ONE SEA, the industry alliance whose primary aim is to lead the way towards an operating autonomous maritime ecosystem by 2025, has appointed Riku-Pekka Hägg as Chairman of its Management Board.

Hägg, who will oversee ONE SEA while retaining his current role as Vice President, Ship Design and Integrated Solutions Sales at Wärtsilä, is a maritime technology thought leader and strategist whose experience is steeped in the business of change.

Having fulfilled an array of strategic roles at Wärtsilä, his current focus is on leading business transformation with particular emphasis on smart technologies. In his current position he is also responsible for overseeing Wärtsilä’s Smart and Autonomous Ship strategy. In stepping up to the ONE SEA chairmanship from his previous Vice-Chair role, Hägg says his interest will remain focused on connecting businesses with the possibilities new digital technologies create for safety, efficiency, growth and profitability to enable sustainable shipping.

“It’s exciting to see that smart and autonomous systems are rapidly gaining interest and ground in shipping, but the technology is unregulated, and interoperability is not standardized,” Hägg observes. “ONE SEA is a fantastic collaboration network comprising leading global and multi-industrial companies that want to co-create proposals for industry standards and regulations in this fast-developing technology area.

“I look forward to working with the ONE SEA membership, which brings together leading exponents of autonomous ship technology, and enabling smart solutions for maritime logistics through rigorous testing and by addressing the regulatory requirements needed to ensure safe operations in the future”.

ONE SEA is led by DIMECC Ltd (Digital, Internet, Materials & Engineering Co-Creation), the co-creation platform that seeks to drive digital transformation across European industry. ONE SEA Ecosystem Lead Päivi Haikkola, from DIMECC Ltd., says: “Riku-Pekka has consistently shown his commitment to ONE SEA on a professional and personal level, and we are delighted to add his vision as the new Chairman of the Alliance. He brings formidable knowledge and experience in smart maritime technologies to the post, and we look forward to the next phase of our development under his guidance.”

See the official announcement here.