Global Marine Systems Limited (GMSL) trading as the Global Marine Group (GMG), a market leader in offshore engineering services to the telecommunications, renewables and oil & gas industries, announced today that it has appointed Ian Bryan, Managing Director of Group Operations; Mike Daniel, Managing Director of Global Offshore and Mark Preece, Managing Director of CWind to its Board of Directors effective from July 2nd 2018. These appointments expands the Board from four members which include; Dick Fagerstal Chairman, Ian Douglas Chief Executive Officer, Richard Fraser-Smith Chief Financial Officer and Bruce Neilson-Watts Managing Director, Global Marine to seven directors, that share a combined wealth of industry and business transformation experience ensuring successful onward stewardship.
Mr. Bryan, has been working for the Group since August 2016, and brings a comprehensive background in marine engineering and renewable energy. Mr. Bryan is a Chartered Engineer, and has successfully delivered major capital projects and launched new service lines in multiple sectors.
Mr. Daniel, has led Global Offshore since the acquisition in 2017 and is an industry veteran with over 35 years’ experience. He directs a proven team that has an exemplary track record in successful operational delivery for major global companies such as E.ON, Shell and BP.
Mr. Preece, who has worked extensively in the offshore and maritime sectors, joined CWind in 2017. He has built a solid reputation for delivering complex, high value projects, having formerly served as Executive Vice Chairman at PDi Ltd, CEO of CEONA Offshore and CEO of Reef Subsea.
Mr. Ian Douglas, Chief Executive Officer of Global Marine Group said “Following the Group’s recent successes, in particular the acquisition and subsequent integration of the Global Offshore team and the formation of CWind Taiwan, it is now the right time to add strength to our Board to further enable our future growth.”
Mr. Douglas added, “We have a robust business model which brings innovative offshore engineering capabilities to multiple sectors. I’m delighted that we’ve added these three accomplished business leaders to the Board, I am confident that they will add great value and that the business will benefit from their insights, commercial acumen and governance.”
For the last couple of weeks, Megan, an A level student from Great Baddow High School in Chelmsford, has been undertaking work experience within our Engineering Team based at our Head Office.
As an engineering organisation, we strongly advocate participation in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects which open doors to careers within the engineering industry.
“For the last two weeks of the school summer half term I have participated in a work experience placement within the Engineering Team at Global Marine, Chelmsford. I am currently studying A Level Physics, History and Geography and as a career I want to consider engineering. I aim to be an aircraft/weapons engineer in the Royal Navy, then after serving for the Royal Navy I would like to consider an engineering firm such as Global Marine Group.
During my placement I have been introduced to AutoCAD and SolidWorks which are extensively used in the engineering environment. During my placement, I have also been able to experience a day in the Huawei Marine development labs and work alongside a Ship Superintendent who is responsible for the maintenance of the company’s construction vessels. During my placement I have completed 3D printing, cable testing and have been included in innovation ideas which have the potential to develop the engineering of today. As an overview I was set a project task “How can rock berm be minimised in size?”, which I then presented to fellow Engineers in the company. The project included work from SolidWorks, AutoCAD, ideas from those of the engineering team and further independent research.
As a visitor to Global Marine Group I have felt very welcome and involved. Everyone seems happy to work and motivated! The Company is eye opening… not just focused on business targets, but also their people (the internal news on their intranet, report cards around the site and their cycle rides are evidence of this). This placement has given me an eye opener to engineering that not many people tend to consider – unlike vehicle engineering – I mean do you know how fibre optic cables are laid under the sea?”
Megan pictured with Andy Newman, our Engineering Manager.
Next week, a team of amateur and enthusiastic riders from Global Marine, CWind and Global Offshore, all part of the Global Marine Group, will be taking part in a two-day cycle challenge. The challenge will cover a distance of 350 kilometres starting at our depot in Grimsby, travelling over the North Yorkshire Moors, and finishing at our Blyth Offshore Support Hub.
It is not only a personal challenge for the riders but an excellent opportunity to raise sponsorship for a very worthwhile charity supported by the organisation, The Jubilee Sailing Trust (jst.org.uk). The JST takes both disabled and able-bodied people to sea on their purpose build tall ships, promoting equality, sharing, and to celebrate individual differences by working together to achieve greater things.
GMG would like to thank suppliers, partners and friends who have kindly sponsored the event: MODUS, OREC, JME, ETA, Quadrant, Prysmian Group, H&Askham, Fugro, PSCSL, Bollington, Willis and Endurance Worldwide. To make a donation, please click here: https://give.everydayhero.com/uk/global-marine-group-the-pedal-2018/
At the end of June we held our Annual Awards Evening recognising employees and teams both on and offshore, right across the Global Marine Group.
Designed to reward and recognise outstanding achievements over the last 12 months, the categories reflect the businesses underpinning values. Over 100 nominations were made by peers throughout the company.
Congratulations to all of our winners:
OFFSHORE INDIVIDUAL: recognising an individual who has gone above and beyond expectations. A person who has outstanding commitment and dedication to the company and their role, who builds strong relationships with others and always works to the highest standards to achieve business goals.
Our winner, Richard Flanders, the newest Captain in our fleet, was nominated on more than one occasion and was described as a true leader, a credit to the organisation and committed to working in collaboration.
ONSHORE INDIVIDUAL: recognising a person who works to exceptionally high standards, achieves company goals and supports company values.
Our winner, Bev Steel, HR Business Partner, was described in her nomination as the go-to person, offering calm reassurance, a pragmatic and methodical approach, and willingly offering support to everyone.
OFFSHORE TEAM: presented in honour of a team who are not only supportive, but respectful of each other and those that they work with.
Our winners, the C.S. Sovereign team, pulled together to achieve project success, delivering a particularly great job in very challenging conditions.
ONSHORE TEAM: recognising a team who have outstanding dedication and commitment to each other and the company; delivering on goals by being results focused and uncompromising on the quality of their performance.
Our winners, the Global Offshore team, have undergone a huge amount of change in the last 12 months, not only signing some fantastic projects, but have also been described as being a great example of the professionalism that we strive for across the business as well as being a joy to work with.
INNOVATION: dedicated to individuals and teams who are always thinking outside of the box and constantly working to improve our products, services and process to better deliver for our customers.
Ours winners, Tom Bridle & Josh Brennan, both from our CWind vessels team, were recognised for being instrumental in the implementation of new technology to allow the CTV teams to work smarter by allowing them to operate more proactively and focused on the bigger picture to deliver each project successfully.
COMMERCIAL FOCUS: recognising an individual or team that works smartly to help achieve the company’s goals and reflects the importance of our commercial approach in the way that they work.
Nominated multiple times, our winner, Andy Lloyd, Director of Power Cables, has been described as having foresight and patience, as well as, applying himself energetically and thoroughly to bring an idea to fruition with relation to our Complete Cable Care service recently launched.
EXCELLENCE & CAPABILITY: celebrating a standout individual or team who has endless enthusiasm, skills and capabilities and has delivered outstanding results during the last 12 months.
Our well-deserved winner, Hamish Yates, was nominated by colleagues for the pivotal role that he played in a key business development for the group this year in our new Joint Venture, CWind Taiwan. Hamish worked hard to ensure legal requirements were met, developing a sound business case and working to get buy-in from and build relationships with multiple stakeholders.
CUSTOMER FOCUS: recognising an individual for their customer-focused culture and behaviour. A person who always puts the customer, whether that be internal or external, at the heart of their activities and encourages others to do the same.
Having been nominated multiple time, our winner, Jess Finch, was described as tireless in her pursuit, focused, commercially-driven and a real advocate of putting the customer first.
Our Safety Champion program looks to reward and promote the contributions of individuals who are actively supporting the growth of our safety culture through their safe working activities, ideas and engagement. We are passionate about ensuring that we all play a crucial part in the safety of ourselves, our colleagues and our partners.
Global Marine Group’s Safety Champion for 2018 is AB Edward Masendo, who, whilst working onboard our vessel the CS Recorder, exercised the STOP Work Authority on seeing some unsafe hot works being conducted by a contractor. His quick and confident actions exemplify the safety first behaviour that we want to see across our whole workforce.
The Directors Choice award recognises someone who has been a standout employee across the year, selected by Ian Douglas, our CEO.
Our winner, Mark Sarsfield, Electrical Superintendent was nominated it several categories for our awards this year, by people right across the business, both shore and fleet-based, showing what an all-round team player he is. His commitment and enthusiasm is infectious. And his dedication to supporting the vessels, often under considerable amounts of pressure, is fantastic to see. In other nominations he was described by his peers as inspirational, loyal, trustworthy and reliable, with knowledge that is unparalleled.
For 20 years now, since 1998 the Cable Retriever and Global Marine Group, has been supporting the Ninos Pag Asa Orphanage in the Philippines. At the very beginning, the team onboard the vessel helped to build the facility, from a wooden shed and a leaking portacabin. The centre is now housed in a two-storey multi-purpose building that has a training facility and living quarters for the children. As a Group we provide funds to cover the daily needs of the children – food, utilities, sponsoring of education and training programs for those who can’t attend the public schools as well as operations for children who have cleft lip and palate or other birth defects that jeopardise their self-esteem and affect their social life.
However, none of the support that we offer would be possible if it wasn’t for the love and support of Cely, who manages the centre. Her drive and dedication to help better the lives of so many children over the years is astounding. Our Special Recognition award is to say a big thank you and appreciation to Cely Menor for helping us to help so many.
The Global Marine Group (GMG), a market leader in offshore engineering services to the telecommunications, renewables and oil & gas industries, announced today the appointment of Simon Hibberd as Managing Director of its joint venture S. B. Submarine Systems (SBSS), China’s leading provider of subsea cable installation and maintenance services.
Mr. Hibberd, who began his role on 4th May 2018, brings vast industry experience having worked for Global Marine since 1988. Mr. Hibberd initially worked on board Global Marine’s cable ships, rising to the rank of Commander where he completed the installation of landmark fibre optic and power cable projects, including: Brazilian Festoon, PC1, TAT14, EAC and Estlink. In 2007, he moved ashore and has subsequently held a number of senior posts at the Company’s UK head office including Director Fleet & Operational Support then Director, Global Technical Sales, and most recently focusing on business development opportunities in Asia.
“Simon’s operational knowledge, combined with managerial and business development experience gained through his career within the Global Marine Group, makes him a great fit for this key role,” said Ian Douglas, Chief Executive Officer of Global Marine Group. “Simon will lead an organisation of more than 150 employees that achieved sales of nearly US $50M in 2017. His intrinsic understanding of offshore cable work and aptitude for delivering complex subsea projects are all essential qualities that should help us continue to grow SBSS’ position in the market.”
Mr. Douglas added, “SBSS has evolved tremendously since its formation in 1995 and continues to adapt to the changing market landscape. Today the offshore renewables market in China presents a significant growth opportunity, with 25 projects currently under construction or in pre-construction. With Simon at the helm of SBSS, we believe they are well placed to support this dynamic and growing industry.”
Ian Douglas Wins CEO Today Magazine European Awards
Global Marine Group is pleased to officially announce that Ian Douglas has been shortlisted as a winner for CEO Today Magazine’s Europe Awards 2018. This accolade demonstrates both Ian & the Company’s industry expertise.
About Global Marine Group
Global Marine Group (GMG) is an innovative market leader in offshore engineering, which is widely recognised as a high quality, independent strategic partner across multiple sectors.
The Group consists of three business units; CWind, delivering power cable and asset management services topside and subsea to the offshore renewables and utilities market, Global Marine, providing fibre optic cable solutions to the telecommunications and oil & gas markets and Global Offshore, delivering trenching and power cable lay services to the oil & gas industry. The insatiable demand for international communication bandwidth, driven by the internet, and the revolution in offshore renewable energy generation, has created a growing demand for GMG’s comprehensive offering. The Company has an extensive global footprint with two successful joint ventures in China, S. B. Submarine Systems and Huawei Marine, and one joint venture in Taiwan, CWind Taiwan. GMG’s combined experience and knowledge has led to significant embedded intellectual property and an enviable track-record.
In 2017, GMG introduced its third business unit, Global Offshore, and added the Global Symphony to its fleet to support GMG’s trenching and power cable laying capabilities. GMG’s crew transfer vessel (CTV) fleet has conducted operations at all of the UK’s offshore wind farms.
GMG owns the world’s largest independent marine contracting fleet. The Company’s workforce has an impressive total of over 6,300 years’ service, and an average service length of 11.8 years. The Company has installed over 300,000km of subsea cable, 21 percent of the world total. The Company delivers maintenance support in three of the world’s six contracted telecommunications cable maintenance zone agreements, and in the past five years, has achieved an impressive 99.7 percent of the KPIs across all of its maintenance agreements. The Group aspires to achieve its vision of ‘engineering a clean and connected future’.
GMG was presented with Shipowner of the Year Award by Offshore Support Journal earlier in 2018, in recognition of a company that, above all others, demonstrates excellence in the operation of its vessels and has, in the past year, demonstrated an exemplary record of achievement in at least one of the following categories: business development and growth of safety, quality, efficiency or environmental sustainability.
This award follows GMG’s recent success at the Pacific Telecommunications Council Conference held in January 2018 where the Company was announced as runner up in the Lifetime Innovation Award Category for its contribution to Universal Joint (UJ) and Universal Quick Joint (UQJ) technological developments
Ian Douglas became Chief Executive Officer of Global Marine Group (GMG) in 2011. He has been the driving force of the Company’s transformation into an innovative market leader in offshore engineering. He renewed the Company’s focus on core capabilities, while also shedding underperforming assets. In 2014, Mr. Douglas brought on board supportive new shareholders through a transaction with HC2 Holdings, a publically traded (NYSE:HCHC) diversified holding company based in the U.S. In recent years, he has orchestrated strategic acquisitions to align with the changing demands of the marketplace, capitalise on the expanding construction and maintenance market in offshore wind, and maintain the Company’s position as a leading player in the installation and repair of subsea telecommunications cables.
Mr. Douglas lived and worked in Asia from 2002 to 2016, when he returned to the UK. While in Asia, he led the diversification and growth of GMG’s Shanghai-headquartered joint venture, S. B. Submarine Systems, which since its formation in 1995 has become the leading provider of cable lay and repair services in China. In 2008, Mr. Douglas founded and became the inaugural CEO of Huawei Marine Networks (HMN), a joint venture between Global Marine and global telecommunications leader Huawei Technologies. Since then, HMN has become a top three player in the turnkey telecommunications market, completing more than 40 major projects providing broadband data technologies globally.
With a robust outlook on the sector, Mr. Douglas is focused on a long-term growth agenda, including building a strong team throughout the business, continued modernisation of the fleet and asset base, developing the Company’s range of services and bringing enabling technologies to the forefront.
Mr. Douglas is a Chartered Engineer with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA from Henley. He is one of only a handful of business leaders to receive the Friendship Award – the highest honour awarded by the Chinese Government for contributions to China.
Global Marine Group is pleased to share Scottish & Southern Electricity Networks’ latest press release regarding a power cable replacement in the Orkney Isles to be completed by the Global Marine Group.
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) has awarded a contract to marine cable specialist, Global Marine Group, to install and commission a 10.8km electricity cable between Rousay and Westray in the Orkney Isles.
The new cable is being installed as part of SSEN’s ongoing electricity distribution subsea cable replacement programme and will replace the existing 35-year-old cable which is coming to the end of its operational life.
John Buchan, Head of Subsea Cable Projects said: “Appointing Global Marine Group marks an important milestone for the delivery of the Rousay Westray project. With our contractor now on board, plans are being finalised ready to start work onsite in Spring 2018. This is the first time SSEN has worked with this contractor and we are delighted to have them on board.”
The Rousay -Westray submarine cable replacement is one of a number of projects which are being progressed to maintain the electricity distribution infrastructure serving the Scottish islands, ensuring continued security of supply for Scotland’s island communities.
From now until 2023, around 90km of submarine cables are due to be replaced – a fifth of the total number currently in operation.
Mike Daniel, Global Marine Group said: “We’re very proud to have secured our first cable replacement contract with Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks and we are looking forward to working with the SSEN team to deliver this vital project. Global Marine Group brings together a vast set of experience in this field, the CWind & Global Offshore team will execute this project and I have every confidence that we deliver this successfully. We are looking forward to building a long-term partnership with SSEN.”
The Rousay-Westray works are scheduled to start in Spring 2018, with the new cable due to be commissioned by Summer 2018 when it will be providing a continued safe and reliable source of electricity to local homes and businesses.
The Global Marine Group (GMG), a market leader in offshore engineering services to the telecommunications, renewables and oil & gas industries, announces being named the Offshore Support Journal’s (OSJ) Shipowner of the Year 2018. GMG was presented with the title at the annual awards ceremony, held earlier this month in London, with over 500 delegates from the offshore industry in attendance.
An unprecedented 8,300 online votes were submitted across the ten categories, in the eighth year of these prominent industry awards. The OSJ Shipowner of the Year category recognises a company which above all others demonstrates excellence in the operation of its vessels and has, in the past year, demonstrated an exemplary record of achievement in at least one of the following categories: business development and growth of safety, quality, efficiency or environmental sustainability.
“To be recognised by our industry peers in this category is a real tribute to the entire team here at Global Marine Group,” said Ian Douglas, Chief Executive Officer of Global Marine Group. “This achievement emphasises our fleet’s exemplary track record of successfully executing projects around the world, and across multiple sectors.”
GMG’s cable ships have installed over 300,000 kilometres of fibre optic cable, and today, the Company operates in three of the world’s six telecommunications maintenance zones, and has completed 33 percent of global fibre optic cable repairs. Collaboratively GMG has installed 387 inter-array cables and 421 cable pull-ins across 40 European offshore wind farms.
Mr. Douglas continued, “Last year we introduced our third business unit, Global Offshore, into the Group and added the Global Symphony to our fleet to support our trenching and power cable laying capabilities. Our crew transfer vessel (CTV) fleet has conducted operations at all of the UK’s offshore wind farms, and in January this year, we announced a joint venture in Taiwan, where our expertise will support the exponential growth of this Asian market. I am proud of our Group commitment to engineer a clean and connected future.”
This award follows GMG’s recent success at the Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC) Conference held in January 2018 where the Company was announced as runner up in the Lifetime Innovation Award Category for its contribution to Universal Joint (UJ) and Universal Quick Joint (UQJ) technological developments.
Global Marine Systems Limited, the UK headquartered world leader in subsea cable route design, installation and maintenance, has successfully completed a complex, subsea installation project for Ocean Networks Canada on their NEPTUNE ocean observatory off the West coast of Vancouver Island.
An initiative of the University of Victoria, Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) monitors ocean environments off the west and east coasts of Canada and the Arctic for scientific research, society, and industry. One of these observatories is NEPTUNE, a subsea system that comprises of an 815km loop of fibre optic cable, which connects a number of instrument sites that undertake monitoring across a wide range of ocean environments. Global Marine’s remit included the installation of four fibre optic cables with associated subsea plant on each end (mudmats).
The first phase of the project, which involved some cable recovery, was completed in October 2015; whilst the second phase that has just been completed; it presented a far greater engineering challenge. This required positioning the eight mudmats, each weighing approximately 1.8 tonnes with great precision in water depths ranging from 1,240 to 2,320 metres. This challenging project relied on the skill and experience of the officers and crew of the Wave Venture, who worked in combination with a second exploration vessel, Nautilus, who used its deep water ROV, Hercules, to provide touchdown monitoring of the mudmats and then connected them to the nodes and other instruments. Thanks to a high level of pre-project engineering planning and solution design, Wave Venture required only a single voyage to install the four cables and undertake some other related work.
“On behalf of Ocean Networks Canada we would like to extend a large thank you to the Wave Venture crew for their efforts and professionalism, as well as the Global Marine support team” said Ian Kulin, Associate Director, Marine Operations at ONC. “Working with the Wave Venture and the Nautilus, all planned work was completed successfully.” As a result, ONC’s top goals for 2016 were achieved.
John Walters, Director, Maintenance at Global Marine added, “This project required extensive planning by Ocean Networks Canada and Global Marine, all credit to the shipboard teams on Nautilus and Wave Venture who implemented those plans very well indeed. The outcome is testament to the versatility of Wave Venture and the North America Zone; it is not often offshore cable repair vessels are mobilised to handle mudmats and scientific nodes. We are delighted to have played our part in the reinstatement and expansion of the NEPTUNE observatory.”
Within the same voyage as the NEPTUNE cable installations, Global Marine also successfully completed an operation to reinstate connectivity to ONC’s Barkley Canyon Node under the North America Zone cable maintenance contract. This work firstly saw the Barkley Canyon spur cable recovered with the assistance of Hercules, before Global Marine experts jointed it to the 75m tail of the Barkley Canyon node, which was also on board Wave Venture having been previously recovered.
The node itself is housed inside a protective Trawl Resistant Frame (TRF), which weighs approximately 9.2 tonnes in total, and this was then deployed to the seabed approximately 12m from the Hydrates cable frame in 640m of water, and subsequently plugged into the node by Hercules. Next, the Upper Slope Science cable was recovered ready for ONC technicians to re-terminate. Once terminated, this was then redeployed to within the required 20m range of the node, and also plugged in by Hercules. The successfully completed maintenance operations by Global Marine have reconnected scientific instruments, which had been out of action as a result of suspected trawl fishing activity since January 2015.
Global Marine has an extensive track record in subsea engineering: having installed in excess of 300,000km of fibre optic cable, and today managing a maintenance footprint of nearly 400,000km of a total cable maintenance base of 1,060,000km, and to date has performed 33% of maintenance operations on fibre optic cables worldwide.
On Monday 27th June, Global Marine held a customer visit aboard specialist cable installation vessel, the C.S. Sovereign.
The day enabled key customers and partners to meet the captain and crew as well as giving them the unique opportunity to tour the vessel. The tour showcased the ship’s strong track record and key capabilities both within the telecoms and renewables markets.
The vessel is currently situated in dry dock in Bremerhaven port, in readiness for her forthcoming project working to install inter array cables for the German Offshore wind farm, Wikinger.
The C.S. Sovereign is the ideal vessel for the installation and burial of cables for this sector being purpose built for this work and equipped with two, powered 2,300 tonne ‘basket’ turntables, designed to operate at a maximum linear speed of 900m/hour, optimising the cost-efficiency of cable-laying. Additionally, her open deck allows the deployment of a variety of subsea vehicles to assist in the process.
Her accomplished track record in the sector has seen her install almost 20% of inter array cables globally, including those on Europe’s first commercial windfarm, Kentish Flats, in 2002.
