New competence will help Norwegian offshore wind companies succeed

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Chris Harman, Caroline Whittle and Cecilia Girard-Vika will be part of the Norwegian Offshore Wind team. 

Norwegian Offshore Wind are happy to have three new employees with exciting backgrounds on board.

Cecilia Girard Vika, Chris Harman and Caroline Whittle will be part of the administration in Norwegian Offshore Wind. The industry cluster aims to build a global leading supply chain in offshore wind, and with more than 360 members it is now the biggest offshore wind collaboration in Norway.

-With the rapid growth in the industry and in our cluster, we need the best competence in our team to be able to help our members succeed both at home and in the international markets. We are extremely happy to have these three employees joining us, says cluster manager Arvid Nesse.

 

Caroline Whittle

Caroline will be joining the cluster as a Business development manager from August 1^st. She has more than 30 years of experience within marketing and communication, with a focus on business development.

The last five years, Caroline has been the head of marketing at the Norwegian Maritime Authority (NMA). Her job at the NMA was to help secure Norway’s position as a world leading shipping nation and increase the size of the Norwegian flagged fleet. Her experience ranges from seafood, media, communication and design to regional business development and lobbying.

-Offshore wind offers vast opportunities on an international scale. I'm really looking forward to joining the NOW team and helping to establish Norway as a market leader in this incredibly exciting and developing market, says Whittle.

She will be based in Haugesund.

Cecilia Girard-Vika

Cecilia also joins Norwegian Offshore Wind straight from the Norwegian Maritime Authority. She will take the position as a Project Manager for the Marine Energy Test Centre (METCentre). Cecilie studied marine technology at the Norwegian University of Sciences and Technology (NTNU) and specialized within marine systems and green shipping.

During her 11 years at the Norwegian Maritime Authority she´s been involved in many different activities mainly related to making sure Norwegian flagged vessels are complying with the minimum safety standards and that their pollution limitations are met.  She has worked closely with ship owners, ship designers and shipyards with certification of fishing vessels.

- As I have often cursed the annoying strong winds in Haugesund, it will be fun to learn in more detail how this wind is being converted into valuable renewable energy. I am eager to discover the different technologies and learn how they are being tested at METCentre, says Girard-Vika.

Cecilie will be based in Haugesund.

 

Chris Harman

Chris will lead the innovation work at Norwegian Offshore Wind, which is one of the cluster´s three strategic focus areas. For the last five years he has led over 100 marine scientists at the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) covering topics like maritime sustainability, environmental monitoring and risk assessment, co-existence, technology development and application, and automated research infrastructure.

He holds a PhD in environmental chemistry  and will work strategically to facilitate innovation and technology projects together with the industry and the university sector. Further, he will seek funding for initiatives that will strengthen innovation in the offshore wind sector.

-I have «itchy fingers» to get started, as the Norwegians would say, and my motivation was certainly not reduced after the government set a goal of 30 GW offshore wind by 2040! The global challenges associated with climate change are fundamentally energy related and recent geopolitical changes have only further increased the urgency for a large-scale shift in the energy mix, says Chris.

He will be based in Kristiansand, which brings the cluster even closer to the many members in the southern part of Norway.

 

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