Keith Michel
Chairman HEC Group of Companies
Keith Michel has been an employee at HEC since 1973, a director of the company since 1975, and has served as President since 1990. He has been actively involved in the design and procurement of commercial ships for the past thirty years. Mr. Michel has served as a technical advisor to the U.S. delegation at IMO for the past ten years and chaired the IMO BLG working group revising MARPOL regulations related to tanker outflow. He is past chairman of the Northern California Section of SNAME, chairs SNAME's Investments and Nominating Committees, and is a member of SNAME's Executive Committee. Mr. Michel served as chair of the Marine Board of the National Research Council.

Spencer Schilling
President HEC
Spencer Schilling has been an employee at HEC since 1983, a director of the company since 1987, has served as Vice-President since 1994, and currently manages HEC's CargoMax Division. He has over twenty years of experience in general naval architecture involving all levels of design, detailed structural analysis, and survivability evaluation. Mr. Schilling's experience includes structural plan review for post-PANAMAX containerships, economic and feasibility studies for Hawaiian barge service, route specific vessel cargo securing requirements, tanker structural repair and critical area inspection guidelines, negotiation and project coordination, and inspection for structural repairs. He has authored papers on computerized ship design, hull wave bending and springing loads, and probabilistic oil outflow for comparative tanker designs. Mr. Schilling is a member of the ABS Committee on Naval Architecture, is the past Chairman of the Northern California Section of SNAME, and is a Registered Professional Engineer in the state of Maryland.

Eugene van Rynbach
Vice President and Manager Annapolis Office
Eugene Van Rynbach has been an employee of HEC since 2005 and currently manages the Annapolis office. Eugene Van Rynbach has thirty three years of experience in general naval architecture and marine engineering. His experience encompasses a varied background including time as a sea going engineer, classification society engineer, new construction supervisor, consultant for vessel casualty analysis and many years working as a technical manager for major liner shipping companies. His recent activities involve a wide range of projects including new ship design, new construction plan approval, tanker, RoRo and containership modifications and repairs, piping modifications, and structural design and analysis. For many years he was a member of the ABS Americas Naval Architecture and Division Technical Committee.

John Paulling
Vice President and Manager Offshore Design Services
John Paulling joined HEC in 2001. He has over 25 years of experience in offshore engineering and naval architecture. Prior to joining HEC, Mr. Paulling was with Shell Oil Companys offshore engineering and construction group, followed by civil/structural consulting with Earl and Wright and then Winzler and Kelly Consulting Engineers. He also spent three and a half years overseas at the Japan National Oil Corporations research center investigating development of deepwater oil fields. Recent projects while at HEC include conceptual design of an FPSO for offshore West Africa, concept design of a gravity-base LNG terminal, and design of the mooring turret for a new-concept deepwater FPSO. He also supervised finite element analysis of the midship section for the Navy's new re-supply ships and participated in the design development for a new series of very large LNG carriers. Mr. Paulling has a B.S. in Civil Engineering and a Master of Engineering in Ocean Engineering, both from U.C. Berkeley. He is a registered Professional Engineer in California and Texas.

Colin Moore
Manager Advanced Analysis and Salvage Engineering
Colin Moore has been an employee at HEC since 1990, a director of the company since 1992, and currently manages our research & development and advanced analysis efforts. He has twenty-five years of experience in general naval architecture and marine systems research and development. Experience includes static and dynamic analysis of offshore structures and ships. Representative projects include regulatory assessment of tug escorts for Puget Sound, risk evaluation for twin engine room tankers, regulatory assessment of ballast water discharge standards, pollution risk evaluation of Aframax tankers (EC POP&C project), investigation of large amplitude non-linear ship motions leading to capsizing; development of a stochastic FEM capability for marine structural reliability analysis, and research into ice forces on offshore structures. He provides salvage engineering and software training to clients worldwide including coast guards, navies, class societies, major oil shippers and salvage companies. Additional experience includes investigation of the intact stability of double hull tankers as a member of SNAME's ad-hoc committee, and teaching the graduate level ship structures course as a Visiting Lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of the Intact Stability chapter of the next release of PNA.

Karl Briers
Manager Marine Engineering Services
Karl Briers joined HEC in 2001 when the Annapolis office opened. He has over 30 years of experience in the marine industry in ship design, shipbuilding, marketing ships and technologies, strategic planning, and consulting. Mr. Briers experience includes design experience at all levels from concept through detail design for commercial ships. He has experience with shipyard planning and production engineering including test and trial and guarantee engineering as well as project management, marketing, and strategic planning experience for a major shipyard. Mr. Briers has served on SNAME panels and ASTM committees. He is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and SNAME, and is a Registered Professional Engineer in the state of Maryland.

John Zhang
General Manager, Herbert Engineering Shanghai Co., Ltd. (HES)
John Zhang has been an employee of HES since it opened in 2004 and has served as Senior Engineer, Technical Manager, and now General Manager. Prior to joining HES, Mr. Zhang worked for 11 years at Jiangnan Shipyard Shanghai, China where he was a Principal Engineer involved with new building projects for oil & chemical tankers and RORO passenger vessels. His areas of responsibility included new construction design, specification development and negotiations with owners, outfit and accommodation equipment selection, general and structural plan review, plan schedule control and coordination, Class submittals, construction inpsection and problem resolution. He also has expertise in structural analysis including advanced buckling calculations. Mr. Zhang holds a B.S. degree in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from Harbin Shipbuilding Engineering Institute of China in 1993. He is a SNAME member.

Luca Letizia
Managing Director, Herbert Engineering Europe (UK) Ltd. (HEE)
Dr. Letizia, joined Herbert Engineering Corp. in April 2004. He has broad expertise in ship hydrodynamics and ship stability. His technical expertise lies in the fields of hydrodynamics, naval architecture, Computational Fluid Dynamics, nonlinear system dynamics, ship safety and stability, marine accidents investigation, expert systems for decision support and evacuation analysis. He is currently leading the HEC efforts in Europe as the managing director of HEE. Dr. Letizia graduated from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow with a first degree in Naval Architecture, followed by a PhD from the same university in the area of non-linear ship motion, stability and survivability. Dr. Letizia is a Chartered Engineer, CEng, in the UK. He is a member of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects (UK), and a member of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (US).

Rick Thorpe
Senior Principal
Rick Thorpe was hired as Vice President in 2001 and became a Director of the company in 2002. He has over 45 years of experience in the marine industry in ship design, shipbuilding, marketing ships and technologies, strategic planning, and consulting. Mr. Thorpe's experience includes establishing ship design and shipbuilding operations, organizing and directing marketing and strategic planning departments, and the overall general management of multiple profit centers for management consulting, offshore engineering, and special marine technology divisions of a major naval architecture firm. Mr. Thorpe has served on Marine Board Ad Hoc Committees.  He is a life member of the American Society of Naval Engineers, and has been active in SNAME as Chairman of the Public Policy Committee and a member of the Executive, T&R Steering, and Papers Committees.

Peter Zink
Principal
Peter Zink has been an employee at HEC since 1983, a director of the company since 1987, and HEC's Chief Financial Officer since 1995. He has twenty-three years experience in general naval architecture and marine engineering. His experience encompasses a varied background including ship motions research, vessel preliminary design, ship structural analysis and design, ship piping, and mechanical and electrical system designs. Prior employment includes eight years in the engineering and operations departments of a major liner shipping company. He has provided on-site supervision and technical support for numerous construction and repair projects. He is active in SNAME and has served previously as chairman for the Northern California Section of the Society.

Paul Snyder
Senior Associate
Paul Snyder joined HEC in 2002 as a Principal Naval Architect. He has over 30 years of experience in the marine and offshore industries. He has been involved in the design and analysis of ships, semisubmersibles and offshore platforms including several years field experience as owners representative for new construction, conversions and surveys. Mr. Snyder's naval architectural experience includes motions and seakeeping analysis, model testing, operability assessments, installation procedures, stability analysis, weight control, hull arrangements, structural design, marine piping, regulatory compliance and development of design criteria. Prior to joining HEC, Mr. Snyder was general manager for a small naval architecture consultancy and chief naval architect for the offshore engineering firm Earl and Wright. Mr. Snyder has a B.S. from the Webb Institute of Naval Architecture and a M.S. in naval architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Washington.

Robert vom Saal
Senior Naval Architect
Robert vom Saal joined HEC in 2001 when the Annapolis office opened. He has over 30 years of experience in the marine industry in ship design, shipbuilding, and ship inspection. Mr. vom Saal's experience includes structural design and naval architecture at all levels from concept through detail design and plan approvals for commercial ships, naval auxiliaries, and offshore structures. He is a member of the SNAME Hull Structures Committee and the Marine Technology Committee, and is a Registered Professional Engineer in the states of Maryland, New York, and Massachusetts.

John Larkin
Project Naval Architect/Marine Engineer
John joined HEC as a Project Engineer in 2008. He has over 8 years of active duty USCG experience as an engineer officer and executive officer. He also served as a port engineer responsible for maintenance of buoy tenders and tugs. After returning to school for a graduate degree in Naval Architecture, where he studied structural design and CFD optimization, he is able to bring a useful combination of practical operational experience with a classical design background. At HEC, John uses all of these skills on a wide range of projects including intact and damage stability analysis, piping and mechanical system design, cold ironing implementation and project coordination, and preparation of training material on SOLAS and MARPOL. He has B.S. degree in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from the United Stages Coast Guard Academy and a M.Sc. degree from Chalmers University of Technology (Göteborg, Sweden).

Ying Mei
Naval Architect
Ms Ying Mei joined HECin 2005. She is primarily involved in the areas of general naval architecture and vessel design with experience in intact and damage stability analysis, ship structural design, and preparation of operating documents such as Trim & Stability booklets, Cargo Securing Manuals; and Ballast Water Management Plans. During her schooling, Ms Mei had internships at Nantong COSCO shipyard, Jiangnan Shipyard, and Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard in Shanghai, as well as at Lloyds Register and at ABS Houston. Ms. Mei has a solid understanding of classification rules for containerships and oil tankers, and is familiar with the software tools such as LRs Ship Right and ABS SafeHull/CSR. Ms. Mei holds a B.S. degree in naval architecture and marine engineering from the Shanghai Jiao Tong University (2002) and an M.S. degree from the University of Michigan (2004). She is a member of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (US). She is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Washington.

Matt McBride
Naval Architect
Matt joined HEC in 2006. He is primarily involved in the areas of general naval architecture and vessel design with experience in finite element analysis, structural design, and stability analysis. Matt has had internships at NAVSEA - Naval Sea Systems Command, Design Research Engineering, Herbert Engineering Corp., and Navatek. Matt holds M.S.E. and B.S.E degrees in Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering, and a B.S.E. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan. He is a member of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers.

Jesse Senkel
Naval Architect/Marine Engineer
Jesse joined HEC in 2007. He is primarily involved in the areas of general naval architecture and marine engineering. He has performed work on the concept design of a large high speed trimaran, piping modifications and system design for various vessel conversions, and plan and detailed design review of systems for bulker and tanker newbuildings. He has also worked on troubleshooting cooling water circulation problems for container vessels, writing procedures for shipboard USCG tests, and preparing container ship hatch cover drawings. Mr. Senkel worked as a Third Assistant Engineer, unlimited tonnage steam & motor, for SeaRiver Maritime, Inc. for three years from 2001 to 2004. In that time, he obtained his Second Assistant Engineer’s license, unlimited tonnage, for all motor vessels. He has B.S. degree in Marine Engineering from Texas A&M. After sailing for several years as a licensed engineer on tankers he returned to school for a B.S. degree in Naval Architecture from the University of New Orleans.

Cameron Baker
Naval Architect/Marine Engineer
Cameron joined HEC in 2007. He is active in both general naval architecture and marine engineering project work. He has performed system design and general engineering for the large containerships, tankers, and barges. This included piping system detailed design, shipyard installation support, and Class approvals. Mr. Baker has also been involved in containership design capacity evaluation for owners, new containership concept design development and parametric studies, and evaluation and application of container securing rules for all major Class Societies. He has B.S. degree in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from Webb Institute.

Michael D. Strange
Senior Designer
Mike joined HEC in 1993. He has 35 years of experience in drafting, design and technical illustrating in most aspects of the commercial marine environment. He also served active duty in the U.S. Navy and is familiar both with large vessel and small boat operations.

Richard Payne
Design Drafter
Member of HEC since 2000.

Ada Cheung
Director/Office Manager
B.A. degree in Business Management Economics, UC Santa Cruz. Member of HEC since 2003.

Mary Stanton
Office Assistant
Member of HEC since 1999.

George Pedrick
Network Administrator
Member of HEC since 2008.