Teledyne Gavia has announced the appointment of two new members of the Gavia Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) support team: Christopher Ordonez at the Gavia AUV Support facility in Falmouth, MA; and Eyjolfur Bjarnason (Eyjo) with the support team at the Gavia AUV manufacturing base in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Teledyne Marine Systems Director of Vehicle Sales Arnar Steingrimsson said,"We are delighted to welcome Chris Ordonez and Eyjolfur Bjarnason to the company.
"Their combined experience in the energy industry, and extensive knowledge of equipment, procedures and practices in the offshore business are a perfect match with our strategic enhancement of support for our growing customer base. With the rapidly expanding use of our AUVs in this sector, Chris and Eyjo will be a key part of our support strategy."
Chris joins Teledyne Gavia as senior field support engineer. He will be based out of the Teledyne Marine Systems facility in North Falmouth, MA, to support the expanding global Gavia AUV markets. His experience includes more than ten years in the commercial survey industry, including work as an offshore project engineer in the Gulf of Mexico, project management roles with AUVs and ROVs, and research work on subsea gliders at Oregon State University. Many in the industry will also know Chris from his active involvement in the Marine Technology Society in the Pacific Northwest.
"My offshore industry experience, broad marine technological skillset, and oceanographic & engineering education fit well with the Teledyne Gavia AUV technology and applications" said Chris.
"I hope my involvement will add value and coverage to our global customer service provision, especially in the energy and hydrographic sectors."
Ejyo joins the team in Reykjavik as a field service engineer. With his background as a party chief in the oil survey industry in Alberta, Eyjo brings an understanding of industry safety, work procedures and survey methods, and field service engineer experience to the Gavia team.
"I am very excited to be joining Teledyne Gavia. It’s a great modern technology that is finding many applications in the offshore industry. I look forward to applying myself 100% to the task of supporting Teledyne’s global AUV business", Eyjo said.
A number of survey companies operate fleets of Gavia AUVs in the offshore survey sector, including NCS Survey (Aberdeen, UK), UTEC Survey (Houston, USA), GAS Survey (Bologna, Italy), and PT Java Offshore (Jakarta, Indonesia). The low-logistics Gavia AUVs are primarily launched from vessels of opportunity or beaches for a variety of offshore tasks including pipeline inspection, restricted zone surveys around installations, rig moves and debris clearance surveys.