GWO appoints Dan Ortega North American Representative

Global Wind Organisation has appointed its first permanent colleague in North America, signaling the wind industry’s commitment to safety training standards in the United States and Canada.

Dan Ortega joins GWO today as North America Representative, following 15 years with Vestas where he was most recently Senior Technical & Safety Training Manager at the company’s 32,500-sqft training center in Portland, Oregon.

Dan will be supporting a pipeline of almost 100 community colleges, maritime academies, and universities from across North America who are seeking certification to provide these wind industry recognised GWO standards.

“Together, these institutions will help create safety, reduce duplication and improve the productivity of tens of thousands of people working on wind turbines on and offshore in North America,” said Dan.

“Over 6000 Americans and Canadians have a valid GWO training,” he added. “By the end of 2021, we expect this number to be at around 8000 people, but the industry is growing fast and there isn’t enough capacity to meet demand. I’m looking forward to assisting directly with organisations who are seeking to get GWO certified, so we can all benefit from a workforce trained to an industry-recognised basic minimum standard.”

Wesley Witt, Head of Quality Management and HSE, Americas region, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) and Chair of the GWO North America Committee, said:

“As a membership-based nonprofit with significant interests here, Global Wind Organisation needed local representation in North America. I would therefore like to personally congratulate Dan on his appointment as our representative in the USA and Canada for GWO. Dan is a name already known to many of us. For several years, he has been responsible for the safety and technical training program at Vestas and served as chair of the American Wind Energy Association (American Clean Power) Training and Education subcommittee for three years, laying the foundation for wind technician standard training. On behalf of all our members in North America, we look forward to a safe and prosperous future.”

Jakob Lau Holst, CEO of Global Wind Organisation, added: “This is a great step forward for GWO, establishing us in North America with a permanent representative in one of the world’s largest wind power markets. GWO now has local contacts in the US, Europe and China, with more regions likely to follow as demand for internationally recognised training standards continues to grow.”

GWO is a non-profit group of wind turbine owners and wind turbine manufacturers, committed to the creation and adoption of standardized safety training and emergency procedures.

Independent training providers deliver GWO-certified training to technicians and students worldwide. There are currently ten GWO training standards, containing a total of 26 course modules. For more information on GWO standards, visit this page.

Training records are created when a GWO standard course is passed and completed by a person. These records are uploaded and stored in the GWO WINDA database, allowing workers to transfer their skills to new employers, reducing frictional costs and eliminating retraining of basic skills.