Looking back at Svein Kildahl’s career in DNV from 1966 to 2010, and in his retirement, there is no doubt that DNV and his family was everything to Svein.

Svein Kildahl passed away at Asker, Norway on June 5, 2015. He will be missed by his family, friends and colleagues.

Svein was a man of many passions and beliefs.  Still many of us recall that Svein was a real DNV man.

Thus we would like to recollect his footsteps in DNV and express our sincere thanks to him for his great contribution and warm friendship to all his friends.

Svein started in DNV in 1966 working with the novelty of the time, engine rooms arranged for unattended operation. This was a pioneer time in automation and the E0-experts working in the DNV head office traveled worldwide on surveys. This was before email and mobile telephones were invented so everybody had to visit the nearest DNV office in case another vessel in the vicinity was ready for inspection. This meant many days and sometimes weeks away from home, but it gave a lot of valuable experience to DNV employees, including Svein.

In 1978, Svein took up the position as an electrical and instrumentation surveyor in Gdynia in Poland. Now it is time to dwell upon Svein as the social person he really was. He was excellent at building team spirit amongst his colleagues getting all to work towards a common goal.

One example: In Poland there were in those days sufficient Norwegians to have a Norwegian school. In Svein’s opinion at the 17th of May celebration a school should have a brass band. So Svein started getting hold of instruments, obtaining music teachers, finding a person to arrange music for the instruments being available, not easy tasks in those communist days. In the end, he took the position as the conductor of this school’s brass band.

This and other initiatives did ensure a thriving community, both in DNV and among the Norwegian living in Poland, the same way we know that his initiatives have ensured well-being in DNV and among the expats living in Korea. This has also earned him the Consul title, well deserved.

In 1980, Svein returned to Norway and to the head office where he became the manager of the E0 section. In 1981 to 1984 unfold one of them, the power he joined the DNV training centre, also in a pioneering period.

In 1984, he took an important step into what would also become one of Svein’s greatest passions; he took up his first job in Korea. Svein’s first position was as an approval engineer in Busan, later moving to Koje to take over the Station Manager position after Peter Mansika.

In 1987, he was asked to come to head office to become the Head of Section for Machinery Systems, a position he had until 1989. We know that he was not that happy in Høvik this time. Too much bureaucracy and too far from the customers was the feeling after the inspiring time in Korea with close cooperation with yards, owners and manufacturers.  In 1989 a very happy man returned to Korea, now as the Head of ACEA, the approval centre in Busan. The next 5 years went with an enormous increase in the activity, all managed by Svein still having the social element flying high ensuring that those who worked there were thriving.

Svein’s abilities and capabilities had been extremely valuable for DNV and in 1994 he was once more called to head office to become the Head of Section for Safety Management Systems.

Two years later Svein was called for the second time to Veritas Training Center, this time as the “head master” and it was in a time of major reorganization of the training in DNV, almost like a pioneering time.

The flag was raised in Ulsan when Svein was coming to Korea to become District Manager in Ulsan. The remaining history most of us know, he moved to Busan in 2000 and for the 2nd time became the Head of the Approval Centre East Asia until 2006. His goal was to achieve ACEA’s special role in relationship building, satisfying customer needs.  This led to brilliant success with DNV being rated as the top among competitors.  For another year he continued as a Production and Quality Manager in Busan before his final repatriation to Norway just before Christmas 2007. For another two years till June 2010 he had a post retirement position at Høvik, assisting DNV Technical Director in many complicated issues where Svein’s long experience and high skills were essential.

In 2015 February 3, fighting against his cancer, he delivered his memories about “Internationalization – DNV Korea” and  “History- Trend -Success Factors” to DNV GL Korea management team, proving his endless love to DNV.

We believe that his sincere affection and steady loyalty towards DNV has contributed to his life sustained to his last spring in 2015.

We all miss his humor, wisdom, charisma sometimes eagle eyes and powerful speeches showed on stage. 

Svein’s favorite Korean Song was “Sa-Rang-Hae” (I love you). Social gathering chaired by Svein often ended with this song all forming a ring holding each other’s hands.

Now everyone in Korea who remembers Svein would probably be humming the song “Sa-Rang-Hae”…. 

We will miss you, Svein.