Stories

Six years ago, in 2019, Pablo Baranzini was walking through the streets of Amsterdam. Far removed from his native country of Argentina, he was touring Europe to gain a fresh perspective and new insights. It was on an exceptionally sunny day in June that Pablo decided it was time for a change. After returning to Buenos Aires, he applied for jobs in the Netherlands and within a couple of months was recruited by Ampelmann as a production engineer.

As 2024 draws to a close, Ampelmann looks back on a year of sustained growth, innovation and collaboration.

Eleven years ago, Corniels van Duijn began his career at Ampelmann as a Production Mechanic. Not long after he became Assembly Supervisor of, what was then known as, the Special Projects department before moving on to the role of Production Engineer. Over the years, he became increasingly familiar with the supply side of the engineering process and since 2019 he has been working as one of Ampelmann’s two senior Technical Buyers.

Roy Goedhart has been working for Ampelmann for over six years. A skilled welder, furniture maker and steel worker, he started out as a mechanic and is currently the Assembly Supervisor who oversees all production in the company’s production hall at the Onderzeebootloods (OZB) in Rotterdam. As the main point of contact at the OZB, he leads the team of mechanics and is responsible for everything from certification and inspection of the equipment to assigning the right person to each project.

Seldom in the spotlights, Adil Andour is Cloud Specialist and Team Lead IT at Ampelmann. He and his team ensure that the company’s digital space runs as smoothly as it is safe. A happily married father of three, volunteer and active member of the local community in Gouda, Adil plays a key role in the company.

This year, we went Back to basics – where we rediscovered the fundamentals of safety and got the opportunity to rethink the way we view safety in the workplace and apply it from the heart. It was a week filled with activities and workshops to pay tribute to this year’s theme and remind us how we all play essential roles to safety, how to put these lessons to action and use them in both our professional and personal life.

Karen Scharenguivel joined Ampelmann in 2014 and has been the Office Manager for Singapore ever since. As the company’s first of many offices outside of Europe, she has played a key role in spearheading the company’s expansion into Southeast and Eastern Asia.

Amongst other things, Loes van Es is Innovations Support and Prevention Officer at Ampelmann. Providing critical support to six different managers, organising everything from meetings to team sessions, internal events and parties, Loes’ role is legion. She is also in the lead of the quarterly newsletters for the innovations department and the important “innovation stand-up” – a weekly internal event to show-case new technical developments and ideas.

Kees-Jaap van Nes is senior project manager at Ampelmann where he oversees vital innovations and technical developments. Currently leading the team that is bringing the W-type to the market, his role at the company is multifaceted and involves working with many different people, both internally and externally.

Ampelmann prides itself on ensuring that employees practice and implement safety in all aspects of their life and take care of their colleagues and all those around them. A strong safety culture fuels a better well-being and balance for employees within the company.

The value of safety is ingrained within all of Ampelmann. Employees have safety on the top of their minds during work, which in turn leads to high safety awareness outside of work hours. In other words, “safety is in Ampelmann’s DNA.” To celebrate this and raise awareness even further, the company organises a health, safety and environment week annually.

Sometimes all it takes for an innovation to be sparked into development is looking into a new direction. But one of the latest innovations in Ampelmann’s training programme sprouted from a different reality, virtual reality.

Decreased weight, increased durability and higher energy efficiency - that is what using composite materials in Ampelmann systems will lead to. The use of composites is already well developed and commonplace in many different industries. In the offshore industry however, its use is relatively new. Working and designing with composites poses challenges, but it is well worth overcoming these as the advantages are significant and are valuable to Ampelmann and its clients.

Leon Lim Jin Yen is the kind of person who is always positive and carries a smile on his face. He works hard and doesn’t shy away from a good challenge. Born and raised in Brunei, a small country in Southeast Asia, he joined Ampelmann in August 2014 and has been working at the company’s local office since.