Harland and Wolff Appoints New CEO as Cooper Steps Down

Chief Executive Officer of Harland and Wolff Group PLC and Harland and Wolff Heavy Industries Limited, Robert J Cooper, retired from the position on 30 April.

Cooper has been succeeded by Jonathan Guest, previously Director of Business Development and Improvement for Harland and Wolff Heavy Industries Limited, who took over as CEO on 1 May.

In his 44-year career with the company, Cooper had been CEO since 2003 and was acknowledged as the one who returned the company to profit through a strategy of diversification, leading the firm into the renewable energy sector, design engineering and the growth of the ship repair and conversion business, Harland and Wolff said.

“Jonathan Guest has ably fulfilled the role of Director of Business Development and Improvement at Harland and Wolff for the past 4 years,” Cooper said.

“The role of CEO of Harland and Wolff comes with huge responsibilities which go beyond our immediate existence as a successful and innovative engineering firm.  The brand is known throughout the world and I know he will provide excellent leadership for the team at Harland and Wolff, which is now in its 158th year.”

Harland and Wolff’s most recent offshore wind activities include the assembly of the jacket foundations for the East Anglia ONE offshore wind farm at its yard in Belfast, Ireland, as well as the manufacturing of suction buckets for the Borkum Riffgrund 2 offshore wind farm.