Ricky Brown, Design Manager and Lead Designer for TVO, has extensive oil and gas industry experience. He was the Design Manager at Horton Wison Deepwater, served as the Design and Drafting Manager at Floatec, and was Lead Designer on various Spar projects. Ricky was the Fabrication Consultant for the Tubular Bells Spar, one of the first spars designed for the Gulf of Mexico and the largest ever built at the time of its construction. Ricky was a lead designer on a number of Gulf Of Mexico Subsea Projects and is owner and co-owner of a number of US patents.

Jay brings more than 20 years of experience in the offshore oil and gas industry to the TVO team. He has broad experience with designing and delivering electrical, electronic, and electro-hydraulic systems, including PCB designs, software, firmware, power distribution, and subsea motors and pumps. 

Kevin Chell leads TVO’s Tethered BOP (TBOP) business, managing both Business Development and Projects. Before joining the company, Kevin was the CEO of Swanson, President of GMC, and Manager of Vetco’s Floating Production Systems Group during the most active time for Dry Tree Riser equipment deliveries. He has been involved in the business development and execution of many of the premier deepwater riser deliveries in the Gulf of Mexico.

An accomplished business leader, Kevin has more than 40 years of commercial, business development, and global P&L experience in energy, technology, and oil and gas and has held senior management roles based in Europe, the UK and the US. He has led the expansion of TVO’s patented BOP tethering technology, building and leveraging an international network of strategic partnerships to enhance TVO’s market position as a nimble, dependable, and cost-competitive business partner.

Country Manager, Australia, has extensive commercial and corporate leadership experience in the offshore oil and gas business sector, including an executive role in an ASX listed company. He brings a wealth of international market experience to the TVO business development team from projects in Aberdeen, Japan, Houston, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei, Timor Leste, Sri Lanka and Sakhalin Island. Russell has a strong track record for developing successful small businesses, ranging from property development and environmental management to offshore construction and subsea engineering.

Matt Crotwell is a Principal Engineer at TVO. Before joining the company, he was an R&D Advanced Design Engineer at Dril-Quip, where he was involved in multiple product line developments for Subsea Wellhead and Vertical and Horizontal Trees and gained extensive experience in the design and qualification of metal-to-metal seals for Subsea Wellhead and Tree Systems. Matt holds several US Patents and has been involved in the development of multiple products recognized by OTC for Spotlight on Technology Awards.

Over a career that spans more than 50 years, Lyle has been involved in cutting-edge deepwater technology, from inventing and developing new concepts to designing groundbreaking computer programs. He holds more than 20 offshore related patents and contributes expertise in hydroelastic engineering to the TVO team, including vessel motions and analysis of mooring systems, risers, tendons, foundations, and anchoring systems, most frequently assisting with coupled analysis of floating offshore drilling and producing systems. Lyle was named to the ASCE OTC Hall of Fame in recognition for an extraordinary paper presentation and won an OMAE Best Paper Award for his technical contribution on tension and buoyancy design.

Angie is the Document Controller for TVO, responsible for version and quality control of engineering and design drawings, maintaining archives, and managing document access and retrieval. She has an extensive background in document control and worked as a Document Control Specialist for GMC prior to joining TVO. In her current role, Angie has been responsible for ensuring the accuracy, accessibility, and security of documents that have been critical in the execution of many successful projects in the offshore oil and gas sector.

Derek Kennedy, Senior Project Manager, developed TVO’s QHSE processes and is directly involved in the execution, delivery, and installation of TVO projects and custom-built systems globally. He filled multiple technical and commercial roles at Tier 1 OMC supply companies, including Vice President of Global Tubular Systems at Franks International, Global Subsea Business Development Director at OneSubsea, and Director for Offshore/Floating Production Systems at GE Oil & Gas (formerly Vetco Gray Inc). He was a Design Engineer on the industry’s first Drilling Riser System in 10,000 ft water depth, which incorporated a fluid assist bearing to interface with a telescopic joint, for which he holds a patent. Derek has been involved in the business development, management, and execution, of several high-profile deepwater TLP/spar and subsea production projects.

Jon Kersey, P.E., is a Senior Engineer supporting the design team at TVO. Prior to TVO, Jon worked for GE Oil & Gas developing custom equipment for floating production facilities. He played a lead role in the design, testing, and successful offshore implementation of the TVO Jupiter winch, which enabled P&A of a damaged wellhead offshore Brazil. The Jupiter design served as the basis for TVO’s development of shallow-water BOP tethering within the Hercules product line.

Wanjun Kim, PMP, is an Engineering Project Manager, executing riser system design and delivery projects. Prior to joining TVO, he worked as a Riser Engineer, applying his mechanical engineering background to numerous riser system designs, including drilling risers, production top-tensioned risers (TTRs), infield steel catenary risers (SCRs), and export risers. He has managed the full life cycle of multiple deepwater riser delivery projects and has experience in integrity management as well as deepwater technology development.

Ben Kubichek, PE, is a Principal Engineer at TVO, providing engineering support and technical expertise for both the Tethered BOP (TBOP) and TVO Projects business units. Ben began his career as an Edison Engineer at GE Oil & Gas, advancing through technical positions in the Vetco Gray floating production systems business while earning his professional engineering license. Ben’s most rewarding work has been his involvement in complex projects from initial concept development through installation and operation.

Bio Coming Soon

Andrea Maher is a Project Manager, overseeing project execution from procurement and scheduling through construction, testing, and installation. She brings years of experience to her role, acquired in the execution of civil construction programs in the United States and Colombia. Prior to joining TVO she worked as a Project Manager at 3D/International, Project Director for Civilia S.A.S. and has served on the Board of Directors for Civilia S.A.S for several years, assisting with financial controls and initiatives to raise the company profile.

Jim Maher is the original founder and co-owner (along with Trendsetter Engineering) of TVO. Before forming TVO, he co-founded Horton Deepwater with Ed Horton, credited with the introduction of Spar and Tension Leg Platform concepts. Jim was the Spar Product Manager for Technip in the early 2000s and has been involved in the planning, development, and aftermarket support for many of the deepwater floating systems projects in the Gulf of Mexico. He holds more than 40 US Patents and is a four-time nominee to the National Academy of Engineering’s “Frontiers of Engineering” program.

J.P. Martinez is TVO’s Aftermarket Engineer, assisting in the testing and assembly of TVO equipment, supporting offshore representatives, and providing clients with support and solutions to technical inquiries associated with tensioning equipment. A valuable member of the TVO engineering team, he has served as the company’s Representative Engineer on multiple offshore projects.

Laurie McCelvey executes projects for the Tethered BOP (TBOP) business. She was a Chemistry teacher for 12 years before joining TVO and applies her problem-solving, organization, and management expertise from the classroom to executing TVO project builds from procurement through customer delivery. Her educational leadership and planning experience has been valuable in streamlining TVO’s winning approach to project execution.

James McCelvey, Senior Engineer, is a Designer for TVO. Prior to taking on his current role, he worked for Horton Wison Deepwater and GMC. James holds two patents and has provided critical support for many successful, offshore oil and gas industry projects.

Kim Mittendorf leads TVO’s monitoring, global analysis, and data analytics initiatives. He has a solid background of advancing technology in the offshore oil and gas industry working as Directory of Projects at Horton Wison Deepwater and has contributed to the development of offshore wind in the United States in his roles at Gamesa Wind US an Vestas Technology R&D Americas, Inc. Integrating technical and strategic skills, Kim has enhanced operational efficiency and driven innovation within the energy sector. Navigating through international projects and strategic planning, Kim guides technologies and processes toward practical improvements by identifying straightforward strategies to bridge technological and operational advancements from idea to execution.

Joe is an expert in mechanical engineering who earned his BS from the University of Pittsburgh. He has experience designing gas turbine aircraft engines and worked as a designer for oil and gas equipment for nearly 40 years. His work includes new product development from subsea wellheads to tubulars and drilling equipment as well as riser, tensioning, and mooring systems. Joe developed the original ram tensioner system and contributed to multiple milestone projects. He is a valuable extension of the TVO mechanical engineering team.

Gene is a graduate of the United States Merchant Marine Academy and holds an MS degree in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering/Shipping Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His lifetime career in the marine industry includes sailing on U.S. Flag merchant ships as a licensed engineer, serving as Vice President of Engineering and Operations for American President Lines, APL, President of Pacer Stacktrain, and Senior Vice President of Government Relations for Maersk, Inc. Gene has an extensive professional network within the maritime sector and supports TVO with logistics and operations expertise.

Jesse Riha, Principal Engineer, has extensive experience designing floating production systems and capital drilling equipment and holds seven patents for novel solutions that resolve complex operational issues. Before joining TVO, he managed the new product development group for floating production systems at GE Oil & Gas, formerly Vetco Gray. Over two decades in the oil and gas industry, he has designed top tension risers and TLP mooring equipment for projects, including the Neptune TLP, Perdido Spar, Moho Norde TLP, and Bigfoot TLP, and more recently, designed the first in situ top tendon connector replacement for the Allegheny TLP and project-specific equipment for subsea connector remediation for the Kizomba A/B TLP.

Ken Smith works as a Principal Scientist for TVO, where he focuses on data analytics, software development, and monitoring systems. Prior to working at TVO, he was an R&D Manager for a seismic processing software company. Ken, a PhD in particle physics, is a published author in two fields of physics and counts being an author on the Higgs Boson discovery paper among his major accomplishments.

Ken earned a BA in Business Languages from the Copenhagen Business School and augmented his degree with credentials from A.P. Moeller Maersk International Shipping, London Business School and INSEAD (Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires) in France. He is a former senior executive who held leadership roles for more than 30 years of a career in the shipping, rail, and private equity sectors that spanned four decades. Ken contributes logistics and maritime industry expertise to the TVO team.

Qunli Sun is a Principal Riser Engineer responsible for deepwater riser systems analysis and design. His extensive experience spans multiple engineering fields and includes design and analysis of steel catenary risers, steel lazy-wave risers, top-tensioned risers, flexible risers, and umbilical systems for spars, semisubmersibles, and FPSOs. Before joining TVO, he worked as a principal riser engineer at Technip/Genesis, Doris, Aker, and Wood. Qunli has contributed to major projects, including APC Lucius, Heidelberg, Shenandoah, Horn Mountain, Holstein, Chevron Anchor, ExxonMobil Hadrian North, Payara and Uaru, and BHP Trion.

By applying his 40 years of progressive experience in the construction industry, David manages all aspects of planning, managing and executing major projects and uses his extensive knowledge, discernment and insight to help resolve execution challenges.

John Trahan is a Principal Engineer at TVO. Before joining the company, he was the Senior Section Leader of Subsea Wellhead Systems at Dril-Quip, where he was involved in developing next-generation HPHT wellhead systems and product life cycle management. John played a role in multiple large-scale projects and contributed to the development of equipment in multiple product lines from initial concept through manufacturing, testing, and installation as well as providing aftermarket support.

Glenn Wald is a Senior Riser Engineer responsible for the design and delivery of top-tensioned and catenary riser systems for floating drilling, production, and intervention facilities. He has extensive design, delivery, and installation experience and has worked on projects that include spars, TLPs and FPSOs in the GoM, North Sea, and Brazil. He recently retired from Shell, where
he led teams responsible for riser systems for the Perdido Spar and Olympus TLP as well as a 10,000 ft water depth 15 ksi pressure rated intervention system and an industry joint venture oil spill response cap and containment system.

Steven Tran, P.E., is a Mechanical Engineer who designs riser equipment for TVO projects. Before joining the company, he worked as Mechanical Design Engineer for Dril-Quip and as a Riser Equipment Engineer and Riser Delivery Manager at Technip. An entrepreneur, Tran started a joint venture with friends and is one of the three owners of RN Motion Technologies LLC, which designs and manufactures production and drilling equipment. He has been involved with subsea hardware, risers, and riser tensioners, from initial design through manufacturing, testing, and delivery.

Michael Willie is a Mechanical Design Engineer for TVO. Before joining TVO, Michael was a Mechanical Engineer for INEOS, working on large capital projects for hydrocarbon cracking units and polypropylene units. In that role, he was Lead Mechanical Engineer for a turnaround on a hydrocarbon cracking unit.

Janet Wolf, P.E., performs detailed Finite Element Analysis for TVO’s clients and as part of the
internal product design process. She has extensive experience verifying designs and performing detailed structural analysis on oil and gas structures, having worked as an analyst at Horton Wison Deepwater and at Engineering Research and Computing. Janet also worked for the
analysis software company ANSYS as an application engineer, providing technical support, developing workshops, and training users. She has experience in advanced analysis and high- pressure/high-temperature and has analyzed designs for extreme environments, including
earthquakes, hurricanes, and impact.

Finlay Johnston supports TVO Business Development in the UK through 4C Global Consultancy. He is a commercial leader with more than 25 years of international experience in business development, contracting, and customer relationship management within the energy sector and finance. His background includes collaborating with corporate leaders and the Boards of Directors of S&P 500 companies. For more than 12 years, he has commercialized assets and services globally, providing market analysis and stakeholder management for drilling contractors, well intervention, well abandonment, and multi-service companies.