Our Team
Hibbard Inshore is a second generation family owned and business founded by Jim Hibbard in 1984. Hibbard Inshore began by inspecting Great Lakes infrastructure with one Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), an RCV-225, which was one of the first commercially available ROV models. Typical applications were inspection projects for hydroelectric dams and admiralty inspections, along with inspections for outfalls and intakes for water, sewer, industrial, and power plants. Jim passed on his passion for ROV inspection to his two twin sons, Jay and Brad who are current owners of the company.
Today, Hibbard Inshore has grown to include a fleet of ROVs, a wide variety of sensors, tools and personnel to meet the needs of a variety of industries around the world. Their core business remains to provide high quality data to their clients on their underwater and difficult-to-access structures. Through Hibbard Inshore’s solution-oriented engineering, experienced people and the most complete lineup of inshore focused ROVs world-wide, they have expanded and developed on an international scale in the areas of deep water and long tunnel inspection and construction, in ROV based salvage, in unmanned dredging and in ROV based intervention services.
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Jay K. Hibbard
President and Chief Engineer of Vehicle Systems
With 22 years of ROV experience, Jay Hibbard is an ADCI certified ROV supervisor has been a lead pilot for 16 years and a project manager for 13 years. His ROV operation/supervision experience ranges from open water live boating structural inspection in the ocean to long tunnel internal inspections in power tunnels, penstocks, aqueducts, and outfalls with zero visibility. Mr. Hibbard is a graduate of the College of Engineering, Automotive Engineering Technology at Western Michigan University.
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Bradley L. Hibbard
President and Chief Applications Engineer
With 22 years of ROV experience, Brad Hibbard is an ADCI certified ROV Supervisor, has been a lead pilot for 16 years and a project manager for 13 years. The majority of that time he spent on inshore structural inspection including hydroelectric plants, nuclear plants, large water intake systems, large sewers, treatment plants, and ocean outfalls. He is a graduate of the College of Engineering, Dept. of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at the University of Michigan. Brad Hibbard is 40 hour Hazwoper and Confined Entry trained.
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Jim L. Hibbard
Director – Business Development and Senior Project Manager
Jim Hibbard is an ADCI certified ROV Supervisor with 32 years of experience in the underwater industry with ROV systems. The majority of that time he spent on inshore structural inspection and maintenance, including hydroelectric plants, nuclear plants, large water intake systems, oxygen diffuser systems, large sewers, treatment plants, and ocean outfalls. He has completed certificated ASNT instruction, FAA repairman certification, and is a graduate of Western Michigan University. Jim Hibbard founded the company in 1984.
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Dave Malak
Vice President and Senior Project Engineer
Dave Malak has 9 years of experience in ROV systems. Mr. Malak has project experience with inshore structural inspections including hydroelectric plants, large water intake systems, large sewers, and treatment plants as well as experience with near shore recovery. Mr. Malak has completed certificated confined entry, job safety planning, and fall protection training. Previous to his time at Hibbard Inshore, Mr. Malak gained experience for 6 years as a Territory and Channel Sales Engineer for Rockwell Automation – Allen-Bradley gaining him valuable electrical background and industry experience working with power generation companies as well as water and wastewater facilities. Mr. Malak is a graduate of the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor with a BSE in Industrial and Operations Engineering and completed his MBA through Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky.
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Gina Padilla
Office Manager
Gina Padilla joined the Hibbard Inshore team in 2011. With a diverse background that includes legal administration, program management and office administration, Ms. Padilla has been an integral part of keeping the Hibbard Inshore office running smoothly. In addition to her duties at the office, Ms. Padilla has joined the Hibbard crew in the field. Prior to joining Hibbard Inshore, Ms. Padilla worked as a Business Unit Manager for Kautex Textron and operated her own business. Ms. Padilla attended Michigan State University and graduated from Oakland University with a BA.
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Dale Kurkowski
Project Manager
Dale Kurkowski has 3 years of ROV inspection and construction Project Management experience to go along with 12 years of CAD drafting experience in the architectural design and structural engineering fields. Mr. Kurkowski’s Project Management experience includes managing inspection projects for long distance hydroelectric tunnels, municipal water and sewer systems, and specialty repair projects. Mr Kurkowski's design experience involves both 2D and 3D CAD modeling involving structural concrete foundations and steel framework. Mr. Kurkowski gained the majority of this experience during his time at Ghafari Associates as the lead structural CAD designer. He has also completed certified confined entry as well as fall protection training. Mr. Kurkowski is responsible for creating project related and job site components required to handle a variety of projects.
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Erik van der Meulen
ROV Pilot/Technician
Erik came to Hibbard Inshore with a Bachelor’s degree in Archaeology from Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada as well as a Diploma as a Remotely Operated Vehicle Technician from Memorial University. He is WHMIS, BST, H2S, First Aid, and CAPP certified, and is a member of the Marine Technology Society as well as the Canadian Archaeological Association. Erik has been involved extensively in ROV based marine construction projects including dredging, cutting and retrieval, and trash rack replacement as well as internal pipe and tunnel inspections for both the Water/Wastewater and Hydroelectric Power industries.
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Levente Adam
Data Processing, Analysis and Visualization
Levente has over twenty years experience in CADD and 3D visualization, and is primarily involved in the data processing and modeling of collected data. Levente brings many years of hands-on geotechnical data gathering and processing experience. His application development, web technologies, database programming and interface design round out his contributions to post processing tasks.
