Welcome back, Maria!
After a year on maternity leave, Maria is finally back in the office! We took a chat with her to talk about life, her journey into the maritime industry and what her alter ego is 🌾
You’re back! How is life?
Life is good. I have been home for a year with my second daughter Hanna and enjoyed every moment of it. However, it’s nice to be back in the office and meeting people from the industry again!
Have you been keeping up with the developments in the industry?
I think so, but I guess time will tell! My focus has been at home, but I check LinkedIn (and E-mails) regularly and with a large hydrogen network I think I have caught up with the most important developments.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your journey into the field of (maritime) hydrogen?
It was really a coincidence that I got into hydrogen. Already as a student I knew that I wanted to work in the ocean industries, and while I didn’t do a technical direction, I routed my work/dissertations etc. towards this industry. After graduation I went into subsea and worked in FMC Technologies for a few years. When the oil crisis hit, I knew it was time to move on and luckily Maritim Forening (now Hub for Ocean) were hiring! I got the job and me and my partner Hallgeir moved back to our hometown Florø. Hub for Ocean’s focus was developing suppliers in the ocean industries, connecting them to relevant customers and projects. At the same time (2016), the organisation started looking into hydrogen. Back then most people didn’t really care that much about hydrogen and I suspect they thought we were a bit mad… But after a few years, the general interest grew and so did our activities. In January 2019, Ocean Hyway Cluster was formally established and accepted into the national cluster program. In the beginning I wasn’t very involved with our hydrogen activities, but it gradually became more and for the last four years I have been working full time in Ocean Hyway Cluster.
I think that is what I appreciate most about this job, it opens for continuous development, and that I don’t really know what my job description will be next year!
Are there any exciting developments or innovations in our valuechain that you find particularly promising or interesting?
Being involved in this industry for almost 8 years, I think all of us are getting a bit impatient. Things are continuously progressing, and activity is sky-high, but externally that might be hard to see, because there is no line of customers at the door. Which is understandable because most people want to “see what they buy”. That requires that someone needs to be the first-movers and prove that this is a viable solution (with a lot of help of course). And I am especially happy to see that several investment decisions have been made the last year. In that way we get pilots up and running, which is the best way to test the technology in operation, develop the value chain and finally commercialize and scale.
Fun fact or something we don’t know about you?
While I quite enjoy a comfortable life, my alter ego has retired on a small farm growing vegetables for a living. And I love food: Growing it, cooking it, eating it!
Nice to have you back, Maria! 🌼
Hi!
Do you have comments on this article? Feel free to get in touch!
Karoline J VĂĄgsholm
Communication Manager
+47 920 55 369
karoline.vagsholm@oceanhywaycluster.no
LinkedIn