Tidewater Inc., a leading owner and operator of offshore support vessels providing offshore energy transportation services worldwide, promoted two key members of the company’s executive team, Sam R. Rubio and David E. Darling, on March 15.

Rubio
Rubio has served as the company’s Chief Accounting Officer and has been instrumental in the design and implementation of our new accounting and financial infrastructure, Kneen said.

Rubio has been promoted to executive vice president and CFO, following his accomplishments serving as the company’s chief accounting officer and controller since joining Tidewater following the combination with GulfMark Offshore Inc. in 2018.

Previous to joining the company, he served as GulfMark’s senior vice president and CFO, after holding the position of chief accounting officer for over 10 years. Rubio earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Sul Ross State University and is a Certified Public Accountant and a member of both the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Texas Society of Certified Public Accountants. In addition, he has 40 years of experience in accounting at both operating division and corporate levels as well as the management of accounting organizations.

Darling has been promoted to executive vice president and COO, after leading the company’s substantial organizational restructuring in the role of chief human resources officer since joining Tidewater in early 2018. He has contributed to the development and implementation of numerous operational and performance enhancing initiatives over the past several years, and in his new role he will be responsible for global vessel operational uptime and cost efficiency, including dry dock activities and the optimization of the fleet in lay-up.

Darling
Darling holds over 30 years of experience in offshore vessel industry operations.

Darling has over 25 years of domestic and international human resources and operations leadership experience, including serving as GulfMark offshore’s chief human resources officer prior to joining Tidewater. He also held various executive human resources roles at Rigdon Marine, a subsidiary of Ford Motor Company and gained offshore vessel industry experience as a vessel master and operations manager. Darling earned his Bachelor of Science in Human Resources Management from Brenau University and his Master of Science in Human Resources Management and Labor Relations from the New York Institute of Technology.

“I am tremendously proud to announce the promotions of Sam to the position of chief financial officer and David to the position of chief operating officer,” Quintin Kneen, Tidewater’s president and CEO, said. “The leadership and ingenuity these two individuals have demonstrated by helping to reshape our operations in response to the pandemic epitomizes the Tidewater culture. For all intents and purposes, Sam and David have been performing in these roles since early 2020—and these promotions recognize and reward them for their valuable contributions.”