20.01.2022

Four new recruits for MyCrane

MyCrane, the recently established ‘digital platform’ for the search and selection of cranes, has appointed four new team members.

They include:
- Erik Altena as head of strategic development
- Alan Faulds as managing director for the UAE and Oman
- Igor Dobrovolskiy as managing director for MyCrane in Russia
- Alexander Kouklev as business development director for the Russian Far East and
Asia Pacific region.

A similar attempt at an online crane rental broking concept or idea, was launched in mid-2019 as MCrane and financed by Mammoet, but that operation closed seven months later, when it was realised that the crane world was simply not ready for it yet. The idea was taken up last year by Moscow based Andrei Geikalo, when he set up MyCrane after leaving Mammoet Russia after 12 years with the company, initially as an engineer and most recently as commercial director.

Erik Altena is also a member of the Mammoet alumni, having joined the company as a project engineer in 2013, becoming a market intelligence analyst in 2016, initially in the Netherlands and then Dubai. In 2019 he was one of the founding staffers of the MCrane business, re-joining Mammoet in an innovations role when it closed down. He left Mammoet in September and officially joins MyCrane at the start of February.
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Erik Altena

As head of strategic development, he will focus on the strategic development of global partnerships including franchises, and will work on new products and services, and coordinate MyCrane’s cooperation with other start-ups innovating in the crane industry.

Alan Faulds was formerly employed by Windhoist in Scotland where was head of the plant department until last June, leaving after a year with the company. He began his crane career in 2010 with Mammoet in southern Africa, before moving to Dubai as operations manager covering the Middle East and Africa. After eight years with the company, he left to join Sarens as manager of site operations at the Tengizchevroil (TCO) project in Kazakhstan, leaving for Windhoist the following year.
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Alan Faulds

Speaking of his new role he said: “I joined MyCrane after realising this is exactly what the sector is crying out for. Modernisation and digitalisation are long overdue and have been met with great enthusiasm from both clients and suppliers.”

Igor Dobrovolskiy has spent most of his career in the oil & gas sector, working as an engineer specialising in the development and operation of oil & gas fields in Russia with companies such as Lukoil, Transneft and Slavneft. Speaking of his appointment he said: “Knowing all the challenges of the crane procurement process from the client perspective, I decided to join a start-up business because I can see huge potential to change the industry.”
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Igor Dobrovolskiy

Alexander Kouklev also joins the company from Mammoet where he has been director general of Mammoet Sakhalin since 2018, having worked for the company for the past 16 years. He has also worked with Schlumberger and Exxon Neftegas. In addition to looking after business development and sales for MyCrane in the Russian far east and APAC region, he will also support the company’s marketing activities.
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Alexander Kouklev

Speaking of the new recruits Geikalo said: “Alongside growing our global network by appointing franchise holders to operate our service, MyCrane is investing in our core team to grow our portfolio and introduce new products and services. Our new appointments will help us to do exactly that. I am delighted to welcome such highly experienced professionals to the MyCrane family, all of whom share my passion for digitalising the crane rental business.”

MyCrane’s strategy is to offer a simplified crane rental procurement method, allowing users to submit details of their lifting requirements to its platform to receive quotations from a range of registered crane providers from one application, avoiding the need to call or contact multiple crane suppliers. Registration is free for both users and rental companies. The business has so far set up operations in Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.