DNV has been represented in the Americas since 1868, four years after DNV was established in Oslo, Norway, initially with an agent, and with a permanent office in New York from 1898. Since then, DNV has grown and developed its services to meet the increasing demands of our customers and other stakeholders in the Americas.
Today, DNV is widely recognised as a key member of the maritime community in the Americas and, in fact, an American company. However, we are proud of our company's Norwegian maritime heritage and culture, which is often characterised by quality, competence in the development and application of advanced technology and innovative and solution-oriented thinking. Indeed, our own objective - to safeguard life, property and the environment - is strongly influenced by the Norwegian culture. DNV is a truly international company and it has implemented the best practices of leading international companies. DNV recruits, hires, trains and develops local technical staff and managers in the Americas. Our American employees, as all DNV employees, have combined three cultures into a single DNV culture in the Americas. This culture, based upon the Norwegian culture, the American culture of enterprising attitudes and "can do" spirit and the DNV Maritime culture, which places quality at the top of our daily agenda, is reflected in the uniquely qualified, most capable and highly motivated staff in the Americas. We believe that our staff is matchless, but our customers are the final judge of our services, so please consider DNV for your next project or ship classification to experience the DNV difference.
The Americas are clearly an important region to DNV. The United States alone, the world's largest economy, exports over $715 billion and imports more than $1.3 trillion annually through deep sea ports. As our Around the Globe feature starting on page 8 reflects, there is a great deal of optimism in American shipping today and you can be sure that DNV will respond to the ever-increasing demands of our customers and stakeholders in the future.
Blaine Collins, DNV Maritime's regional manager for North and South America