Subscribe to the newsletter
When Hein van Ameijden became Managing Director of the company then called Royal Schelde eighteen years and six months ago, he was well aware of the responsibility that rested upon his shoulders. A few years earlier, ‘De Schelde’ was still balancing on the brink of bankruptcy and in 2004 it became his job to lead the team that would make the company healthy and future-proof again. Anno 2022, Damen Naval is a very different company and yet the same healthy tension is present with Roland Briene as he takes over from Hein from 1 January 2023. In a special double interview, they look back on the highlights and challenges of recent years and express their hopes and wishes for the future.
According to Hein, the right time to step down is when people are still asking “is he leaving already?”. “I actually already feel that I have been in this place for too long, but the COVID period in recent years was not the ideal time to think about succession. I have enjoyed this position very much and have been given a lot of freedom to realise all my ideas. Now it is time for someone with new ideas.”
Outgoing: Managing Director Hein van Ameijden at the Damen Naval Oktoberfest in 2021.
That person will be Roland Briene, a 54-year-old father of two, married to Joyce, who enjoys fitness, cycling, running, sailing and football. He started his career in the oil and gas industry and moved to the sales team of Damen Shipyards Group in Gorinchem in 2004. He became Area Director Asia Pacific and in that role was responsible for Damen’s success in the FMSC contracts for the Royal Australian Navy and winning the design and build contract for the Antarctic icebreaker, RSV Nuyina. Since 2020, he has been Commercial Director of Damen Naval and so could closely follow the construction of Nuyina.
And now it’s time for the next step. “I feel enormously honoured to be able to do this. I have a list of illustrious predecessors dating back to 1875 and I am aware of that every time I walk into our headquarters and see the staircase,” Roland says. “I hope to become a very visible and accessible director. Just walking around our offices gives me tremendous energy. We have a great team of people and I hope to continue the path Hein has set out.”
“I have been very fortunate to have always been surrounded by people who know better, and I mean that in the best possible way." Hein van Ameijden
When Hein is asked what advice he has for his successor, he laughingly replies, “That he does better than me.” He then adds more seriously, “Decide for yourself where you want to go, what is your dot on the horizon. Once you have that figured out, you can then make many decisions almost intuitively. That is very useful because if you have to think about everything in detail, you will run out of time. Learning to speed-read also helps a lot. You receive an incredible amount of information that you have to be able to absorb and process. Speed reading makes that easier.”
He also advises Roland to surround himself with people who “know better”. “I have been very fortunate to have always been surrounded by people who know better, and I mean that in the best possible way. In this company, we build very complex ships and have people with a lot of expertise,” he explains. “Without Leon Goossens, nothing might have come of exporting our ships abroad. And besides Leon, I can name an endless row of people who knew and know better than me.”
Queen Beatrix and Hein christen HNLMS Holland, the first patrol ship in the Holland-class.
Hein mentions contributions from people like Marjan Veldhoven who was known as the “mother” of Indonesian supervisory authorities at the time the Indonesian corvettes were built. “If anyone was the showcase of our company, it was her,” Hein says. “Everyone in this company stands on the shoulders of those who came before us. We are building on the success of our predecessors. People like Lud Verstraete; he drew the first side view of a design that later became the SIGMA. These are people who are often not mentioned, but who have made a huge contribution to the company’s success and laid the foundations for the Damen Naval of today.”
The past few years have had many highlights, such as the expansion in the export market and the popularity of the SIGMAs. “We have elevated modular construction to a top sport,” Hein says proudly. “That has made it possible to build in locations of the customer’s choice.” He is also proud of the huge process improvements and the influx of a growing number of female engineers and technicians. “There have been many highlights in recent years, including things that some people might label as small, such as the introduction of business planning, for example. The remodelling of the head office was very important, even if it was not without controversy. But I am convinced that our beautiful, modern office is one of the reasons why we have less trouble attracting new staff than our competitors.”
As a concern, Hein identifies the explosive growth the company has experienced in the past few years. “We have grown much faster than we could have anticipated. F126 overlaps our Dutch projects and unfortunately this leads to a high workload. We demand a lot from our people and we as MT are certainly aware of that.”
In his new role, Roland Briene aims to empower people to be the best they can be.
It is therefore this issue that is going to be one of the first action points for Roland as the new Managing Director. The Time to Change project has been initiated to future-proof Damen Naval. “The extremely fast growth of our company requires a recalibration of the organisation. Everything has to be re-examined carefully to see how we can execute major projects like the ASWF and F126 in a responsible and successful way.” The MT and the project team hope to have a main design before Christmas so that implementation can begin in the new year.
Of course, Roland has other ambitions too. “I want Damen Naval to become and remain the partner of choice for Dutch clients, building, developing and maintaining naval vessels. That could be in Vlissingen or in Den Helder. I want us to start using the strength of our own people, but also of the other Damen companies.”
His vision also features an important role for the Vlissingen-Oost production facilities. “That is where the finishing of the ASW frigates will take place and, I hope, also the finishing of the successors to the LCF. Moreover, a successful Midlife Update (MLU) project is now underway together with Damen Shiprepair Vlissingen for the HNLMS Johan de Witt. I hope we may start doing more MLUs for ships built by us. If you buy a Mercedes, you go back to the Mercedes garage for maintenance. The same should be true for naval ships. We have the knowledge and experience to do that work.”
“There is a big responsibility on my shoulders. Of course, people are going to notice that there is a new managing director, but in a way I also hope they don’t notice." Roland Briene
When Roland is asked what he would like to know about his predecessor, he is curious to know how Hein felt in 2004 when he was about to make this same move. Hein: “I was very honoured by the appointment, and it came quite unexpectedly for the other MT members at the time and for some even as a total shock. That made me feel that I had to earn the position, not that I had already earned it. But at the same time, I felt I could do better than the other candidates. We have only had profitable years, so clearly, I did something right.” He adds, “Of course I felt the weight of this appointment too, but that feeling disappears pretty quickly. Roland has some qualities that I don’t have. He is someone who can read people very well and that is a useful trait as a director of a company under pressure.”
Roland agrees that it is an exciting time. “There is a big responsibility on my shoulders because we have a huge order book. Of course, people are going to notice that there is a new managing director, but in a way I also hope they don’t notice. I hope everyone continues to perform their duties with the same enthusiasm as before. My job is to facilitate this with the MT. I want to empower people to get more out of themselves.”
Together with the other MT members, Roland Briene is ready for the challenges his new role will bring.
Although Hein is stepping down as of 1 January, he will not leave the company for the time being. In fact, he is not even going to have a quieter time in the coming period as he has plenty of plans. “First of all, I will stay on to help Roland in the transition. In addition, I am going to throw myself into the German arena of the F126 project, where the option for ship 5 and 6 is yet to be realised. As I have built good relationships in politics through the first contract, we have agreed that I will stay on to provide leverage for those contacts.”
Hein will also get involved in the initiative for closer cooperation between the Netherlands, Germany and four of the Scandinavian countries on innovative naval construction. “It will not be easy to try to unite the interests of six countries, but I want to try anyway. A successful Nordic alliance is essential for the survival of our industry. It makes for a lot of interesting conversations,” Hein explains. “Last but not least, I will continue to be involved on the submarine project and also in contacts with Indonesia. I am the last of the first generation of contacts with Indonesia and there is still a lot of value in that with the customer. All in all, I think these things will keep me busy for 40 hours a week.”
There is one thing Hein cannot do as he approaches the end of his tenure: choosing a favourite ship from among all the beautiful ships Damen Naval has built and delivered since 2004. “All my children are equally dear to me. They all have their own history, and they are all equally special. I’m not going to choose.” He concludes with: “What I will miss most is the interaction with the people; the staff, the customers. That’s where the good ideas come from. I’m not much of a party person, so it was especially a surprise to me too when I noticed during the corona pandemic that I was starting to miss the people.”