Peder Sortland Appointed CEO of Global Maritime Group

STAVANGER, Norway, February 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

Global Maritime Group has appointed Peder Sortland as its first CEO. This appointment means that the group, created by merging four companies belonging to HitecVision, has put another important piece in place for realising its substantial growth ambitions over coming years. 

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Global Maritime Group is a worldwide enterprise with its head office in Stavanger, almost 650 employees in 26 countries and an overall annual turnover of about NOK 1.4 billion. Its business areas comprise Consultancy & Engineering, an independent consultancy for the offshore and maritime industries, Marine Contracting, a contracting company for load-out, transport and installation of offshore structures, Vryhof Anchors, a global supplier of powerful anchors and associated mooring products and services, and Deep Sea Mooring, which delivers mooring solutions for exploration and production companies and for rig contractors.

Sortland (51) comes from the post of CEO at Apply ASA, and knows part of the group well from holding the position as chair of Global Maritime AS since April 2014. "Sortland has demonstrated that he has the right qualities to realise a strategy as ambitious as the one established for Global Maritime Group," says Jan Vatsvåg, chair of Global Maritime Group. "His professional qualifications are strong, and he has substantial understanding of the oil service sector and the customer side of the business after spending almost two decades with an oil company. He is also a unifying leader with the ability to generate enthusiasm and to get employees to pull in the same direction."

Before joining Apply in 2012, Sortland was chief executive of Ross Offshore and Subsea Technology Group. He has also managed the Norwegian unit of Subsea 7, and held the position as chair in Ocean Installer. He held a number of leading posts in the Statoil group from 1992-2010, covering upstream and downstream oil and gas activities both in Norway and internationally. He has a master's degree in economics and management from the University of Wyoming.

"The companies in Global Maritime Group are all well positioned, which collectively provides a solid and highly interesting foundation for building a group which ranks as an international leader in defined market areas," says Sortland. "The group is also internationally oriented, with roughly 75 per cent of both employees and turnover outside Norway and the Norwegian continental shelf. The fact that I am very familiar with both the principal owner and the chair means that this opportunity, taken as a whole, was not one I could refuse." Sortland takes office immediately.