University Of Calgary News

Seaspan has named three new Vice Presidents to its Senior Leadership Team, announcing the appointments of Linda Wortman as Vice President, Finance & Accounting; Catherine Chick as Vice President, Business Services & Technology; and Shawn Chylinski as Vice President, Health, Safety, Environment & Quality. As Vice President, Finance & Accounting, Linda is responsible for strategic financial oversight of the marine division and corporate services. She is a key advisor to the CFO and Executive Leadership Team and ensures information and metrics are available to inform value added business decisions. Linda joined Seaspan in 2008 as Controller, Marine and was appointed to the role of Vice President, Finance & Accounting in January 2016.

Holland America Line has promoted Christine Thurlow to director of national accounts sales, North America, on the company’s National Accounts Sales team. Thurlow will report to Charles J. Dunwoody, CTC, senior director, national accounts, North America. In addition to her Canadian portfolio, she will take on Holland America Line and Seabourn sales responsibilities for Virtuoso, Signature Travel Network, Costco, Our Vacation Center, Expedia and Travelocity. “Christine has been with the company for many years and she’s continued to grow and evolve as her role has developed,” said Dunwoody. Thurlow joined Holland America Line in 1995 and has held various sales management positions during her tenure. Most recently she was manager of national accounts for Canada, a position she held since 2001.

According to cbsnews.com, Melting sea ice has drawn more cruise ship tourists to Canada's Arctic waters, but an Arctic security expert warns that centuries-old navigation charts still in use today could threaten the safety of such vessels and their passengers. Ships still rely on some maritime charts that date back to the voyages of the British Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin in the 1800s, said Rob Huebert, a political science professor at the University of Calgary. Navigational technology was limited in Franklin's time, Huebert said, leading to vague or inaccurate chart measurements. In August 1996, the Hanseatic cruise ship ran aground near Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, as it was carrying tourists in the Northwest Passage. No one was injured in that incident.

NovAtel Inc. was awarded a $142,000 (CDN) contract by Public Works & Government Services Canada for an Interoperability study on the receiver requirements for Galileo. Galileo is the European Union's state-of-the-art Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), which is expected to be fully operable by 2008 with up to 30 satellites orbiting the earth. This contract, sponsored in Canada by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), focuses principally on both GPS and Galileo receiver requirements and system performance. NovAtel will study the requirements for a combined GPS/Galileo receiver. The University of Calgary, also located in Calgary, Canada, will work under a subcontract to NovAtel to analyze the performance of the system using system constellation modeling techniques.