Leading offshore geotechnical engineering and drilling company Geoquip Marine, has announced two significant new appointments.

Dennis van den Bulk will be joining the Sales and Business Development team, with responsibility for global sales, marketing and tendering. Dennis joins from Fugro where he was the Divisional Director of Marine Geotechnics for Europe and Africa.

Dennis will co-lead the team, along with Ian Hodder, who has been promoted internally following a highly successful period of new project high profile wins.

Geoquip Marine has also appointed Nico Meijering, who takes leadership of the company’s Marine Operations Department. Nico was also formerly with Fugro, where he was Senior Vessel Manager. At Geoquip Marine he has been given responsibility for the operational management of the five specialised geotechnical vessels in the company’s permanent fleet of the Geoquip Speer, Geoquip Saentis, Geoquip Investigator, Dina Polaris and Poseidon 1.

“We have witnessed an intensive period of growth over the last three years and to sustain this we need to appoint very high quality staff at both the corporate and operational ends of the business who can work to the very high standards we demand of ourselves,” comments Chief Executive Officer Stewart Higginson.

“With their years spent at Fugro both Dennis and Nico established industry-wide reputations for effectiveness and professionalism in their respective roles. This makes them a perfect fit for Geoquip Marine, where they will contribute significantly to assisting us to maintain our core commercial advantage. We are delighted to welcome them to the team.

“The promotion of Ian Hodder to co-lead the Business Development team with Dennis is no less significant. We have updated our sales and marketing strategy to conciliate activity in our historical core of oil and gas but to focus on the substantial opportunities presented by the offshore renewable energy sector, which has accounted for a significant and ever increasing percentage of our growth in the last three years. Ian is a consummate professional and his established understanding of the business over many years in the industry, his knowledge and skills combine with Dennis to present a formidable team.”