Senior appointments at Noble Denton

Company News - August 11, 2000

The Noble Denton Group has announced the promotion of three senior directors from their European offices, to the Group Board and the newly formed Operations Board.

The move has been made in response to the industry's changing environment and the long-term plans for the development of the Noble Denton Group.

The Noble Denton Group has met a significant increase in demand of late and noticed changing trends in the requirements of its clients worldwide.In order to build on its position as an independent provider of engineering and marine consultancy services, the Group has made a number of changes recently, changes which have led to additions, in personnel and scope, to the Group's Senior structure.

The Group's structure has been reorganised, introducing an Operations Board in addition to the Holdings Board to ensure that these developments run smoothly across all 12 international offices. Noble Denton will also be recruiting in essential areas andfurthering the skills of existing personnel.

In addition, Noble Denton will, in time look to make strategic acquisitions of companies with expertise and quality standards that are complementary to their existing business lines.

The Holdings Board, whose primary function is dealing with the Group's corporate matters, has been expanded to cover Brand Development. Since it is felt that this move will benefit from the input of Noble Denton's Technical Policy Board, the group has announced the appointments of Dr R V Ahilan and Richard Bush, the Managing Directors of the Group's London and Northern European operations respectively, as Directors of Noble Denton Holdings.

In addition to their current responsibilities and their membership of the Technical Policy Board, they now also have an important role in business and technical assurance initiatives.

The new Operations Board will, as its name suggests, concentrate on operational aspects of the Noble Denton Group's businesses. In addition it will focus on the international development of existing business lines (such as jack-up rigs, floating production facilities, and general marine consultancy) and the provision of new technologies and technological support.

In recognition of his contribution to establishment and development of these initiatives, Noble Denton has announced the appointment of Mike Hoyle as a Director of the Operations Board where he will have particular responsibility for the jack-up businessline, IT and the training requirements of the Group.

A key part of the -roll out- programme is the promotion of a Marine Conference in the Middle East, which will focus on core business of marine operations with the aim of developing strategies to help clients capitalise on the emerging trends in marine operations worldwide.