Who’s Who: Maritime Movements for January/February 2023

WORK BOAT WORLD:

Dr Maximo Q. Mejia Jr will assume his post as the new President of the World Maritime University (WMU) effective June 29, 2023, succeeding Dr Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry.

Mejia is currently Director of the WMU’s PhD Program in addition to being an Associate Academic Dean.

Prior to joining WMU, he was an administrator of the Maritime Industry Authority of the Philippines (MARINA) as well as a former commissioned officer in both the Philippine Navy and the Philippine Coast Guard.

Kristian Durhuus, the current CEO of ForSea Ferries, will be the new CEO of Danish ferry company Molslinjen.

The appointment comes as ForSea and Molslinjen are in the process of merging into a single entity.

Durhuus will formally take over the CEO position on March 15, 2023. Carsten Jensen, Molslinjen’s current CEO, will continue serving in the post until that date, when he will become the new CEO of Nordic Ferry Infrastructure.

St Johns Ship Building has designated Ken Gentle to the position of Vice President of Repair. He will be leading the company’s production and project management teams who are tasked with repairing various types of vessels in both steel and aluminium.

Gentle has more than 40 years of extensive marine repair experience.

Offshore energy engineering and maintenance company Semco Maritime has appointed Tor Erik Christoffersen as Managing Director of the company’s Norwegian business.

Christoffersen took up the position on January 1, 2023. He will work from Semco’s offices in Bergen and Stavanger, leading Semco Maritime’s 400-strong workforce in Norway as well as the activities at the Hanøytangen facilities and offshore in the North Sea.

Christoffersen has a strong background from the international maritime and oil service sectors with more than 15 years of experience in management positions and commercial roles. He most recently served as Chief Commercial Officer and part of the Executive Management team of Norway-based the PSW Group, which provides a wide range of services and solutions to the global energy and drilling industry.

Prior to his 12-year tenure with PSW Group, he held a management role with responsibility for Market and Operations in GC Rieber Shipping where he worked for six years.

ioCurrents, a predictive analytics platform supporting the maritime industry, has appointed Will Roberts as President and Chief Executive Officer. He has since assumed day-to-day leadership of the company and will also join ioCurrents’ Board of Directors.

Roberts most recently served as President of Foss Maritime Company, where he led all sales, operations and administrative functions. His background also includes 12 years in executive positions at Rolls-Royce Marine, his last assignment being SVP, Commercial Marine – Americas. He also held roles of increasing responsibility in engineering and project management earlier in his career and served as an Associate Professor of Naval Sciences at several leading universities.

Roberts is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and was a nuclear-trained officer on board the fast attack submarine USS Honolulu.

Maritime robotics technology company Ocean Infinity has appointed Dan Walker as a Non-Executive Director.

Walker comes to Ocean Infinity following senior leadership roles across the energy and natural resources industries, including Vice President of engineering at BP. Outside of the energy industry, he has pursued post-doctoral research in fluid and structural dynamics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and held a lectureship in Engineering Science at the University of Oxford.

Walker is a chartered mechanical engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

Wave measurement technology company the Miros Group has appointed Marius Five Aarset as its new Chief Executive Officer.

Aarset has joined Miros from ABB, succeeding Andreas Brekke who is taking on the role of CEO at the joint-venture Miros Mocean.

With more than 25 years’ experience in digital and engineering-based roles, Aarset’s appointment follows nearly half a decade of senior leadership experience. In his 20-year tenure with ABB, he climbed the ranks from operations management roles, with a technology focus, to vice-president of digital within the energy sector.

Aarset will be based in Miros’ headquarters in Asker, Norway.

California-based The Dutra Group, a heavy civil marine contractor, has named Harry K. Stewart as its Chief Executive Officer. He previously held the position of Chief Operating Officer at Dutra and takes over from current CEO Bill T. Dutra, who will move into the role of Executive Chairman.

Stewart joined Dutra in 1983 and held various roles over the next 40 years.

Sergey Chernogubovsky has been designated as a new Executive Director of Russia’s Vyborg Shipyard.

Chernogubovsky graduated from Saint Petersburg State Marine Technical University with a degree in shipbuilding engineering. His career began at sister company Admiralty Shipyards in 1993.

For almost 30 years, Chernogubovsky held various senior positions. Working for state corporation Rosatom, he headed the construction of the floating nuclear power plant Akademik Lomonosov. For five years, he supervised the construction of the first three Project 22220 nuclear-powered icebreakers at Baltic Shipyard.

Since 2021, he has headed the Department of Civil Shipbuilding of state-owned United Shipbuilding Corporation.

Lee Goddard was recently appointed to the Austal Australia Board as Independent Non-Executive Director of the Company.

Goddard is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Missile Corporation and a Non-Executive Director of the Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation. Prior to these roles, he had a full-time career in the Royal Australian Navy, concluding his 34-year tenure in 2021 as a Rear Admiral.

The British Columbia Ferry Services Board has appointed Nicolas Jimenez as President and Chief Executive Officer of BC Ferries, effective March 6, 2023.

Jimenez is currently the President and CEO of the Insurance Corporation of BC (ICBC). Jill Sharland, who had served as BC Ferries’ interim CEO since July 2022, will return to her previous executive position as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at BC Ferries.

Jimenez has a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from both Harvard University and the University of Victoria as well as a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Wilfrid Laurier University. Over the last 20 years, he has held a number of senior roles at ICBC, taking over as President and CEO five years ago.

UK-based subsea robotics and survey company Rovco has named Graham Bell its newest Head of Geoscience.

In his new role, Bell will support Rovco’s site characterisation business unit. As a technical and subject matter expert, he will be a main point of contact to support the company’s business acquisition function.

Bell has more than 20 years’ global experience in marine site characterisation and has lived and worked in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Europe. He graduated from Bangor University, Wales, with a BSc in Geological Oceanography in 2002, before joining Thales GeoSolutions as a graduate geophysicist. His previous employers also include Fugro and EGS Indonesia.

Bell worked offshore for 10 years as a geophysicist and party chief and has a decade of experience in managing teams of geophysicists and in the interpretation of a broad range of geophysical data, on complex marine site characterisation projects.

The Eastern Shipbuilding Group (ESG) has selected Joey D’Isernia to serve as its new CEO and Chairman of the Board, replacing his father and company founder Brian D’Isernia.

Joey D’Isernia was appointed president in 2015. As president, he oversaw Eastern’s execution of the Offshore Patrol Cutter project for the US Coast Guard and the company’s transition from being a commercial shipyard to one that also executes government shipbuilding programs.

TechnipFMC has appointed Robert G. Gwin, former President of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, has been appointed to the TechnipFMC Board of Directors, effective February 1, 2023.

Gwin also served as Executive Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer of Anadarko from 2009 to 2018. He is currently a director of Pembina Pipeline Corporation and Crescent Energy Company. He previously served as a director of LyondellBasell Industries from 2011 to 2018, including serving as its Chairman from 2013 to 2018, and as a director of Enable Midstream Partners from 2020 through 2021, including serving as its Chairman. He also previously was a director of both Western Gas Partners and its general partner Western Gas Equity Partners from 2007 to 2019, including serving as the Chairman of both entities from 2009 to 2018.

Gwin holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Southern California and a Master of Business Administration degree from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. He also earned the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation from the CFA Institute.

Svitzer Australia recently announced two new internal senior appointments. Dylan Sheehan has been appointed the new General Manager – East and Shafaq Rahman has been promoted to Deputy Chief Commercial Officer (Australia).

As General Manager – East, Sheehan is responsible for Svitzer’s towage and marine services operations at 14 ports along Australia’s east coast in South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland.

Sheehan brings a wealth of experience to the role and has worked at Svitzer in regions worldwide, commencing with Svitzer as a Commercial Manager in Canada in 2013 and was most recently Regional Manager – North West (Australia).

With Svitzer for nearly three years, Rahman has led business development and strategic projects. She brings more than 20 years of experience, including extensive background in the oil and gas industry.

Crowley has appointed Clay Heil as vice president of global government relations, where he will lead the company’s full spectrum of government advocacy across all of the company’s business interests and activities.

Based in Washington, DC, Heil will lead Crowley’s engagement with federal, state and local government partners and elected officials on policy and regulatory matters.

Heil joins Crowley with more than 25 years of legislative and legal experience. In Congress, he worked in the US House of Representatives and the US Senate for 12 years, holding senior roles including deputy staff director and general counsel for the Senate Appropriations Committee. Most recently, he was a partner in Taft’s Public Affairs Strategies Group, where he represented Fortune 500 companies in the defense, cybersecurity and technology sectors.

During his time in Congress, Heil also served as legislative director for a number of sitting members of congress.

Heil holds a juris doctorate from the Georgetown University Law Center and a bachelor’s degree from Colorado State University. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar.

iconsys, a maritime automation solutions provider and systems integrator, has appointed Jordan Tassell as its new Head of Marine and Ports.

Tassell previously spent eight years at global OEM within ABB’s marine and ports division, supporting customers throughout the UK and Ireland.

SHIP WORLD:

Shipbroker Simpson Spence Young (SSY) has appointed Roar Adland (Ph.D, FICS) to the role of Global Head of Research, effective from May 2023.

Adland has gained a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and also holds senior positions at the Norwegian School of Economics and Clarksons.

Global bunker trading firm Glander International Bunkering has promoted Morten Langthjem from Managing Director in Dubai to Chief Commercial Officer of the group. The role of Managing Director in Dubai will consequently be filled by Alexandros Margaritis, who rejoins the company to lead the team in its headquarters.

Assuming the company’s first-ever CCO role, Langthjem will be working on business strategy, innovation and development. He will be reporting to Glander CEO Carsten Ladekjær.

Wilhelmsen Ship Management has appointed Felina Lin as the Vice President of Services and New Growth. Her main responsibilities will be growing the ship management service portfolio.

Lin brings in over a decade of commercial experience from her role working in ship owner and ship manager for the offshore and marine segment. Her expertise includes technical management, commercial optimisation through fleet chartering, sales and purchase, post fixtures contract management, inspection services, and newbuilding supervision. Prior to Wilhelmsen, she was based in Dubai as the Commercial Director with CS Offshore Ship Management.

Lin graduated from the University of London School of Business with a Bachelor in Business. She is currently based in Singapore.

Integrated logistics and materials management company ASCO has promoted Craig Revie to the new post of General Manager – Specialist Services to provide a streamlined service by combining several business lines into one unit.

The new structure will bring together ASCO’s lifting, assurance, intervention, and training (NSL), recruitment (OBM), freight management (AFM), ship agency (Seletar), Marine and Aviation services. Revie’s role will be to oversee the integration of these key business units to provide an optimised service offering for ASCO’s clients.

Revie joined ASCO in 2018 as head of marine services and since then has held various management positions across the business, most recently as General Manager for NSL and OBM in Aberdeen. Prior to that, he held senior management roles with Ultra Electronics, following a 12-year career in the Royal Navy.

Elvir Dzanic, current CEO of Gothenburg Port Authority, will be the new CEO of shipping company Wallenius SOL replacing current CEO Ragnar Johansson.

Dzanic has a degree in shipping and logistics and a wealth of experience from both international and Swedish transport industries. He will take up the post of CEO of Wallenius SOL in the summer of 2023.

FISHING BOAT WORLD:

Land-based aquaculture specialists The Kingfish Company has selected Vincent Erenst as Chief Executive Officer, effective February 6, 2023.

Erenst has more than 35 years of experience leading aquaculture companies. Most recently, he worked as Chief Operating Officer at the Barramundi Group. Prior to this role, he worked as COO of Avramar and worked as Managing Director of Mowi Canada West for more than 10 years.

The BC Salmon Farmers Association (BCSFA) has appointed Brian Kingzett as its new Executive Director.

Kingzett has 35 years of experience in the environmental and aquaculture sectors. He received a Bachelor of Science with Honours from the University of Victoria and Master of Science from Simon Fraser University in Marine Biology.

Kingzett joined the association in July 2021 as the Director of Science and Policy.

Erik-Jan Lock will be the new Research Director for Nutrition and Feed Technology at the Norwegian Institute of Food, Fisheries and Aquaculture Research (Nofima).

Lock is currently Head of Research for Food and Nutrition at the Institute of Marine Research, and holds the position of Adjunct Professor at the University of Bergen. He will take up his new position at Nofima in March.

Lock has an MSc in Aquaculture and Fisheries from Wageningen University, and a PhD in Fish Physiology from Radboud University Nijmegen. He started at NIFES in 2007, and has worked within several fields such as mineral nutrition and new food resources.

Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM), Ireland’s Seafood Development Agency, has appointed Caroline Bocquel as its new Chief Executive Officer. Bocquel has held the role of Interim CEO at BIM since November 2022.

Prior to joining BIM in 2021 as Director of Corporate Services, she held senior executive roles at GOAL and the Marine Institute.

Bocquel is a chartered accountant and has a degree in Business and Languages from Technological University Dublin.

Chris Ranford will be the next Chairman of UK trade organisation National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations (NFFO). He was elected recently by the NFFO’s Executive Committee and will take up the chairmanship later in the year after the Federation’s annual general meeting.

Ranford is also Chief Executive of the Cornish Fish Producers Organisation, where he succeeded Paul Trebilcock as CEO in 2021.