INDUSTRY NEWS
John Turner will join Seaspan Shipyards as Vice President, Government Relations on 19 August 2019. He will be based out of Seaspan’s Ottawa office, which opened in May of this year, and will be responsible for the day-to-day management of Seaspan Shipyards relationships with the federal and B.C. provincial governments.
“It is important that we have a person of John’s experience and calibre based in Ottawa to facilitate and further strengthen our relationship, engagement and communication with our Federal Government customers,” said Mark Lamarre, Chief Executive Officer, Seaspan Shipyards.
Mr. Turner’s appointment follows changes to Seaspan’s senior leadership over the past 12 months, including appointments of Mark Lamarre as Chief Executive Officer, Jari Anttila as Chief Operating Officer, John McCarthy as Chief Program Officer and Tony Winter as Vice President, Project Delivery.
Mr. Turner joins Seaspan from Newfoundland and Labrador based PAL Aerospace where he has worked since April 2017, first in the role as Vice President Operations and more recently as Senior Vice President Business Development.
Turner says he is “thrilled to be joining Seaspan Shipyards at such an exciting time which includes the recent delivery of the first large vessel built under the National Shipbuilding Strategy, the launch of the second Canadian Coast Guard Offshore Fisheries Science Vessel and the long-term commitment by the Government of Canada for Seaspan to build an additional 16 vessels for the Coast Guard.”
Prior to this positions at PAL Aerospace, Mr. Turner served as Associate Deputy Minister (February 2015 to March 2017) and Assistant Deputy Minister (Materiel) (December 2012 to February 2015) at the Department of National Defence.
Mr. Turner holds a Master of Strategic Studies from the US Army War College, a Master of Business Administration from Queen’s University and a Bachelor of Engineering Management from the Royal Military College of Canada.
Seaspan Shipyards is Canada’s chosen non-combat shipbuilder under the National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS), and is building state-of-the-art ships for the Canadian Coast Guard and Royal Canadian Navy.
Through its NSS-related work, Seaspan is creating jobs, generating economic benefits and rebuilding Canada’s shipbuilding and marine industries. With a dedicated workforce of 2,300 at its modern facilities in North Vancouver and Victoria, the company has proven itself to be a reliable partner on a range of complex projects for both government and the private sector.
