Harvest Technology Group Technical Sales Manager – EMEA Steve Moir.
Harvest’s new Technical Sales Manager – EMEA, Steve Moir is no stranger to using technology to improve personnel safety and operational outcomes for customers. With a wealth of experience working in the offshore industry, specialising in topside inspection and asset integrity, Steve knows how important reliable communications and data are to operators. Managing several technology projects across his career including the first class approved inspection of a marine hull tank using UAVs, Steve is excited to join the team and bring Harvest’s mission to the EMEA region.
Joined Harvest: 2023
Qualifications: Chartered Manager, BA Honours in Business Studies, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Level 2 Plant Inspector and Fellow of the Chartered Manager Institute (CMgr, FCMI).
Tell us about your role and what you’re responsible for at Harvest.
My role is to listen to customers’ pain points in their operations, understand their roadmap towards digitalisation, what success looks like for them, and then produce solutions to meet the challenges they face. Given my technical background, it’s my job to prospect clients, qualify leads and conceptualise how we can use our technology to improve safety and cost efficiencies in their operations.
What did you do before joining Harvest?
I have done a lot of work with emerging technologies previously, using UAVs, 3D models and digital twins of assets to make decisions for inspection, repair, and maintenance operations. Working in the offshore industry for the past 26 years, I specialised in the topside inspection of Floating Product Storage and Offloading (FPSO) assets. One of the consistent challenges my clients had was their data was only as good as the day it was collected, so I have always believed that remote livestreaming data is an important opportunity to provide real-time awareness of assets. I know how Harvest’s technology can help minimise the amount of time people spend in hazardous areas, not to replace them, but to help people be more targeted and work smarter.
What got you interested in technology?
When I first graduated, I worked in a very high risk environment and since then I’ve had a real passion for trying to make improvements in safety using technology. I have led new technology developments several times in my career and have seen the benefits that technology adoption has had for people, plant, and environment, so I was excited to join Harvest on our shared mission.
What do you love about your job?
I love the enthusiasm people at Harvest have for the product and the appetite to make a difference in remote operations. There are a lot of us in the team who have been in the customer’s shoes, thus have a clear understanding of the challenges and how using real-time data to make decisions in an efficient, safe, cost-effective manner is the way of the future.
Do you have a particular highlight in your career?
I was involved in completing the industry’s first-class approved inspection of an FPSO hull crude oil tank using a UAV. This inspection was approved by Det Norske Veritas (DNV) and involved inspecting an FPSO without sending any personnel inside. Crude oil cargo tanks are confined spaces that are vast, dark structures and can be hazardous to survey. In this case, no people had to enter the tank for further close inspection. There will be times when people do have to enter a confined space, but by using the UAV as a first pass inspection, the team entering the tank can target the areas for close visual inspection and non-destructive testing, minimising the time spent in hazardous confined spaces. I was proud of this project and presented well received findings to the Royal Institute of Naval Architects along with the client’s naval architect.
How do you measure success in your position?
The key to success in what we do is understanding the strategic drive of our customers, their challenges, and define what success looks like to them. Often with customers, we will have a conversation about what our technology can do for them, and I love it when they come back with new ideas and ways to apply the tech into their business operations.
We recently completed a job with a large customer with mature remote operations, livestreaming data back to base from multiple assets. The feedback being that the tech is a key tool in overcoming their operational challenges. So, success for me is the effective deployment of a project to overcome a customer’s challenges, and then receiving positive feedback and confirmation that we have done that.
What’s the most remote location you’ve ever visited?
The most remote place I’ve worked at was an offshore refinery in a place called Labaun, near Malaysia. I was there with a UAV pilot to inspect flare tips and structures, to maintain their operation. It was a great time, the people were very friendly. With enthusiasm, I participated in the warmup routines that the entire site completed every morning, and the site manager singled us out on the first day and gave us a warm welcome.
What do you like to do outside of work?
I enjoy keeping fit and active. I played a lot of football back in the day, both semi-professionally and for university. Now I enjoy going to the football and watching our 9- and 11-year-old boys play. I also like gardening and reading to wind down.
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