Former KIVI OT chairman Jan van Kessel has been honored as Member of Merit of the department of Offshore Technology. The current board of KIVI OT unanimously decided that Jan rightly deserves this honor for his immeasurable efforts devoted to KIVI OT over the years. Yesterday, in a modest and corona-proof gathering, Jan received his honor and was congratulated via videocall by people who couldn’t make it due to coronavirus restrictions.
During his years as KIVI OT board member, Jan has played a big role in arousing enthusiasm for KIVI OT, which included the involvement of students and young professionals. He devoted much of his personal time to maintain and improve contacts at the Technical Universities and Universities of Applied Sciences, and establishing a KIVI OT board with wide representation from young professionals.
Throughout the years, Jan’s enthusiasm and inspiring leadership as chairman have produced a number of successful symposia with renowned speakers from the Offshore and Renewable industry, of which the 2019 jubilee symposium “Future of the North Sea” has been the absolute highlight with over 500 visitors. At this symposium, the book “50 Years KIVI Offshore Technology” has been presented. At Jan’s initiative, major contributions for this book have been made by a highly diverse representation of the Offshore industry. Together with KIVI Institute Honorary Member Wim de Boom, Jan devoted numerous evenings to complete the book.
Lastly, today’s healthy financial situation of KIVI OT can be largely attributed to Jan. This ensures that essential future activities can take place for some time to come, of which the graduation awards for best offshore-related theses are excellent examples.
