People 2018

2019:  FEB-APRIL | JUNE
VIEW COMPLETE 2018 ARCHIVES

DECEMBER

Nor-Shipping has recruited its first head of sustainability and technology, Silje Bareksten. The development marks another step in an evolution that aims to realign the Nor-Shipping event to support, serve and enable a future-oriented maritime industry. Nor-Shipping 2019 takes place in Oslo and Lillestrøm, Norway, in June.

Sonardyne International Ltd. appointed Elizabeth Paull as business development manager to support and develop the firm’s business within the growing aquaculture and renewables industries. Paull, who joins Sonardyne from subsea instrumentation and systems company Aquatec Group, will also focus on other developing ocean industry markets, such as subsea mining. 

Canada’s Ocean Supercluster appointed Kendra MacDonald as CEO to help build Canada’s ocean economy into one of the country’s most significant and sustainable value-creating economic segments. MacDonald has led projects in a wide variety of industries, including telecommunications, the public sector, power and utilities, marine transportation and seafood.

Bjørn T. Akselsen is joining MacArtney Underwater Technology as managing director of MacArtney Norge AS. Akselsen brings extensive international business development and management experience. He recently served nearly a decade in Houston, Texas, as the director of Innovation Norway and consultant to Norwegian oil and gas companies establishing a presence in the Gulf of Mexico.

GreenSteam appointed Mathias Nyman Rasmussen as head of sales. Rasmussen comes from a position as head of global sales at COACH Solutions, which is a part of Clipper Bulk Shipping Ltd. Prior to that, he held various positions within COACH Solutions and Clipper Group. Rasmussen will be based in the Copenhagen office.

Claudia Grant, deputy director general of the Maritime Authority of Jamaica (MAJ), has been elected chairman of the Sub Committee on Implementation of IMO Instruments of the International Maritime Organization (IMO). An experienced maritime professional, Grant has served as president of the Women in Maritime Association Caribbean (WiMAC) since its inception in 2015.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission presented Roy W. Miller, former director of Delaware’s Division of Fish and Wildlife, with the Captain David H. Hart Award, its highest annual award, at the commission’s 77th annual meeting in New York City. Miller has served the state of Delaware and the commission since 1978.

The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) has appointed Margaret Fitzgerald as its head of policy and regulatory affairs. She will represent the association on all regulatory matters and lead its involvement with the International Maritime Organization (IMO). Fitzgerald has more than 20 years’ experience in shipping, and she previously worked for the IMO Secretariat.

OCTOBER

Paul Smith has been appointed group managing director at UTEC Survey. Since joining Acteon in 2011, Smith has undertaken a variety of commercial and operational roles. He was instrumental in the merger of UTEC with NCS Survey in 2015 and was most recently responsible for management of UTEC’s operations worldwide.

Sonardyne announced the appointment of Stephen Auld as its new global business manager for subsea asset monitoring. Before joining Sonardyne last year, Auld was business development manager at Liquid Robotics Oil and Gas, a joint venture between oilfield services company Schlumberger and Liquid Robotics Inc. He was previously managing director at CodaOctopus.

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has selected Samuel C. Harp as its first vice president for advancement and chief marketing officer. Harp has spent much of his career in academic, technology and research institutions and was chief marketing and communications officer for the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Greensea has appointed Regina Yopak as applications engineer and service manager. Yopak has extensive at-sea experience through several tours as lead navigator and mapping specialist on board EV Nautilus for the Ocean Exploration Trust.

Humphree USA named Brett Marshall director of technical sales and George Lewis as southeast regional sales manager. Marshall previously served as business development manager for Mack Boring and vice president of sales and marketing for the Luhrs Marine Group. Lewis was previously a tenured naval architect at Sea Ray.

AUGUST

Damen head of communications Sylvia Boer has been appointed president of the Netherlands WISTA, the Women’s International Shipping and Trading Association. In addition, WISTA Norway has opened its doors to its first male member, Nor-Shipping Director Per Martin Tanggaard, who has also signed up as the first male mentor for WISTA Norway and YoungShip’s Female Maritime Mentorship program.

Modus has hired Luke Barnes as commercial manager. With significant experience in the subsea industry, Barnes has previously worked in commercial roles with CodaOctopus and most recently with the Global Marine Group. He is particularly knowledgeable in the offshore renewable energy industry.

Teledyne Optech Research Scientist and Development Manager Vinod Ramnath was awarded the Sebastian Sizgoric Technical Achievement Award by the Joint Airborne Lidar Bathymetry Technical Center of Expertise (JALBTCX) at the annual JALBTCX Airborne Coastal Mapping and Charting Workshop in Providence, Rhode Island, for his contributions to the development of the world’s most advanced bathymetric system.

Newport Shipping appointed CEO Erol Sarikaya to lead a new focus on comprehensive drydocking and a unique ship repair financing proposition, whereby shipowners can stagger 60 percent of their drydocking payments into monthly installments, with only 40 percent of total maintenance costs due upon the vessel returning to service.

The National Subsea Research Initiative (NSRI) elected two new board members, Simon Cheeseman and Claus Hjoerringgaard, as the organization expands its capabilities in the renewables, mining, defense and aquaculture sectors. A former marine engineer, Cheeseman is responsible for managing ORE Catapult’s marine renewables strategy, identifying wave and tidal technology innovation needs. Hjoerringgaard, managing director of Wood Clean Energy, has more than 25 years of experience within the energy sector.

JUNE

The late Edwin A. Link, a driving force behind Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, has been inducted into the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame. Link was a pioneer in aviation, underwater archeology and submersibles and inventor of the Link flight simulator. Link helped to create Harbor Branch as an independent research institution and designed tools to explore marine environments, including the Johnson-Sea-Link submersibles.

RBR Ltd. has hired Gavin Scandlyn as its business development manager to be based in New Zealand and primarily involved in New Zealand, Australia and Japan. Scandlyn has lived and worked in Japan, South Korea and Australia, and has a background in business communications, marketing and sales.

Trevor Hughes has been named business development officer at the International Geomatics Group. Hughes brings more than 30 years of experience in the U.K., Middle East and the Americas with Racal, Thales and Ashtech. Hughes will focus on the DGNSS service line and the Hemisphere Atlas technology.

ORPC Inc. has hired Alexandre Paris as president and CEO of its Québec subsidiary, Énergies Marines Renouvelables Québécoises Inc. (EMARQ). Paris was most recently senior manager of growth and innovation at Hydro-Québec’s research institute, IREQ. He has more than 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur and executive in Canada, the U.S., Europe and Asia.

EOM Offshore LLC has appointed John Flynn and Flynn Technical Solutions LLC as its representative in the Southeastern U.S. to focus on data transmission and management of moored buoy systems. Flynn’s background is in technical sales and marketing for marine interconnect, instrumentation, imaging, software, vehicles and anti-biofouling coatings products throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast U.S.

The National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA) has promoted Justin Williams to the position of senior director of digital and public affairs. Williams is responsible for media relations on legislative issues and staffs NOIA’s Public Affairs and Education Committee. The NOIA Board of Directors has elected John Gellert, the CEO of SEACOR Marine Holdings, as chairman and Richard Clark, a founder of Deep Gulf Energy, as vice chairman for the 2018 to 2019 term.

APRIL

Larry Mayer
Larry Mayer, director of the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping and Joint Hydrographic Center at the University of New Hampshire, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering for development of techniques and technologies for coastal, Arctic and ocean floor mapping. Mayer has a broad background in marine geology and geophysics, with research in sonar imaging, remote characterization of the seafloor and advanced applications of 3D visualization to ocean mapping.

Russell Petrucci
EBL Products appointed Russell Petrucci as director of business development. Petrucci has 34 years of experience, including: piezoelectric and optical materials and transducer design and manufacturing; product and account management; and business development in the medical, industrial, power ultrasonics, and oil and gas industries.

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam has named Matt Strickler as Virginia’s next secretary of natural resources. He will oversee the departments of Conservation and Recreation; Environmental Quality; Game and Inland Fisheries and Historic Resources; the Virginia Marine Resources Commission; and the Virginia Museum of Natural History.

Phoenix HSEQ Manager Preeti Mehta has joined the working committee on measuring barrier strength for the Center for Offshore Safety. Mehta is an experienced HSE leader with more than 17 years of regulatory, risk management, project management and HSE management systems knowledge.

The Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) appointed Eugene Sanders as its new executive director. Sanders spent the past 36 years in upper management roles at for-profit and nonprofit associations.

NAVTOR appointed Anders Holme as chief technology officer. Holme is a veteran of many companies, including IBM, NOV, Aker Solutions and Lyse. Holme brings a wealth of business and software expertise and will manage teams working across offices in Egersund, Norway; Singapore; Japan; Sweden; Russia; the U.S.; and the U.K.

Teledyne Optech announced Michael Perdue as its new director of customer service. For the last seven years, Perdue served as field operations manager for Airborne Imaging, a Canadian LiDAR service provider, where he led specialized aerial LiDAR survey projects.

FEBRUARY

Chris Rodricks has been appointed in a business development role for the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) in their Middle East and India Region. Rodricks joined the India Steamship Company in 1971 as an 18-year-old cadet and has since worked for Essar Shipping, GAL Offshore, Seabulk Offshore and Seamec.

Jim Mosquera joined General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems as vice president and chief technology officer. Mosquera will be responsible for achieving strategic technical, business and financial objectives in support of technology, platform and next-generation product development. Mosquera will lead the development and management of technology roadmaps that execute growth opportunities.

Teledyne Oceanscience hired Vitad Pradith as technical sales manager. Pradith was previously the project lead for unmanned systems at HYPACK, where he successfully led the development of the NEXUS unmanned aerial LiDAR system.

Dr. Amy Wright of the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute has been named one of two National Academy of Inventors (NAI) Fellows, the highest professional accolade for inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society. Wright’s research focuses marine natural products with potential uses against neurodegeneration, infectious diseases and cancer.

Greensea hired Matthew Parrilla as robotics engineer in its emerging technologies group to work on next-generation supervised autonomy and navigation and hired Karl Lander, previously with the U.S. Coast Guard, as account executive. Greensea also created two new positions: Marybeth Gilliam will be chief operating officer and Galal Hamdy will be vice president of business development and partnerships.