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Foreship targets US West Coast cruise ship business

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Marcus Höglund, SVP engineering services, will become head of operations North America
Naval architecture, design and marine engineering specialist Foreship is transferring a senior member of its management team in Finland to lead its Seattle operation. This move is aimed at expanding West Coast activities and providing a new focus for the company's US cruise ship customer base.

Marcus Höglund to head North America operations

Marcus Höglund, SVP engineering services, will become head of operations North America, starting Oct. 8. He'll lead a team including existing staff in Seattle and in the company’s Fort Lauderdale office.

Höglund has worked worldwide in the cruise sector throughout a more than 20-year career and was one of Foreship’s founders in 2002. He has played a key role in some of the company’s highest profile new construction and conversion projects. In addition, as part of an earlier posting, he has experience working in the US on complex cruise ship engineering and refurbishment projects.

'We will support the requirements of a distinct set of owners by making our full range of services available to West Coast customers through a single point of contact based in the same time zone,' Foreship managing director Lauri Haavisto said. 'Of course, Marcus brings his comprehensive engineering experience to the post and particular insights on conversion and refurbishment projects. However, he also brings a complete knowledge of what Foreship can do for customers and the internal Foreship relationships to get things done in ways that best suit customers with different degrees of in-house expertise.'

Höglund said he is looking forward to making Foreship’s full resources and services available to the West Coast’s sizeable cruise ship and ferry owning community, and to renewing and developing relationships with regional shipyards.

Wide range of expertise

'Many know Foreship as the company with the most extensive reference list in cruise ship construction and conversion but are not so familiar with how that experience can be deployed to enhance design, project management, documentation and approvals processes,' he said. 'They may also not be fully aware of the full scope of our expertise across the luxury and expedition cruise ship markets, or our work on vessel performance analysis, energy saving, fuel consumption optimization, ballast water system retrofits, or battery and fuel cell technologies.'

Haavisto added that Höglund’s posting also signals Foreship’s continuing commitment to its US-based operation, where the company seeks to develop young talent continuously, having hired and trained six US graduates in naval architecture over the last two years alone.