Naval consultancy Knud E. Hansen expands into Canada

Danish naval engineering and consulting firm Knud E. Hansen has expanded its reach into Canada with the opening of an office in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The east coast port city location will be headed by Sam Stark, a Senior Naval Architect & Project Manager at the firm’s Ft. Lauderdale, Florida office.

Headquartered in Elsinore, Denmark, naval engineering and design consultancy Knud E. Hansen has been serving clients in Denmark and around the world since 1937. The firm provides consulting and technical services to clients – from the design of a vessel to its refitting, all the way to decommissioning. The firm’s service portfolio extends from naval architecture and marine engineering to offshore wind installations and port facility designs. Knud E. Hansen also provides strategic consulting services and technical support for legal services.

Aside from its Elsinore headquarters, the firm has additional offices in Odense, Denmark, the UK, Australia, Greece, the Faroe Islands, and the USA. The firm will now be adding another country to the list, with the opening of a new location in the east coast port city of Halifax, Canada.The Canadian office will be headed by Senior Naval Architect & Project Manager Sam Stark who has worked at Knud E. Hansen’s Florida office since 2013. Prior to joining the firm, Stark was a naval architect at Austal for four years. He holds a B.Eng. in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from Southampton Solent University and a B.Com. in Marketing from McGill University.

Stark will be tasked with growing opportunities for Knud E. Hansen in Canada, while continuing to support the consulting work of the firm’s other offices. The company has previously supported Canadian clients like Marine Atlantic Inc., BC Ferries, and the Government of Newfoundland & Labrador.

The naval consultancy decided to expand into Canada in order to service the country’s growing maritime sector, as well as an increasing demand for shipping in the Artic Sea. The Canadian location will also allow the firm to be more responsive to new and existing clients in the country, providing local consulting services and expertise at short notice.

Knud E. Hansen is a subsidiary of Dutch defence, shipbuilding, and engineering giant Damen Group, which acquired the consultancy in 2012. Last year, Damen reported revenues of €2 billion and a headcount of 10,000 employees.