Etienne Rochat received a master degree of engineering from the Swiss Institute of Technology (EPFL, Lausanne) and a PhD in science from the University of Neuchâtel. Prior to working for OMNISENS, Etienne worked as research scientist at ABB Corporate Research Centre (Switzerland), developing fibre sensors for remote pressure and temperature measurement in oil reservoir, then as research fellow at the University of Essex (UK) in non-conventional optical communication.

Etienne Rochat joined OMNISENS in 2004 and worked originally as product manager for the company former trace gas analyser. In 2009, he became R&D manager for fibre optic distributed sensing, then head of engineering in 2010 and CTO in 2013. As such, he is in charge of product research & development for the company monitoring solution, focusing on optical interrogators, sensing cables and novel applications. The corresponding products are now deployed worldwide for pipeline monitoring (leak, intrusion, geotechnology) and power cable monitoring (load optimisation, fault finding).

Etienne Rochat is the author of more than 50 papers and 10 patent families.

Jakub is active in Service Product Management at NKT. In his role, Jakub is responsible for the product portfolio of NKT's Service Business Line covering both the offshore and onshore power cable segments. His primary focus is leveraging NKT's extensive HV cable experience to identify solutions for cable owners' and cable operators' needs as well as leading implementation teams to develop these solutions into products. Prior to transitioning to the Service Business Line, Jakub was a member of NKT's in-house Strategy Department where he supported numerous projects across the company's Business Lines, most notably shaping the Service Business Line's strategy. Before joining NKT, Jakub worked as a Management Consultant in Bain & Company's Brussels office and obtained a Master of Science degree in Energy Engineering from the KU Leuven and Grenoble INP.

Michael Brooks is Senior Executive at 4COffshore, London:
With 35 years diverse experience, he brings a deep understanding of the engineering complexities needed to achieve successful delivery of subsea pipeline and cable infrastructure installation: he is a leading advocate of the importance of subsea cable asset risk mitigation objectives to secure long term operational performance to effect balance sheet protection / investor confidence: this is a key thrust of 4C's mandate. In addition to the position at 4C, other key roles include;
CEO Risk Panel Limited (London)
Senior Vice President Oceanteam Shipping (Oslo)
Director Oceanroutes Mobell  (Swire Group, London)

Chas is Operations Director at Peritus International, a specialist subsea engineering consultancy. He has experience with a wide range of subsea cable projects covering both offshore wind and oil and gas. He is also experienced in subsea pipeline design, having been involved in the design of some of the world’s deepest pipelines at over 3000m.  He holds a Ph.D in Materials Science and a Masters in Mechanical Engineering. He is a Fellow of the institute of Marine Engineers.

A Chartered Marine Engineer with LOC London, Mike is a qualified Chief Engineer who has been working in the renewable sector at LOC for over thirteen years. His experience at LOC includes MWS and consultancy for high voltage export and array cables, HVDC Interconnector cable installation and repair, wind turbine and foundation installation, investigations of subsea cable damage. He is also active as MWS for cable replacement and repair campaigns on several OWF. He has also conducted equipment failure investigations for P&I and H&M interests on a variety failures such as main and auxiliary engines, steering systems and deck machinery, fire damage and vessel repair and has produced expert reports and acted as expert witness for arbitration. He is a qualified ISM/ISO 9000 lead auditor and has completed an MSc in Engineering and Management based around the ISM Code and safety management. He has advised and worked on numerous Offshore Windfarm cable installations and cable repairs as MWS and as a consultant, and has also conducted due diligence for the marine aspects for OFTO bids for transmission assets.

Andrew Norris ACII, BSc (Hons), CEng, FIMechE

Director of Lloyd Warwick International (London). Areas of expertise include renewable energy (particularly offshore wind and submarine power cables).

Andrew is a Chartered Engineer and Chartered Insurer with over 20 years’ experience in loss adjusting, underwriting, claims management and risk surveying. A founder and former chairman of the European Wind Turbine Committee, he also chaired the Oil, Petrochemical and Energy Risks Association (OPERA) and is a member of the Offshore Engineering Society. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute and holds an Advanced Diploma in Insurance.

In his early career, Andrew worked in the mining industry, but in a subsequent career move, gained a commission in the Royal Navy, serving as an engineering officer at sea and ashore.

On completion of his naval career, Andrew entered the insurance industry and subsequently moved to London in 2000, to work as an international energy loss adjuster. In 2007, he joined a Lloyd’s syndicate, as their senior risk engineer and claims adjuster.

Building on this, he took up a position as a senior engineering underwriter with one of the world’s largest reinsurance companies where he quickly established a reputation as one of the market’s leading underwriters of offshore wind and submarine cable risks.

In this capacity, his portfolio included the first commercial scale array of floating turbines, the first offshore deployment of 8MW+ turbines and the introduction of the first 66kV cable array. He was involved in all early Taiwanese offshore wind projects and in China, helped introduce marine warranty clauses as a pre-requisite for project insurance. In Japan, he insured the Fukushima III floating turbine and insured cable interconnector projects in Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas.

Andrew is a regular speaker at conferences and has contributed to many market initiatives including:

• Offshore Engineering Society - Offshore wind and natural catastrophe risk: an insurance perspective, July 2020.
• The International Machinery Insurers Association paper on battery energy storage systems, published 2019.
• The Society of Construction Law – presentation on offshore wind, London, 2019.
• Speaker at the 5th Annual Offshore Power Cable Engineering and Reliability conference, Amsterdam, 2019.
• Expert view: the future of renewable energy – Strategic Risk publication, 2018.
• Renewable energy investment – Strategic Risk publication, 2018.
• Innovation and Challenges in Offshore Wind, WTW China Renewable Energy Conference 2018, Hangzhou, China.
• Seeking Sustainability – creative risk management and insurance solutions, FERMA 2017, Monaco.

Rene started his career in 1981 within the dredging division of HAM Dredging. After having spent several years on dredging projects worldwide, he joined the offshore division of the company. At that time the main offshore activities were the preparation of the rights-of-way, consisting mainly of the pre-sweeping, along the pipeline and cable routes.

In 1992, Rene joined Van Oord, one of the major dredging and marine contractors worldwide. Within the Offshore division Rene became responsible for all cable related activities which initially consisted of subsea rock installation for protection purposes and later evolved into the cable installation and burial services towards the telecom and later on the offshore wind industry. In his role, Rene has been responsible for the development of the cable installation and burial activities and several EPC contracts for offshore wind farms and thereby being instrumental in the present position of Van Oord in the cable installation markets.

In 2020, after almost 40 years in the dredging and offshore (wind) industry, Rene has left Van Oord and started his own consultancy (CableAbility) with the aim to use his extensive experience and knowledge within the submarine cable industries

Paul joined SMD in 1995 after completing an engineering doctorate at Bath University. For the last decade, Paul has led SMD’s trenching business and the expansion into Offshore Wind. Responsible for the expansion of the business to target HVDC and HVAC power cables for offshore wind and interconnector applications and pivoting the business towards Wind.

Brendan Hyland is the Founder and CEO of Ocean Information Services a leader in the development and supply of subsea IoT solutions to the offshore wind and environmental industries. He previously founded and led technology companies in subsea automation and in optoelectronics. He has raised over $200m for technology companies and has filed over 300 patents. Brendan holds a degree in Electrical and Electronic engineering and an MBA

Dan has spent the last 25 years developing his expertise within the fibre optic industry, with the last 18 years focussed almost entirely on fibre sensing. Developing a reputation as an honest and trustworthy advisor to both employers and clients alike, Dan has consistently met, and often exceeded, multi mullion pound targets. At the same time, Dan has worked tirelessly to build the reputation of the fibre sensing industry, supporting EPCs, consultants, partners, and end clients in their search for services that will meet current and future needs.
Known for his passion, enthusiasm, technical expertise and project management experience, Dan is often called upon as a guest speaker at numerous conferences and exhibitions worldwide, where he strives to educate others on technical advancements within the fibre sensing industry.

Morten Huseby have been working in the cable industry for 20+ years.  Working in areas as cable design, engineering, manufacturing, installation, fault location, condition assessment and monitoring, he is holds an extensive background which is being fully utilized in his position as CEO in Wirescan. In combining his professional practical background with his academic background in digital signal processing, Morten and Wirescan is well positioned to develop and present the worlds most advanced tool for cable health assessment and monitoring tool, Wirescan Digital, to the cable industry.

Peter van der Wielen is Business Director Power Failure Investigations at the advisory and certification firm DNV and stationed in the Netherlands. He is responsible for the business of Power Failure Investigations in which customers are provided with a clear, unbiased understanding of the root cause of a failure, non-conformity or black-out of power systems. He is also part-time Professor at the Eindhoven University of Technology on the research topic “Reliability of Grid Components”, where he initiates, coordinates and performs research and teaches students on subjects related to grid component reliability and power cables in particular. He has an MSc (2000) and PhD (2005) degree in electrical power systems. His personal technical expertise is focused on: (underground and submarine) power cables, failure analysis in general, degradation and failure mechanisms of power components and systems, testing & diagnostics, remaining life estimations, health indexing, maintenance methodologies and asset management. Furthermore, he lectures various DNV training courses on these subjects, is (co)author of over 90 scientific publications and is active in various (inter)national committees.

John has been an Engineer within the Subsea, ROV industry for over 30 years. Initially working with the UK and overseas navies on remote control mine countermeasure ROVs and then for the past 20 years on the ROVs, Ploughs and trenchers used to support offshore oil and gas, submarine telecom and power cable installation. John has had a diverse career from working offshore, through to operations management, business development and now as director of trenching and business development for Helix Robotics Solutions. As Director Trenching & Business Development, John is responsible for working with the senior management team to support the business’s strategy in taking its assets and services; supporting all things energy. John is responsible for building relationships with current clients and strategic partners primarily in the North Sea and EMEA region - although his remit, just like the company’s equipment and services - extends worldwide. John’s expertise in the renewables sector and the trenching market merges with the core strength of Helix Robotics Solutions, which is providing services (ROV, Trenching, UXO ID, boulder clearance, construction support and vessels) in shallow to deep water marine contracting operations, and allows him to advise global energy, renewables and telecom players on the most cost-effective solution for their project needs

Lars-André Tobaben is the project manager at Sea Impact. He holds a M.Sc. in geography & geoinformatics from the University of Copenhagen. Applying his specialized knowledge of spatial data, he has played a key part in the development of Sea Impact’s innovative offshore wind market intelligence offering. Doing so he has achieved extensive insight into the offshore wind vessel market, the offshore installation phase and the operation and maintenance of offshore wind. Recently he has been part of Sea Impact's mapping of the offshore wind cable installation scope, covering both the export and inter-array scopes. Doing so we gained unprecedented insight into the duration of cable lay, pull-in and burial across more than 40 wind farm projects. 

Alessandro oversees the Business Development and Strategy department of ASSO Group since 2020. He has more than 15 years of experience in the submarine cable business worldwide, working in various roles within Engineering, Product Management and Sales departments. Prior to joining ASSO Group in 2020, he was a Director in Prysmian Group and held various leadership positions in both Offshore Wind and Interconnectors markets. Alessandro holds a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Naples Federico II

Tom Roetert is a senior offshore researcher/consultant, involved in offshore wind farm development studies around the world with in particular the North Sea, Taiwan Strait and the US east coast.

Acting both as a project manager/coordinator as well as a specialised technical consultant with particular experience with studies focussing on data-driven and numerical analyses of seabed mobility and the interaction between seabed and offshore/nearshore infrastructure.

As a researcher Tom is involved in R&D, aiming at the development of novel methods and techniques reducing

risks and uncertainties in the field of coastal and offshore engineering. This R&D is often performed together with the relevant parties.

Currently Tom is mostly involved in the following topics:

• dynamics of the seabed (morphodynamics)
• impact of geology on wind farm design
• detailed routing of offshore cables
• impact of seabed dynamics on relevant infrastructure (such as cables and foundations)
• cableburial risk assessments
• scour (mitigation) studies

James Ombudo is the Head of Engineering for Interconnectors at National Grid Ventures in the UK, responsible for the development and assurance of new interconnectors as well as the asset maintenance of operational interconnectors. A former aeronautical engineer, James has 15 years’ experience in HV electricity transmission spanning substations, overhead lines and underground cables within National Grid UK. James has a passion for empowering teams and enabling them to flourish, particularly in the transition to a clean, fair and affordable energy future. When not working on interconnectors, James enjoys exercising and sports – particularly swimming and rugby. On occasion, James will try his hand at cooking and baking; often with mixed results though!

Nastasya is a seasoned strategic, hands-on manager and marketer with almost 30 years’ experience delivering success in startup and corporate environments. Lately, Nastasya co-founded and is currently leading Seabed.AI (https://seabed.ai), which develops an AI engine for object detection on the sea floor. This service can speed up the geophysical marine surveys by a few months. She trains and tutors occasionally and writes articles for Forbes or other media. The rest of her time, love and efforts belong to her family.

With a background in asset and risk management, construction and managing cost-benefit expenditure, for the last 8 years George has focused on operating, maintaining and building electrical interconnectors, with particular responsibility for cable design and construction. George worked for National Grid between 2006 and 2022, before joining Xlinks in 2022, with a focus on the development and delivery of the 4000km cable system. In National Grid, he spent over 10 years in Gas Distribution , before moving to National Grid Ventures as Asset Manager of all businesses, including the maintenance and construction of Interconnector assets. In 2017 he became the Cable Project Manager for the North Sea Link (NSL) Interconnector (UK to Norway), successfully tested (early) and commissioning in 2021. George then became the Cable Project Manager for the Viking Link Interconnector (UK to Denmark) through its first year of construction

Henrik Bang-Andreasen has spent 4 decades in the offshore and submarine industry. He has an extensive background in cable interfaces and operations, cable and cable protection systems (CPS), remote operating vehicles (ROV), and dynamic cable towed arrays. Since the late 1990’s Henrik has been involved in renewable energy projects worldwide, and has worked on 50 offshore wind projects. With 12 patents to his name, and one pending, he is considered an industry key opinion leader (KOL) within offshore wind and subsea cables. Henrik is currently working on a cable stabilisation startup with his sons, and also work as an industry consultant

Mark Finch is a Chartered Engineer with more than 30 years’ experience of geotechnical engineering and installation analyses in offshore renewable energy, offshore oil and gas and subsea cables sectors. Mark is a recognised Technical Authority in the assessment and management of seabed risk and the installation of offshore facilities. Mark has lived and worked in London, Congo, Newfoundland and Paris before settling in Scotland in 1996. He now lives with his wife and 4 children in the Scottish Borders. Mark has worked for a broad range of organisations from site investigation and EPCI contractors to Oil & Gas Operators and Offshore Wind Developers. Mark established his first consultancy, ISIS Energy, in 2004 which was acquired by Lloyds Register in 2008. In 2016 he established Ternan Energy – an independent marine geoscience consultancy. Ternan Energy now has more than 20 employees and has offices in Aberdeen and Oxford, Bristol and Chichester. Mark regularly acts as an Expert Witness in high-value technical disputes and advises Clients across the globe. He is a practising member of the Academy of Experts.

Started career in dredging, managing projects around the world followed by various roles for a pipeline and cables utility contractor in The Netherlands including horizontal directional drilling, outfalls, landfalls and high voltage cables. Involved since 2007 in a commercial role for the very early offshore wind cabling projects with VSMC and VBMS which became Boskalis Subsea Cables in 2017. During these years VSMC became market leader in Subsea Cable Installation in the Renewable Industry as well as the go to contractor for Cable Repairs. Since last year responsible for the business line Subsea Cables within N-Sea and with a dedicated team focusing on Subsea Cable IRM / repairs.

Peter is a Civil Engineer by training, and has been involved in the offshore trenching industry for over 25 years. This started with a spell at the designer of trenching machines, after which he set up his own consultancy company to advise clients on selection of trenching tools and their capabilities. Peter has also been one of the leaders behind the development of the statistical approach to cable burial risk assessment, and was a co-author of the Carbon Trust Guidance Note which has become the industry standard. Peter has also been called on to provide expert witness services in several contractual disputes.

Matthew has over fourteen years’ experience as a civil and geotechnical engineer, working first within the onshore and offshore sector assessing the asset integrity of oil and gas pipelines, and since 2018 within the offshore wind and HVDC interconnector industries, specialising in subsea cable engineering from desk top study through routing, landfall studies, CBRA, burial assessment, cable protection analysis and into operations with cable integrity risk assessments. Matthew has worked on the export and inter-array cables on many of the UK, European and worldwide wind farm developments, at stages from concept, through FEED, to installation on subsea cables, dealing with a multitude of hazards to subsea cables.

David has a degree in Applied Geophysics and an MSc in Occupational Health & Safety Management, together with more than 30 years of experience related to the development of new major energy infrastructure.  The last 12 years have been focussed on subsea projects, comprising the SouthStream/TurkStream gas pipeline and GridLink electricity interconnector.  David co-originated the GridLink project and from inception he has been responsible for the technical studies, EPC contract procurement procedures, development consents and permits, and associated stakeholder engagement and public consultations on behalf of the GridLink project owner, iCON Infrastructure LLP.  Based on his experience of delivering projects across Europe, David has a particular interest in the resolution of the conflicts that occur between new projects and existing affected parties, which often present the most significant obstacles and risks to the implementation of critical new infrastructure.

Bryan Thurstan / Consultant / Aurora Offshore Engineering (AOE)

Bryan is a Civil, Structural & Hydrodynamics Consultant with over 30 years of experience in the offshore and subsea O&G industries, and offshore renewable sector. Bryan has worked with AOE since 2020 helping to develop complex & innovative solutions to subsea cable stability & integrity challenges

Michiel coordinates R&D application development activities in the field of (new) energy and actively contributes to recycling topics. Michiel has a background in mechanical and polymer engineering, and has extensive experience in technology development for various Aramid production facilities.

Daniel Liefferink / Asset Specialist Offshore Cable Installation / TenneT TSO B.V.

Daniel Liefferink: Offshore cable installation specialist in TenneT's Asset Management department. Responsible for the development and implementation of technical policies and technical designs for offshore cable installation projects. In this role, he focuses on the quality of the projects in execution and the innovations and developments required for the realization of TenneT's huge subsea power cable portfolio. Daniel graduated as a mechanical engineer from Delft University of Technology in 2013 with a master's degree in dredging and offshore engineering. Before joining TenneT in 2020, he gained experience in the offshore industry as a process engineer for a marine contractor

Sergio del Prado Gutiérrez / Subsea Project Engineer / Red Eléctrica

Sergio del Prado holds a Electrical Engineering and MSc in Renewable Energy and Electrical System and obtained at the University of Carlos III (UC3M). His has several years of experience in underground high voltage cables and subsea electrical interconnectors, having worked in all engineering phases of the projects. He is currently working as Subsea project engineer in the power lines engineering department at Red Eléctrica, the Spanish TSO.

Andreas Hallengren holds a MSc in Electric Engineering. Based in Karlskrona, Sweden Andreas joined NKT 2017. Initially focusing on tendering turnkey power cable Installation projects, and successfully contributing to several won project mainly in the Offshore Wind area. In 2022 Andreas joined the NKT Service and Installation organization, supporting Customers to proactively reach a better preparedness through tailored service agreements and related services. If cable systems are damaged for any reasons, NKT Service and Installation offering flexible turnkey repairs to reduce downtime and minimize monetary impact.

Niek Bruinsma, graduated at Delft University of Technology, Faculty Offshore Engineering in 2016 with a specialization in fixed and floating Offshore Wind. During his MSc. thesis project at Deltares, 2015-2016, he focused on the numerical modelling of a floating offshore wind turbine with computational fluid dynamics comparing the results with physical model experiments. From the start of his career at Deltares in 2016 he has been working on various projects in the field of offshore wind sector. The main part of his work focusses on detailed local hydrodynamics, scour and scour protection around offshore wind structures for which he uses both physical and numerical modelling tools. Niek Bruinsma is currently the overall project manager of the Cable Lifetime Monitoring Joint Industry Project (JIP CALM), this project is a collaboration between 31 international organisations that aim to reduce subsea power-cable failures and make offshore wind energy more reliable