Newbold Wins Entrepreneur Award

Strategic Marine chairman and founder Mark Newbold has won an Ernst & Young Australian Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Mr. Newbold, whose shipbuilding company has its headquarters at Henderson in Western Australia, took out the national Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the Products Category at a black tie event on Nov. 27 in Sydney.

Mr. Newbold founded Strategic Marine in 2001 with the goal of building a shipbuilding company with manufacturing operations across the world. Seven years later, he is realizing that dream, with four shipyards in WA, Vietnam, Singapore and Mexico now employing more than 1,800 personnel. In the past year, Strategic Marine has taken orders for more than 130 vessels worth over $280m.

The company’s 442,900 sq ft yard in Vietnam, which has already won $60m worth of orders in the past 18 months, is now fully equipped with the facilities and technology to build large, purpose-designed steel vessels.

The shipbuilder has also recently doubled the capacity and size of its Singapore yard to meet high demand from the offshore sector, as well as opening its new yard in Mexico.

“We are also currently in the process of proving we have the know-how to build the most technologically advanced floating dry dock in the world, the base of which will be delivered to the Australian Marine Complex (AMC) at Henderson in early December,” said Mr. Newbold.

In the past 12 months, Strategic Marine has also won the Australian Chamber of Commerce Vietnam Business Excellence Award, the Large Advanced Manufacturer Award in the WA Export Awards, taking it to next month’s national finals, as well as the WA Business News “Rising Star” Award.

(www.strategicmarine.com)