When Keynvor MorLift’s newly-appointed chief operating officer commutes across the Penryn River to his firm’s Falmouth Wharves HQ he swaps one of the world’s lightest and simplest water craft for some of the most robust and versatile.

Robin van der Bij’s kayak is dwarfed by Keynvor MorLift’s fleet of specialist crane and rock barges, tugs and landing craft which he now deploys, with their equally specialist crews, wherever they are required for near-shore marine construction, marine salvage and recovery, heavy lifting, towing and sub-sea or surface device installation.

Robin started his civil engineering career in near-shore marine construction with Van Oord and other Dutch marine organisations and his appointment to the Keynvor MorLift (KML) team has brought that career full circle. In the interim he became a specialist in sea defence and flood protection, was contracts manager at Seacore, formed his own design and build eco-home construction company and built a successful firm, LM Handling, specialising in offshore and sub-sea heavy lifting equipment sales and rental around the world.

“Robin is a perfect fit for KML and our diverse and expanding portfolio of marine services around the UK coast and beyond,” said managing director Diccon Rogers. “KML is founded on teamwork, and relies for success on high skills, diligence and good judgement at every level. With his expertise in the off-shore, near-shore, sub-sea and marine renewables sectors Robin is the ideal candidate to oversee and strengthen our team.”

Robin’s COO role with KML is a wide one, encompassing all the high-level business performance of the firm. He is working closely with Diccon to manage all of KML’s operational, technical, commercial and financial outputs as well as all health, safety, quality and environment commitments.

“KML is a great business with a fantastic variety of marine work,” said Robin. “On the one-hand KML has had a wide diversity of national and international ‘blue chip’ clients and we are currently working on one of the UK’s most prestigious projects - Hinkley Point Nuclear Power Station. On the other we are working closely with local clients on vital local projects, installing rock armour protection to vulnerable stretches of coastline, and heavy-duty piled jetties for boat hoists. Having established itself in the last few years, I look forward to helping KML with maturing its business."

KML moved its headquarters to Falmouth Wharves, with the creation of 39 new jobs, after it was able to “save” the site from developers. Its purchase of the wharves (with help from Cornwall Marine Network’s marine capital fund) preserved a strategically and historically important deep-water hub of commercial maritime industries, safeguarding the existing employment of around 100 people.