We would like you to meet the people behind NBCC who contribute their knowledge and experience to make our chamber even better. Please meet Hari, an Advisory Board member and one of the people we rely on to help us achieve this.
Hari Vamadevan is the Regional Director of Energy Systems UK and Ireland at DNV. He leads a 700-strong advisory and assurance team across the entire Energy System – Renewables, Power Grids and Oil & Gas – focused on helping customers making the transition to a decarbonised energy future whilst ensuring the lights stay on. He is a graduate of Imperial College, London and holds a master’s in chemical engineering.
Why and how did you get involved with NBCC?
DNV is a global business headquartered in Norway, with a large operation in the UK. Our heritage is important to us and so joining NBCC is a natural fit. We do a lot of business across the North Sea and being part of the chamber enhances this connection. Joining and being part of the chamber allows DNV to expand our business and social network with other businesses and provides us with a natural pathway to support start-ups and share best practise.
What advantages can NBCC offer as a facilitator of trade between the UK and Norway?
The UK is Norway’s largest trading partner. Total trade between the 2 countries is more than £26 billion. Norway supplies 60% of the UK’s energy needs and 48.8% of the UK’s exports to Norway are services. NBCC and DNV are perfect pan North Sea partners. The NBCC provides connections with organisations and people that DNV want to work with and support. These connections ultimately support DNV’s business in the UK and facilitate growth.
How has your team embraced the energy transition?
While there is a lot to do in terms of laying the groundwork for energy transition, DNV is aligning itself perfectly to play its part, diversifying its UK facing business by adopting a segment model that will see its formidable base of oil and gas expertise used to add value to numerous new categories, including renewables storage and electric vehicles.
The UK represents an exciting challenge and opportunity for DNV. The company, which has 12,000 employees spread across 100 countries worldwide, is displaying its confidence in the UK&I market. The UK needs 50GW of offshore wind by 2030. To hit this target, a constant stream of innovation is needed across critical areas such as turbines, ports, cranes, vessels, grid connectivity and more. For DNV, the key question is how it can position itself to drive innovation in some of these areas and help the UK along its energy transition journey.
According to DNV’s Energy Transition Outlook which forecasts the energy transition globally, there are several factors which will impact on the energy mix to 2050. Fossil fuels will continue to be part of the mix for several reasons two of which are security of supply and high energy prices. However, meeting net zero targets are as important as ever, for the health of the planet and rapid action needs to be taken. Renewable electricity, hydrogen and bioenergy are essential, but insufficient: almost a quarter of net decarbonization relies on carbon capture and removal combined with land-use changes.
DNV embrace these challenges head on with customers and policy makers, and without question, as the UK continues to move towards it net zero and energy transition ambitions, the value DNV can add through its multifaceted knowledge base is assured. DNV is specifically launching its outlook for the UK on 6 December 2022.
How important is a diverse workforce to your team?
DNV’s commitment to diversity equity and inclusion is both an ethical choice and a business decision. And truly, DNV is already a very diverse company, with employees from 114 nationalities working in 100 countries. We see diversity, equity, and inclusion within our workforce as a way of delivering excellence, and we recruit the best people regardless of race, gender, age, nationality, ethnic background, skin colour, political opinion, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, marital status, physical constitution, or other personal characteristics.
We seek diversity, equity inclusion at all levels of our company in terms of age, gender, nationality, experience, and mindset. The percentage of female permanent employees across DNV is 33%.
Diversity of thought is a source of strength for DNV. It provides the widest access to global talent and is the best basis for delivering excellence to our customers. This sits expressly with one of the DNV values in particular, the Value that ‘we care’ for each other.
It has been a pleasure talking with you Hari, and thank you for giving our members and followers a chance to get to know you better!
