Sanmar Shipyards has appointed three new directors to drive forward its mission to lead the tug and towing sector into a sustainable, environmentally-conscious future, based on low and no emission tugboats, according to the company's release.
All three have expertise and practical experience of the new and developing technologies and alternative fuels that are enabling this change to happen, and will use this depth of knowledge to help drive Sanmar’s ambitious plans forward.
The three new directors are Tamer Geçkin, Hakan Tunç and Özer İlhan, who have all been appointed from manager roles within Sanmar. Their appointments, which have been made in the past couple of months, coincide with Sanmar acquiring a third custom-built shipyard which, once operational, will be optimised for construction of its new Electra electric tugboat series, designed by Robert Allan Ltd.
Geçkin, who was previously R&D and Electrical Systems Manager and becomes R&D and Electrical Systems Director, is currently co-ordinator of Sanmar’s project to build three fully electric tugboats and dual-fuel tugboats for Seaspan Haisea and was previously project manager when Sanmar built the world’s first LNG-fuelled tug.
Tunç, who has been promoted from Procurement Manager to Engineering Director, graduated from the Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering faculty of Istanbul Technical University with a masters’ degree in business administration. He has worked in tugboat construction for 17 years and has vast experience in engineering and strategical procurement. He joined Sanmar in 2016, working as project manager on the Sırapınar, Delicay and Yenicay tugboat series, adding procurement manager to his responsibilities in 2017. He is currently the engineering director responsible, with the help of senior managers, for the planning, supply & chain and quality management departments.
İlhan, has been appointed Design & Development Director having previously been Design & Development Manager. He gained a BSc in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from Istanbul Technical University in 1995.