Page 38: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Mar/Apr 2026)

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PIONEER PROFILE PER SÆVIK "I have to be honest — since my illness, I don’t have the same drive I once had."

Per Sævik

Image courtesy Josefne Spiro really have initiated a lot of things I perhaps lacked the "I JUST WANTED TO SEE IF I prerequisites for," Per admits. "If I had made fewer ill-con-

COULD DO IT"

I meet him in the polar opposite of his home residence: sidered investments, we would certainly be sitting quite comfortably today." a spacious corner offce on the fourth foor of an architec-

He has spoken before about the times the family busi- tural landmark. Constructed of glass and stone with pan- oramic views of the fjord, the Havila building is known ness teetered on the brink of bankruptcy during the oil crisis, entangled in debt negotiations with eleven different locally as "The Diamond."

If you bypass the elevator and take the stairs from the banks, shareholders, and bondholders.

"But all in all," Per continues with a smile, "the good ground foor up to Havila Holding—climbing past the headquarters of Havila Voyages and Havila Shipping—you decisions have outnumbered the bad." are met at the very frst step by a wall adorned with an old

BUILDING A COMMUNITY photograph of a young fsherman in a rowboat. Beside it

When Per speaks of "good decisions," he doesn’t pri- is the famous quote: "I just wanted to see if I could do it."

That was six-year-old Per’s answer when his horrifed marily measure the return by the bottom line. His driving mother asked what on earth he had been thinking, taking force is the joy of creation; it is the belief that one should the rowboat out alone and rowing a full nautical mile from be of "use and beneft" to others. Per views business leaders as community builders with a responsibility that extends home, straight across the fjord to the town of Fosnavåg.

Since then, it has become something of a life rule: the far beyond the workplace.

“In the fnancial world, it can be tempting to take the more challenging a task, the more exciting it is to attempt.

"Now that I’ve turned 85, I refect on the fact that I easy way out—to invest smartly and let the money work 38 OFFSHORE ENGINEER OEDIGITAL.COM