Two North American shipbuilding groups have gone in different directions to fill top executive chairs.
US-based Fincantieri Marine Group (FMG) has promoted general manager Marco Dalbiati to the chief executive job, replacing Dario Deste.
And Canada’s Irving Shipbuilding has gone to the outside to find its new president, hiring Dirk Lesko, who served in the same role at Bath Iron Works.
FMG, a unit of Italian shipbuilding giant Fincantieri that runs two shipyards in Wisconsin, said Galbiati started the job on Wednesday.
He has been general manager since 2018, playing a role across FMG’s business, including building up the workforce in both commercial and military shipbuilding.
After earning an economics degree from the University of Pavia and starting his career at Italian industrial and medical gases company Sapio Group in 1996, Galbiati joined Fincantieri in 2007.
He has served in key roles in various financial departments of the Italian shipbuilding group, including as head of financial planning for naval vessels and cruise ships.
Deste will remain president at FMG, as well as take on a groupwide role as Fincantieri’s head of military shipbuilding.
Halifax-based Irving Shipbuilding, meanwhile, said it has chosen Lesko to become its president on 1 September.
The hire comes after the executive retired in April as both president of military shipbuilder Bath Iron Works in the US state of Maine and vice president at parent General Dynamics.
A Maine native and third-generation shipbuilder, he started the role at Bath Iron Works in 2017 as part of a 32-year career at the yard.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Maine and a master’s degree in the same field from Boston University.
Appointing a veteran in military shipbuilding is no surprise for Irving, which once built offshore vessels, passenger ships and other commercial vessels but is now busy constructing vessels for the Royal Canadian Navy.
Irving vice chairman Ross Langley will continue as interim president until Lesko joins the company.
