Newcombe leads St. John’s Dockyard

St. John’s Dockyard, Newdock, announced Oct. 13 that Jared Newcombe has been appointed as its new chief executive officer. Newcombe brings “more than three decades of Canadian shipbuilding, ship repair and executive leadership experience to the company as it enters a significant period of growth and investment,” the company said.

 Newdock is working to strengthen its leadership structure to support existing operations, future growth and its longer-term strategic priorities. “The newly created CEO role will provide dedicated executive leadership as Newdock builds on its established ship repair business and advances the next phase of the company’s development, according to the announcement.

Over the past decade, Newcombe has held senior executive leadership roles at major Canadian shipyards, including serving as CEO and COO at Davie and as chief commercial and strategy officer at Ontario Shipyards, as the businesses experienced periods of growth, operational change and increasing demand from government and commercial customers.

Across his career, Newcombe combined commercial discipline with a strong understanding of shipyard operations and program execution. He has led complex businesses, worked extensively with government and commercial customers, and helped position Canadian shipyards for new opportunities in construction, repair, refit and vessel life extension.

Newcombe joins Newdock at a pivotal point in the company’s development. Located in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Newdock is majority-owned by Qalipu First Nation and Membertou, together with Horizon Naval Engineering. The shipyard has operated for more than a century and provides ship repair, refit, maintenance and marine services to government and commercial customers.

Newdock is also advancing Project Oqwatn, a major expansion of its St. John’s operations that will increase the yard’s capacity and capability to support growing demand across Canada’s government and commercial marine sectors. The project includes a proposed 42,000 ton, 175-meter (574') shiplift with up to four heavy lift berths and expanded supporting infrastructure. That project is  now progressing through engineering, environmental assessment and stakeholder engagement.

“Jared brings deep experience in leading complex shipbuilding and ship repair businesses in Canada,” said Sean Leet, managing director at Newdock. “He understands the industry, the customers and what it takes to grow a shipyard while maintaining focus on execution. Adding his experience and major shipyard leadership capabilities to our existing team is important as Newdock enters its next phase.”