Page 46: of Marine Technology Magazine (April 2014)

People & Company News

Birns Celebrates 60th

BIRNS, Inc. celebrated a major mile- stone at the recent Underwater Interven- tion show in New Orleans. 2014 marks the company’s 60th year in business, and BIRNS held a well attended event in its booth at the show to commemo- rate the anniversary. The event included a slideshow of historical company pho- tos honoring the founding CEO Jack

Birns, a former LIFE Magazine pho- tographer, and the company’s achieve- ments to present day in a presentation by current CEO Eric Birns. Festivities included cocktails and a large 60th birthday cake, as well as drawings for a new touchscreen laptop and a pair of

Beats headphones. “I am humbled and grateful that BIRNS has had the honor of serving the industry for the last six decades,” says Eric Birns, President and

CEO. “My father started this company as a small business in Hollywood sell- ing photographic equipment to the Navy and other customers, and we have now become an ISO 9001:2008 and NAV-

SEA PRO-020 certifi ed global leader in high performance connectors and light- ing solutions.”

Ecosse Subsea Wins

Renewables Contract

Ecosse Subsea Systems Ltd (ESS) won a $7.5 million contract to design, build and operate a cable-lay system for a Eu- ropean utilities provider. The Scottish- based company will support the Array

Cable Lay and pull-in component of a wind farm project located off the Hum- ber Estuary in north east England.

Mike Wilson, ESS managing director, said the company’s growing reputa- tion in renewable subsea projects had opened up new markets to Scotland’s only equipment-owning energy sector cable-laying specialist.

He said, “We’ve completed countless cable and pipe lay projects in the major oil and gas producing regions but this award is a breakthrough in to the renew- ables cable-lay market which could sig- nifi cantly impact on our business.

Brown Joins Harkand

GOM Team

Global inspection, repair, maintenance (IRM) and light construction company

Harkand appointed Mike Brown as gen- eral manager of diving services in North

America. A U.S. Navy veteran, Brown has considerable experience of com- mercial diving in the offshore oil and gas sector having held number of senior positions in a career spanning more than 35 years. He was most recently working with Chet Morrison Contractors as gen- eral manager of the offshore construc- tion division. Prior to CMC, he worked as vice president and general manager with EPIC Divers & Marine Contrac- tors, a subsidiary of Tetra Technologies; and worked across 36 countries in fi ve continents.

CARIS, Kongsberg

Renew MOU

CARIS and Kongsberg Maritime put pen to paper on an enhanced Memo- randum of Understanding (MOU) at

Oceanology International 2014 in Lon- don. CARIS and Kongsberg, who have partnered for over a decade, continue to work closely together to ensure their hydrographic solutions work hand- in-hand. Expanding upon previously signed agreements, the renewed MOU will continue to facilitate the migration of Kongsberg Neptune users to the CA-

RIS HIPS and SIPS software. In addi- tion to this, CARIS will now be able to provide Kongsberg’s SISQA software with HIPS and SIPS, which will allow users to accurately re-sound velocity correct Kongsberg multibeam data in

CARIS using the original proprietary algorithms.

Wilson Returns to

Falmouth Scientifi c

Falmouth Scientifi c, Inc. (FSI), a Catau- met, Mass.-based designer and manu- facturer of precision oceanographic in- strumentation and systems, appointed

Birns Wilson Kongsberg’s Uhlen, Caris’ Hoggarth @ OI ‘14

Photo: Harkand

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