has alternated between periods working as a Port Captain or Cargo Superintendent for international shipping companies, and periods practising as a ship and cargo surveyor, independent cargo superintendent, and small craft surveyor.

During his on-shore career as a cargo superintendent, Capt. Herman has been mainly involved with the loading and discharging of handy-sized and handymax bulk carriers, but he has also handled cargo operations on cellular container vessels, multi-purpose ships, off-shore pipe-laying barges, conventional dry cargo vessels, and heavy-lift vessels. He is experienced in the loading and discharging of a wide range of bulk, break-bulk, containerized and unitized cargoes. He also has extensive experience as a marine surveyor, having carried out numerous surveys of cargo, ships and small craft

Capt. Herman is also an experienced yachtsman, and has carried out numerous long-distance yacht deliveries, and has supervised construction of a number of motor and sailing yachts in Hong Kong, Mainland China and Taiwan, as well as practising as a yacht surveyor and consultant.

Capt. Herman speaks, reads and writes fluent English, speaks functional Cantonese, and has useful knowledge of a number of other Asian and European languages and dialects.

Capt. Herman is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers (F.I.C.S.), a Member of the Nautical Institute (M.N.I.) and a member of the American Boat and Yacht Council (A.B.Y.C.). He is currently serving as the Honorary Secretary of the Hong Kong branch of the Nautical Institute.