Executive Achievement: Eric van den Adel, Managing Director, Imtech Marine

The founding companies of Imtech go back to 1860, and last year the company celebrated its 150th anniversary. Imtech, a technical services provider, is organized in independent divisions each serving either a specific country or specific group of technologies in specific markets. Imtech Marine is the most international of the divisions with 73 offices in 23 countries and is composed of individual companies such as Imtech Marine & Offshore, Imtech Marine Germany, Radio Holland Group, Van Berge Henegouwen, Imtech Schiffbau-/Dockbautechnik, Royal Dirkzwager and Elkon.   

Under the leadership of Managing Director Eric van den Adel, Imtech Marine has organized itself in six regions worldwide to manage both projects and services businesses in the most efficient way and is expanding its offices in Asia Pacific, India, the Mediterranean and South America. At the same time existing offices will grow into full-service hubs by expanding their current portfolio with competencies such as electrical systems, information and communications technology and heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC).

Eric van den Adel is an accountant by trade and spent ten years at Ernst & Young and then a few years with a smaller accounting firm and then went off to a family owned company serving the truck automotive industry, where he also worked for 10 years. He was hired by Imtech in 2002 as its Director, Finance and Control, and became the Managing Director of the company in 2009.

After becoming Managing Director, van den Adel initiated a very ambitious business plan to grow the company to 1 billion euros by 2015. The company’s “Vision 2015” is essentially to grow its services business into lifecycle-focused partnerships with its customers. Van den Adel says the company will use Radio Holland’s renowned global network of service stations to strengthen Imtech’s network. Within its existing offices, Imtech will add its other core competencies. It will also strengthen its outfitting centers in China, the Singapore region and Turkey as well as review new opportunities in Canada, the Middle East and Brazil. What van den Adel wants to provide is efficient and smart technological solutions for newbuild ships and refit projects as well as high-quality services for ships in operation, and he believes by being very close to his clients Imtech can listen very carefully to their needs and jointly decide on the best newbuild and services strategy to enable optimal use of the customers’ fleets.

In order to be one of the top maritime players in the world, Imtech must remain an independent supplier, he says. And while not immediately striving to be the biggest in the industry, van den Adel made it clear he intends on Imtech being the best, delivering high-quality, on-time, competitively priced solutions. “We will achieve this through a lifecycle-based approach,” van den Adel said. “We have the skills in-house, from the initial conceptual design through engineering, installation, commissioning and subsequent full lifecycle service. And we see a strong demand in marine market approach to the lifetime of a vessel’s technical solutions while reducing the overall costs.”

One of the primary approaches of being a value-added, strategic partner with clients, he says, is being able to balance the benefits, costs and risks over the vessel’s entire lifespan. And van den Adel is leading the company further into “greener” pastures, in green-related technologies such as electrical propulsion, energy efficient HVAC systems, LED-based lighting concepts, shore power facilities and optimal routing. Additionally, Imtech has developed simulation techniques to demonstrate the contribution of the green technologies to overall savings. “More and more,” he said. “We are being selected to be a partner in the next generation of our customers’ green fleets.” He cites green projects that the company has been involved with such as the Rainbow Warrior III of Greenpeace, and PlanetSolar, the cruise vessels of Celebrity Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Lines, Borealis, DEME Breughel, and Jascon 18 and 35.

Meanwhile, Imtech has made great strides in becoming a leading services provider in its five primary markets: naval vessels, offshore (construction vessels, workboats and platforms) yachts, cruise ships and cargo vessels. We asked him about the yachting industry because MarEx is based in one of the largest markets in the world in Fort Lauderdale. And while the company provides the traditional services of electrical systems including propulsion, automation, HVAC and navigation and communications, it also provides high-end audio-video and ICT solutions. Imtech is one of the leading suppliers in the industry and works amongst others with the major yards in the Netherlands and Germany and has dedicated service stations in Antibes and Fort Lauderdale.

As pollution initiatives of IMO and the USCG are impacting commercial shipping, shipowners are faced with huge investments in order to meet compliance. We asked van den Adel about Imtech’s role in assisting vessel operators, and he said, “Commercial shipping will have a dominant role in the future of the world’s trade. As such, I believe that commercial shipping will grow significantly. On the other hand, I believe that also this sector should realize its impact on the environment and the future of Planet Earth. It will require significant investments, but the industry should combine efforts to contribute to the necessary reduction of overall emissions. I sincerely believe it can be done and I also feel it must be done; we owe that to our next generations. It clearly worked for the automotive industry, where the joined forces have been able to reduce emissions very substantially, so why should it not work in the marine industry. We at Imtech will contribute to this and will develop green consultancy skills where we can actively advise and support our customer to green the fleet at reasonable cost.” – MarEx