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sity. “If everybody speaks the same tune, then you’re going

The Next 150 Years to get tunnel vision. And we ? ght tunnel vision every day.”

For all his interest in emerging technology, van Hem-

His advice to someone considering maritime is to devel- men returns repeatedly to people.

His father and grandfather remain his most important op genuine expertise, demonstrate initiative and become in? uences. Both, he recalls, were accomplished technical comfortable working through unfamiliar problems.

The industry, after all, is not short of challenges.

managers who gave younger colleagues the con? dence to

And if van Hemmen’s career demonstrates anything, it is work independently. When those colleagues encountered that a maritime career rarely follows a predictable course. problems, the response was not criticism.

Nearly 40 years after being welcomed to a supposedly dy-

It was an invitation to solve the problem together.

Other mentors included yacht designer Johan Valentijn ing industry, he sees more opportunities, more compli- and engineers who helped develop his technical expertise. cated technology and more reasons for young people to

Van Hemmen also draws inspiration from people outside become involved. The task now is to make sure they know maritime, including Admiral Wayne Meyer, Ted Turner, Pete those opportunities exist.

Seeger, John Lewis and others who demonstrated indepen-

Watch the full Maritime dence, leadership or a willingness to challenge convention.

Matters: The MarineLink

At Martin & Ottaway, he has tried to create a culture

Podcast episode with Rik van Hemmen, President, in which engineers with different backgrounds and view-

Martin & Ottaway: points work together.

His most important management lesson is straightfor- ward. “Don’t hire somebody like yourself.”

Learn more about the SL7Expo and its proposed role in

For a consulting ? rm regularly called upon to solve un- inspiring maritime’s next generation: https://sl7expo.org/ usual problems, intellectual diversity is a practical neces- www.marinelink.com MN 13|