GLTE is a new technology and business leadership consortium comprising Wilh. Wilhelmsen ASA, Pacific Gas and Electric Company of the US, and Det Norske Veritas (DNV), the international risk management foundation.
GLTE has been formed to help industrial groups share technology and innovation to enhance both their environmental and business performance.
“This collection of companies – focused on energy, transport and maritime services – plans to share enterprise solutions and breakthroughs that can benefit their companies and others as industry wrestles with the conflicting pressures of rising prices, intense competition and the demands of sustainable development,” says Osvald Bjelland, chair of Xyntéo.
Ingar Skaug, group chief executive of Wilh. Wilhelmsen, has been named inaugural chair of GLTE, which will invite other leading industrial groups to participate.
“Our ambition with GLTE is to exchange leadership experience and technologies with those who can help us shape the maritime industry,” says Skaug.
Technology and research shared by members of the Exchange could help improve energy costs, reduce emissions and transform logistics management.
“By prioritising innovation, we challenge today’s technology. We seek to find both more environment-friendly solutions and to improve the bottom line of our business,” says Mr Skaug. “This group of companies and top executives contains pragmatic and open-minded people who constantly ask themselves what they can do better.”
Henrik O Madsen, president and CEO of DNV, underlines the importance of openness and mutual trust in this exchange. “By sharing both breakthroughs and failures within technology and business development, the participating companies learn from each other. We all benefit from shared experiences,” says Madsen.
The Exchange recently held its inaugural meeting in New York focusing on the idea of collaborative commerce and the new rules of innovation, where participating companies exchanged best practice on areas from maritime fuel supplies to transport logistics.
Delegates at the inaugural workshop in New York received presentations and input from international corporations including BP, General Electric, Bayer, Deutsche Bank, Sunoco, IBM, Fortune, and Bloomberg.
Companies participating in the first meeting of the exchange have combined revenues of USD 680 billion and employ almost one million people.