Page 46: of Marine Technology Magazine (July 2012)

SEA SEA CON CON This month Marine Technology Reporter is pleased to present insights from Craig Newell, VP Sales & Corporate Business Development, SEA CON. Please provide for us a brief personal and professional background, with insights on how you came to your current position. I have been involved in the subsea environment for more than 20 years. I still have fond memories of my early years, starting with the defense division of Standard Tele- phones and Cables (STC). They developed towed array sys- tems for surface ships and submarines. Working with other businesses in the same sector, honing my skills as an engineer it was clear I had a passion for problem solving and giving the customers solutions that were a perfect Þ t. I vividly remember my Þ rst involvement with SEA CON. I was working for STC, now Atlas Elektronik UK Ltd (Atlas UK) and we were facing some signiÞ cant challenges with a project. Added to this was the difÞ culty in Þ nding a supplier of connectors who was willing to only supply an insert rather than a complete connector. YouÕve guessed it SEA CON was the only supplier we found at that time who not only met the technical requirements, but was willing to give us exactly what we wanted as we continued to push the design envelope. My next contact with SEA CON came a few years later when I was the Engineering and Contracts Manager with Electrocat- alytic. We were developing systems for land powered stations and again, I was involved in a step change in design, work- ing on a modular design based around a container concept for a large electrochlorination system. While not subsea we still approached SEA CON to provide a connector system for the instrumentation. Again their support had a signiÞ cant impact on the project and it almost seemed inevitable that I would eventually join the SEA CON team. That feeling of inevitability came to pass when I was eventu- ally hired by SEA CON as Technical Sales Manager at their European facility based in the UK. I then moved to Houston, TX in 2004 as Business Development Manager to support the growth of SEA CON, in particular the underwater mateable Þ ber optic systems being developed by the advanced products division. My passion for the business and in particular SEA CON and my interests in all things sales and marketing in this highly technical Þ eld saw me take the reins of a more efÞ cient cen- tralized sales and marketing team. This eventually lead to my most recent appointment as Vice President of Sales and Cor- porate Business Development in 2009. Five Minutes with SEA CON Craig Newell , SEA CON?s VP of Sales & Corporate Business Development. 46 MTRJuly/August 2012 MTR #6 (34-49).indd 46MTR #6 (34-49).indd 468/1/2012 12:58:21 PM8/1/2012 12:58:21 PM