Page 71: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (March 2011)

March 2011 www.marinelink.com 71

Halawi Appointed CEO of Thuraya

Thuraya Telecom- munications Com- pany, a mobile satellite communica- tions company, ap- pointed Samer

Halawi as Chief Ex- ecutive Officer. Ha- lawi assumed the office on January 23, 2011 following the return of Yousuf Al

Sayed to the Etisalat Group.

DePauw Promoted at GE Marine

GE Marine ap- pointed David J. De-

Pauw as Director,

Sales and Business

Development, for its aeroderivative ma- rine gas turbine busi- ness. Most recently,

DePauw was Services Director for GE

Marine, helping build the marine services business for GE Aviation. Over a three- year period, he led the LM2500+G4 gas turbine development program that in- cluded three instrumented engine tests and sales in four target markets: oil and gas, power generation, marine propul- sion, and service upgrades. In 2003, as the LM1600/LM2500 Product Line Man- ager, DePauw used engineering and busi- ness skills to lead an LM2500 gas turbine cross-functional business team.

Marine Travelift Promotes Johnson

Jason Johnson was promoted to North

American Sales

Manager for Marine

Travelift, Inc. in

Sturgeon Bay. John- son will be responsi- ble for business development and marine sales in the

Americas for the Company. Johnson was hired by Marine Travelift in 2008 as a

Sales Engineer. He holds a Bachelor of

Science Degree in Marina Management from the Maine Maritime Academy, and serves on the IMI (International Marina

Institute) Advisory Committee.

BV, Russian Register Sign Agreement

Bureau Veritas (BV) and Russian Mar- itime Register of Shipping (RS) signed a three-year co-operation agreement cov- ering the development of joint guidelines for LNG carriers and Offshore Floating

Production Units (FPUs). Under the agreement, common guidelines for LNG carriers, based on GAP analyses as well as the BV and RS rules and the IMO IGC

Code, are expected to be published in first-quarter 2012. These will include the requirement for operating in Arctic areas.

Work on producing common guidelines for FPUs, meanwhile, will start in third- quarter 2011. In addition to the parame- ters used for the LNG guidelines, these will include feedback gained from work undertaken in connection with a project involving the Shtokman natural gas field in the Russian sector of the Barents Sea, one of the largest in the world.

GAC Extends Network to Bahamas

Lars Heisselberg, Elbert, and Kumar Gane- san, Business Manager, Global Hub

Services USA.

GAC strengthened its global shipping network with the signing of an alliance agreement with Bahamian agency Elnet

Maritime Co. Ltd., to form GAC-Elnet, effective March 1, 2011. Elnet Maritime

Co. Ltd. was founded by shipping vet- eran Elbert ‘Ellie’ Hepburn in 2008 after serving a variety of top managerial posi- tions at agencies in Grand Bahamas.

Since then, the company has provided ef- fective and efficient first-class agency services to Principals with vessels calling at ports throughout The Bahamas.

NEWS PEOPLE & COMPANY NEWS

OMSA’s New Leadership:

Hornbeck, Adams

Offshore Marine Service Associa- tion (OMSA) announced a rotation of the association’s officers. Todd

Hornbeck (above) will succeed

Otto Candies III as chairman of the

Board, Robert Clemons will ad- vance to Vice Chairman and Ben

Bordelon will serve as Secretary and Treasurer. Jim Adams, who had been working in his interim position since August, was named as the association’s President and

CEO. Todd Hornbeck, CEO Horn- beck Offshore Operators, Inc.;

Robert Clemons, Vice President and General Manager of the Amer- icas Division SEACOR Marine,

LLC; Ben Bordelon, Executive

Vice President of Repair Bollinger

Shipyards, Inc.

Ward Joins The McLean Group

The McLean Group middle market investment bank announced that

Harry Ward has joined its team and will lead its Marine Transportation and Logistics practice. With a strong background in US and Eu- ropean marine equipment markets,

Harry is well-positioned as a spe- cialist in private maritime M&A transactions. Harry is a former US

Navy helicopter pilot and is based in Norfolk, VA.

ABS President and COO Christopher J.

Wiernicki will assume the duties of Chief

Executive Officer of ABS following the classification society’s annual meeting in

April 2011. Robert D. Somerville, cur- rently Chairman and CEO of ABS, will relinquish the CEO responsibilities while remaining Chairman of both ABS and the

ABS Group of Companies. Wiernicki, a member of the Board of Directors of

ABS, has been working closely with

Somerville for the last four years in his position as President and COO. The role of CEO will be in addition to Wiernicki’s existing responsibilities.

Commenting on the transition, Wier- nicki noted that “The scope of classifica- tion services has expanded significantly over the last few years and it is clear that it will continue to change at an even more rapid pace. ABS is determined to be the leader in defining the role of class in this new environment. My primary focus will be to ensure that ABS is at the forefront when it comes to providing the innova- tive products and efficient services that will define ABS as the class society of the future.” Wiernicki, a 17 year veteran of

ABS has held a number of other senior positions within the organization includ- ing President and COO of ABS Europe

Ltd, Chief Technology Officer and Presi- dent and COO of ABS Group. He joined

ABS in 1993 as Vice President of Engi- neering within the ABS Americas Divi- sion. Prior to ABS, Wiernicki was

President and Chief Executive of Design- ers and Planners Inc., one of the leading naval architecture firms in the United

States. Wiernicki holds a BS degree in

Civil Engineering from Vanderbilt Uni- versity and Masters’ degrees in Structural

Engineering from George Washington

University and Ocean Engineering from

Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Additionally, Wiernicki is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Advanced

Management Program.

Wiernicki Tapped as Next ABS CEO