Boksa Marine Design (BMD) is now an employee-owned naval architecture and marine engineering partnership. On Aug. 1, BMD President Nick Boksa, P.E. restructured the firm from a privately-owned business to a partnership culture, making five key engineers and naval architects minority stockholders.
With BMD’s 20th anniversary on the horizon, its crew of young, highly skilled employee-owners are responsible for guiding BMD well into the future, with Nick Boksa at the helm.
“I have a great deal of confidence in our team of professionals that have been behind all the great work we have been providing for years,” Nick Boksa said in a statement announcing the change. “The goal of this partnership is to ensure long term adequacy and continuity of resources to meet the growing and evolving needs of our industry. BMD has become much more than an on-demand outsourced provider, but rather a long-term strategic partner to our clients.”
Headquartered in Lithia, Fla., just east of Tampa, Boksa Marine Design’s clients includes U.S. based commercial marine and military shipyards, owners and operators as well as an international clientele of builders and government agencies around the world. BMD is also a leading designer of superyachts and sportfishing boats and provides complete composite design to production boatbuilders.
BMD’s engineers are niched as academy graduates who have also worked as licensed crew onboard ships and other vessels, or alternatively with military service and backgrounds in major shipyards. Each BMD design is engineered with generous, accommodating, crew-friendly workspaces and practical engine room layouts; the kinds of vessels most engineers would enjoy serving aboard at sea or on the inland waterways.
The employee-owners of BMD include Josh Trupia, a marine and mechanical engineer responsible for mechanical and structural engineering, piping systems schematics, 2-D and 3-D pipe routing, production engineering and propulsions system arrangements. Trupia is a graduate of State University of New York Maritime College and holds a Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.), Marine Engineering. Earlier in 2022, he relocated from the Florida headquarters to Arkansas to better geographically integrate the company’s naval engineering resources within the inland river market. He is concentrating on tugs, barges and towboats for operators and shipyards on the Arkansas, Mississippi, Ouchita, and White rivers, and the inland market as a whole.
Naval architect and marine engineer Jeff Kuenning is now BMD’s director of Naval Architecture. he is responsible for stability analysis, speed /power analysis, weight studies, drafting, structural calculations and design, 3-D design, engine room ventilation and systems design. Kuenning assures regulatory compliance with significant regulatory experience with USCG, ABS, ABYC and other class societies. He graduated from the University of Michigan with a BSE in naval architecture and marine engineering and was previously a naval architect and marine engineer with NETSco Inc. and John W. Gilbert & Associates Inc.
“It has always been a professional aspiration of mine to become a partner in a firm’s ownership,” said Kuenning. “To have the opportunity to join a group that is going to help continue the growth of BMD and bring it to new levels is very exciting. This new ownership group will further expand our capabilities and offerings to new and existing clients. In collaboration with Nick, our goal is to position BMD to continue to build upon our strong position in the industry for many years to come.”
Mike Valentine is a marine designer focused on production engineering and ShipConstructor modeling. Previously, he worked with Bath Iron Works, a division of General Dynamics, on the label plates team on DDG 51 and the hull outfit team for DDG 1000. He served in the U.S. Army and was deployed to Iraq and stationed on the Tallil Air Force Base. He was also an Army Reservist in the 619th Transportation Company in Auburn, Maine.
A 2013 graduate from US Merchant Marine Academy, James Pilliod is a marine systems engineer. He is a USCG 2nd assistant engineer also commissioned in the U.S. Navy Reserve. Pilliod worked as a marine engineer aboard ships for Noble Drilling and was on Noble’s delivery engineering team for newbuilds with Hyundai Heavy Industries.
Jack Becker, naval architect, is responsible for stability analysis, conducting inclining tests, structural calculations, composite engineering, 3D modeling and commercial vessel design. He graduated from Webb Institute with dual degrees, Bachelor of Science in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. He previously was an intern for Metal Shark Boats in naval architecture and shipyard production. At Matson Inc., Becker was an engine and deck cadet in Pacific Ocean operations.
