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14 • MarineNews • April, 2006 Q&A MN: Please give us some background personal information Kamal: I am a graduate of the Merchant Marine Engineering Academy in India and sailed merchant ships for 10 years as an engineer before receiving my Chief Engineer's license from the U.K. After immigrating to the United States in 1983, I continued my education at the Universi- ty of Michigan, studying naval architec- ture and marine engineering. I went to work for QED in 1986 to work on inte- grating Isotta Fraschini Motori (IF) diesel engines into the U.S. Navy's Mine Force ships. I advanced to Assistant General Manager of FDGM, Inc. and in 2000, became Vice President of Operations at FDGM. Last year I was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of Fincantieri Marine Systems, North America, Inc., which has assumed FDGM. MN: Fincantieri Marine Systems, North America has been recently intro- duced. Please provide details on how the new company differs from FDGM. Kamal: All current activities of FDGM will be continued and subsumed by Fin- cantieri Marine Systems and we expect that this transition will be transparent to our current customers. Our new company, FMS, is part of the vision of Giuseppe Bono, Fincantieri's Chief Executive Offi- cer, to expand our presence and business base in the global maritime market. Drawing on the vast resources of our par- ent company, and forming strategic part- nerships with other U.S. companies, Fin- cantieri Marine Systems, North America Inc. is uniquely qualified to provide fully engineered and integrated propulsion sys- tem and machinery plant solutions to industry. Further, services to existing cus- tomers will be enhanced as the additional resources of our parent company are brought to bear. MN: Specifically, why was it decided to launch the new venture at this time? Kamal: Mr. Bono believes that the time is right, in view of constrained defense budgets and the desire to get extremely cost effective supply and service in the future further improving on the already excellent standards we had achieved in the past at FDGM. He further believes, as I do, that we offer a unique combination of products, systems and services required by the marketplace. MN: What do you believe differentiates your company from the competition? Kamal: As I said, I believe that we bring a unique combination of goods and ser- vices to the marketplace. As a world-class shipyard, building the full gamut of mer- chant ships and naval vessels, we have proven that we can engineer, integrate, purchase, deliver, install, test and deliver to satisfied customers around the globe. As we are not a large hardware producer, we can make individually tailored choices that are far above standard solutions for our customers. And based on the lessons learned by Fincantieri while building hun- dreds of ships, we can both integrate machinery plant components as well as optimizing the machinery plants fit to the hull. MN:There were reportedly some prob- lems associated with the developmental, non-magnetic Isotta Fraschini engines installed in the U.S. Navy's Mine Force ships — what is the current status? Kamal: The problems to which you refer were simple teething issues stemming from the Navy's traditional quest for upgrades that could be dealt with and quickly resolved thanks to our attention to the Navy's needs and continuous drive for improvements. To help gain some momentum, we funded some necessary improvements to two ships that participat- ed in Operation Iraqi Freedom. We also provided an onboard technician who sailed with the Navy's personnel through- out the mission. These improvements proved more successful than either we or the Navy anticipated - with nearly 100 percent reliability. As a result, we are cur- rently teamed with the Navy to institu- tionalize these improvements on all of the Mine Countermeasure ships. We are very pleased with the results and believe that any minor issues related to the Isotta Fras- chini engines have been successfully iden- Upi Kamal CEO, Fincantieri Marine Systems North America APRIL MN2006 2(9-16).qxd 4/10/2006 3:20 PM Page 14
