(MIDDLETOWN, R.I. and LONDON) — KVH Industries Inc. has named Mark Woodhead to the newly created position of KVH senior vice president for training and content, effective on Jan. 1. In this position, Woodhead will direct KVH’s maritime crew welfare, safety and productivity services, which include Videotel maritime training packages — currently in use on more than 12,000 vessels worldwide — and numerous news and entertainment brands, such as NEWSlink.
Woodhead has been managing director of KVH’s news and entertainment brands since 2013 and will succeed Nigel Cleave, following the planned decision by Videotel’s CEO to retire at the end of the year. Woodhead’s new position will bring KVH’s maritime training, news, and entertainment under one umbrella for the first time.
Cleave’s decision to retire comes after a fulfilling career spent at sea, in ship management, consultancy, and crew training as a senior maritime industry professional.
Woodhead’s background is in content acquisition and production; he has been in the shipping sector since 2000, when he was commercial director of TEAMtalk Media Group, and he launched Headland Media in 2006. He led a roll-up of shipping service businesses, including brands such as NEWSlink, Walport, and Shipboard Video Express.
Cleave’s career began with Cunard as a navigating cadet officer and he went on to hold senior positions within the ship management sector, including building one business up from zero to a diverse fleet of 135 fully managed vessels. His broad ship management experience made him aware of the importance of having properly trained crew, and helped influence his decision to join Videotel as CEO in 2011.
KVH’s acquisition of Videotel in July 2014 opened the way to solving a challenge Cleave had long recognized, namely how to deliver training packages to global fleets more efficiently. With KVH’s IP-MobileCast content delivery service, Videotel’s training materials can be sent via multicasting technology, ensuring vessels’ Internet performance isn’t affected and eliminating the cost of distribution. With IP-MobileCast, one transmission sends files to all subscribing vessels, caching the files to an onboard server for immediate access by crew.
