Kirsi Tikka is Executive Vice President, Global Marine at ABS, responsible for aligning ABS strategic planning, client development and product and service offerings with the industry’s technical needs and requirements.
Previously, Tikka served as ABS Europe Division President and as Vice President and Chief Engineer. Before joining ABS in 2001, Tikka was a professor of Naval Architecture at Webb Institute in New York. In addition to teaching, she carried out research on the structural strength of tankers and risk analysis, and she was actively involved in the U.S. National Research Council Marine Board studies on double hull tankers. Tikka has also worked for Chevron Shipping in San Francisco and for Wärtsilä Shipyards in Finland.
Tikka is a native of Finland and holds a doctorate degree in naval architecture and offshore engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering and naval architecture from the University of Technology in Helsinki. She is a Fellow of both the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) and the Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA). In 2012, Tikka received SNAME’s David W. Taylor Medal, the highest technical honor for naval architecture or marine engineering. She is a Foreign Member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.
