Vanguard Magazine

26 FEBRUARY/MARCH 2025 www.vanguardcanada.com G A M E C H A N G E R See the full interview online Q How did you start out in this industry and how has it brought you to where you are today? I grew up on the Great Lakes in a fam- ily full of automotive engineers and always assumed I'd end up in that industry, but when I had my first visit of the Univer- sity of Michigan's Marine Hydrodynamics Lab I knew that shipbuilding was the right challenge for me. I worked at a number of different shipbuilders across Canada and the United States before starting at Sea- span. However, getting the opportunity to join the team designing and building Canada's new heavy Polar Icebreaker was one I couldn't pass up. Q What is your role at your organization today? I'm the Chief Engineer for the Polar Ice- breaker program at Seaspan's Vancouver Shipyards. Canada's new heavy Polar Icebreaker is a PC2 class icebreaker be- ing designed and built for the Canadian Coast Guard under the National Ship- building Strategy (NSS), and as the Polar program's Chief Engineer I'm re- sponsible for technical oversight of the engineering and construction of the ship. Q What was your most challenging moment? My most challenging moment was mak- ing the decision to emigrate to Canada in 2015. I had an amazing opportunity to join the community of shipbuilders supporting the NSS, but it meant leaving friends and family behind and starting over in a new country. However, mak- ing that choice and coming to Canada gave me the strength to continue pursu- ing even more exciting opportunities to further my career, which has helped me get to where I am today. Q What was your A-HA moment or epiphany that you think will resonate most with our reader, tell us that story. In 2001, shortly after I started with NAVSEA Carderock as a newly gradu- ated engineer, I was sent to Pascagoula, Mississippi on a ship-check of the USS Ticonderoga (CG-47). We spent a very long day checking compartments, crawl- ing tanks, surveying the ship from stem to stern, and in those 8+ hours I learned more from those sailors about ship op- eration and life aboard than I thought possible. Q How has innovation become engrained in your organization's culture and how is it being optimized? Shipbuilding continues to evolve, as does the needs of our customer, so we have to evolve and innovate alongside it to ensure that we are building ships as efficiently as possible. Over the past decade, that need for continuous improvement, innovation, and learning has been at the core of our organization. We have built out our sup- ply-chain and improved our manufactur- ing methods. With every ship we design and build, we become better shipbuilders for the next one on our order book. Q What are some of the biggest impediments to innovation in your industry sector? The size of the projects, both by mass and value, means new construction proj- ect durations of multiple years, so what may have been cutting edge during the design phase of the ship may outdated by the time delivery or the ship's first mainte- nance period occurs. With ship service life now regularly exceeding 40+ years, it can be very difficult to incorporate innovative technologies. Q What is your parting piece of advice? Opportunities come to those who say "yes". Be open to new ideas, experiences, and connections as they have the potential to expand your own knowledge as a sub- ject matter expert and help. JESS FETTERMAN CHIEF ENGINEER – POLAR ICEBREAKER SEASPAN

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