In an event that signals Ørsted is a growing statewide force in New Jersey — and that the state’s offshore wind industry should be viewed as a key part of a sector that is rapidly expanding nationwide — Ørsted will hold a formal ribbon-cutting Thursday morning in Newark to celebrate the opening of its North American digital operations headquarters.
The 8,200-square-foot office, located in the Ironside Newark building that faces Mulberry Commons already is open — with approximately two dozen employees working there now.
That number will quickly grow, said Maddy Urbish, the head of government affairs and market strategy in New Jersey for Ørsted.
“It could double a year from now,” Urbish said.
The office will be led by Lars Mousten, the head of information technology for the U.S. for Ørsted. He will have a team of engineering and data specialists charged with overseeing the company’s operations on clean energy projects throughout the country, everything from offshore and on-shore wind, to solar to hydrogen — and a host of other initiatives.
It also will serve as a base for local project development staff.
“This isn’t what you think of as typical IT office,” Urbish said. “This is the group that will be engineering and running all of the digital operations of all our business in North America.”
That’s why it’s in Newark.
Ørsted opened its first office in Atlantic City in 2018, where it oversees its efforts on the Ocean Wind 1 and Ocean Wind 2 offshore wind projects as well as activity at the port in Paulsboro. To extend the company’s reach into educational, training and hiring opportunities statewide, it determined Newark was the best fit.
“Regionally and nationally, we’re making supply chain investments in multiple states — from Maine to the Gulf down in Louisiana,” Urbish said. “We’re growing up and down the East Coast and we have an onshore business that’s growing out in the middle of the country.
“We love South Jersey, that’s where we are largely based, but this office is for the whole state and for the whole country.”
The whole world, actually.
Urbish noted that Ørsted officials everywhere will have easy access to Newark.
“For a global company like ours to have direct flights out of Newark airport going to Copenhagen and London and other key markets where we have a strong presence cannot be overstated,” she said. “That was certainly a big selling point for our company when we were looking at places to locate this office.”
The office also gives Ørsted a central point on both ends of the state.
Since the company already has more than 100 full-time and contracted employees in New Jersey, ensuring a presence in multiple regions was important, Urbish said.
“New Jersey is one of our key markets in the United States and globally,” she said. “So, to be able to bridge both our base in Atlantic City and our investments in Paulsboro with a digital ops home in Newark, where there’s such a strong innovation sector starting to develop, was just the right fit.
“It’s exciting to see our reach grow throughout the whole state.”
