Witt O'Brien's Acquires Navigate Response
By THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE 03-11-2020
[By Bill Lines]
We are excited to announce that Navigate Response has been acquired by Witt O'Brien's, a world-leading provider of crisis response and QI services.
When we launched Navigate Response in 2012, we set out to help solve the crisis communications and media challenges faced by shipowners and managers trading globally. Making our clients better prepared to manage their reputations when a crisis occurs and making them more resilient is at the core of what we do. We’ve been working closely with Witt O’Brien’s since 2018 and they share our passion for helping clients develop resilience. The joining of the two companies brings maritime crisis communicators and operational crisis responders together under one roof for the first time.
Witt O’Brien’s is an innovative US company based in Houston and Washington, D.C. It has been a leader in the maritime industry for 35 years, providing training and exercises, planning, regulatory compliance, communications, port security, Qualified Individual (QI), Incident Management Team (IMT) and Spill Management Team (SMT) services and supporting more than 11,000 ships. Witt O’Brien’s is part of the Seacor family of businesses.
There will be no change to the personalised service our clients and partners expect from us. Our global network and teams in London and Singapore remain the same and will continue to be led by Edward Ion in Singapore; Mike Elsom, Bill Lines and Dustin Eno in London. While our service delivery will not change, there are now many added benefits for our clients.
As part of the Witt O’Brien’s family, our clients will benefit from unparalleled expertise in the challenging North American media market including the closest possible connections with both state and federal agencies.
With access to the infrastructure of one of the world’s leading emergency response companies, our clients can expect the highest standards of operational excellence including, for the first time ever for maritime crisis communications, a fully staffed 24/7 emergency operations centre.
Our close personal working relationships with clients and partners are central to everything we do, and so we would like to take this opportunity to say thank you. Thank you for choosing us as your crisis communications provider and thank you for your continued support. We look forward to continuing to work closely with you in the months and years to come.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us with questions or to learn more about this merger and our full suite of crisis and emergency management solutions.
For the online version of this article, go to Maritime-Executive.com
Bill created Navigate in 2004, forming a partnership with Mike Elsom in 2006. He is responsible for business development and managing a number of Navigate's accounts.
Bill was educated in London before completing a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in German & European Studies at Manchester University. He became a successful maritime journalist covering the international liquid bulk transportation and container markets. Bill was then appointed communications manager at the Baltic Exchange responsible for its events and raising and maintaining its external profile.