Paul Kennedy
Principal Consultant – Hydrography
Paul Kennedy is a graduate in Oceanography, and post-graduate in Hydrographic surveying. He has worked in industry throughout his career, in Aberdeen, SE Asia and Australia as a Party Chief, Project Manager and Data Centre Manager and General Manager, Fugro Perth.
Paul is currently Managing Director of Guardian Geomatics, an Australian marine geoscience company, established in February 2018 to service the offshore oil, gas and renewable markets in Australia and Asia Pacific. The company provides geophysical services, hydrography, multibeam quality control, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and sub-sea cloud services.
Paul is currently heavily involved in the delivery of the Australian Hydrographic Office HydroScheme Industry Partnership Program (HIPP) program which aims to undertake an efficient, effective and sustainable hydrographic survey, oceanographic and marine geophysical data collection program through a partnership with industry to deliver a true nation-building effort. It is the largest hydrographic survey program undertaken by any government to date. A key outcome of this program is the development and implementation of AusHydroid, which is an extension of land height datums offshore to cover Australian Commonwealth waters. AusHydroid will allow hydrographic surveyors and other end users to transform geospatial data referenced within the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF) between tidal (Lowest Astronomical Tide (LAT)) and ellipsoidal (GRS80) vertical datums.
Paul has extensive experience in the development of Mean Sea Surface Models and was instrumental in the design, manufacture, testing and commissioning of GGBuoys, which are the instruments designed to observe and quality control data for AusHydroid. The buoys contain geodetic GNSS receivers, communications links, storage, solar panels, environmental sensors which together with seabed tide gauge moorings permit accurate extension of the Australian Height Datum (AHD) into the offshore environment.
Paul is an Australian Hydrographic Surveyor Certified Professional (AHSCP) Certified Level 1 Hydrographic Surveyor, and the Australian Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute (SSSI) Commissioner for hydrography in Western Australia. He has strong technical and operational experience in industrial and Hydrographic surveying and focuses on establishing high standards and rigorous procedures.
As Operations Manager and Director of Marine Site Characterisation at Fugro in Australia, Paul’s role was to oversee the safe and efficient operation of survey projects undertaken in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. A key focus of the role was to drive high quality projects to be delivered on time and on budget. This was achieved from the development of a robust business management system which was very process driven with well documented procedures and work instructions.
From 2014 to 2017, Paul was the project director for the search for MH370. His role was to design the search systems, plan the execution of the search and to oversee the excellent team assembled by Fugro. The project team consisted of more than 300 individual team members, and is regarded as the single largest offshore survey ever undertaken.
Throughout his career, Paul has been at the forefront of developing new systems and methods to streamline hydrographic surveying and data processing. He was the first in Australia to use Multibeam Echosounder (MBES), rather than traditional side scan sonar, which permitted the vessel to double survey speed, and thereby doubling the coverage. He has also made a significant contribution to the development and modernisation of the Fugro Starfix Service which delivers precise high performance positioning services for offshore applications.
