Nigel Gardiner is a director and shareholder of Drewry Holdings Ltd, the parent company that owns Drewry Shipping Consultants (DSC). He is also the managing director of DSC. He joined Drewry in 1981 and was appointed a Director of the company in 1985. He was subsequently appointed Joint Managing Director in 1993, and Managing Director in 1996. In 2000 he led a successful management buy-out at Drewry.

Nigel Gardiner began his career in research and consulting in 1973, when he worked for a specialist agency called Packaging and Perceptual Research. On completing an honours degree in economics and history in 1977 he joined the multi-national engineering group Hawker Siddely, where he held several posts in research and marketing roles. He subsequently worked for two UK based research consultants, Business Decisions and Industrial Market Research in project management appointments before joining Drewry in 1981.

In the twenty two years that he has worked for Drewry, Nigel Gardiner has been involved in every facet of the company's activities, ranging from consultancy assignments through to lecturing at seminars and conferences