He hands the title over to former CTO Christopher Ridgewell as Liljelund joins the AWE Board of Directors. Jussi Åkerberg, former AWE Development Manager, takes on the role of CTO. The WaveRoller team is also strengthened with the recruitment of a Procurement Manager and a Technical Manager, Mechanical.
AW-Energy’s Board of Directors is confident that Ridgewell has all the attributes needed to build the company into a strong industrial player. Ridgewell, a Fellow of the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology, has over 25 years of wide ranging experience in the marine industry, including a background in international sales and projects.
– Chris’s past professional roles, his knowledge of both our product the WaveRoller and the entire industry are the attributes of a successful CEO in our company, Liljelund states.
Liljelund takes a seat in AW-Energy’s Board of Directors and during his tenure as CEO, the company and team have established strong partnerships with recognized industrial heavy weights, a pipeline of commercial projects with ongoing development on 4 continents, a strong IPR portfolio totalling over 80 global patents and reached many significant milestones such as gaining technology performance validation by DNV-GL and qualification certification by Lloyd’s register. AW-Energy was recently ranked as the sector leading company by Bloomberg New Energy Finance and the company has secured financing from VC’s, institutional investors and commercial banks, including the European Investment Bank.
– The past over eight years as CEO have been invaluable not only professionally, but also personally as I’ve been fortunate enough to build and lead an amazing team of talented, professional people.
Ridgewell becomes CEO of AW-Energy on February 1 2018. He is committed to the successful execution of existing projects and continued growth of the business.
– John has set a sturdy foundation for me to pick up on and I’m excited and honoured to lead such an accomplished team. The future looks very positive, predictable ocean wave energy will have an important role in the energy system and we’re looking forward to delivering solutions to our global customers, Ridgewell says.
The position of CTO is filled by Jussi Åkerberg, who has had a key role in the technology development over the last 6 years as AWE’s former Power Take-Off unit Development Manager. He is also starting in his new role on February 1.
AWE to recruit several new key roles
Changes in AWE personnel also include new recruits. The new Procurement Manager Jani Perälä has more than 15 years of practical experience in procurement and supply chain leadership and management positions in the international business scope. He has worked for the defence, automotive and offshore machinery industries in Finland, Poland and most recently in United Arab Emirates.
Ville Kortelainen now works for AWE as the Technical Manager, Mechanical. For the past 10 years Kortelainen has been working in ABB Marine’s product development, last as a head designer mainly responsible for the Azipod propulsion unit, its steel structures and their product development and maintenance. Both started in January 2018.
