TRIDENTIS

THE NEXT GENERATION

SHIP DESIGN AND ENGINEERING FIRM™

For generations, America has been the land of dreamers and builders.

It’s the place where people with vision, drive, and determination can take risks, seize opportunity, and create a lasting impact.

It’s the place where innovation, resilience, and focus bring success.

It’s the place where achievement is the result of hard work, grit, and an intense focus on delivering real value.

AMERICAN INDUSTRIALISTS

AND ENTREPRENEURS ESTABLISHED

U.S. MARITIME DOMINANCE

Our American story is replete with tales of industrialists and entrepreneurs building great things from nothing, creating and organizing to achieve victory, establish U.S. maritime dominance, and build the greatest era of prosperity the world has ever seen.

And the maritime industry is home to many of these stories:

In 1920, former ABS Chief Surveyor George G. Sharp founded his namesake company that went on to design more than 1,500 vessels, including famed ships like the Victory ship, the nuclear-powered NS Savannah, and the Virginia-class cruiser
In 1922, self-taught naval architect William Francis Gibbs and his brother Frederic Gibbs founded the company ultimately known as Gibbs & Cox, who designed the World War II Liberty ships and many of the most successful U.S. Navy combatants in history
In 1957, John J. McMullen, naval architect and former U.S. Navy commander founded his namesake firm that supported key Navy and Coast Guard programs like the Iowa-class battleship modernization, Zumwalt-class destroyer program, and the USCG’s Deepwater program
In 1977, naval architect David Lavis and his business partners Bill Band and Shirley Wilson founded Band, Lavis & Associates, which pushed the limits of high-speed vessel design for the U.S. and foreign navies

These and similar men left an indelible mark on our economy. Some of the companies they founded eventually declined and went out of business, while others were acquired by venture capital or absorbed as divisions of larger corporations, still playing an important role in our maritime industrial base.

A NEW ERA OF SHIPBUILDING

DEMANDS THE NEXT GENERATION

OF SHIP DESIGN AND ENGINEERING

Small businesses like Tridentis are key to industrial base expansion

2025 is a turning point in U.S. maritime history. There is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to renew the industrial and seagoing might built through the hard work and determination of our forebearers. Global security and our American way of life demand we rapidly grow our maritime industrial base.

While legacy companies continue to play an important role, next generation companies like Tridentis are engines of the growth, innovation, and customer focus required to meet this modern challenge. As a small business that remains 100% owned by our President and Founder, Mr. David Jochum, we are:

Unburdened by the need to chase quarterly revenue targets and engage in short-term thinking to please corporate investors
Agile and responsive to adjust methods or scale to meet emergent needs
Willing to try new ideas and propose innovative concepts that break through legacy approaches
Intensely entrepreneurial and driven to be highly responsive to what customers demand
Partnership-oriented and able to build teams that bring the very best alignment of experience and expertise to customer requirements

As the U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, and other Government agencies work to renew the American shipbuilding sector, Tridentis is the right kind of company to deliver the naval architecture and marine engineering talent this dramatic expansion and growth require.

TALENT AND TEAMWORK

BRING SUCCESS

Building the next generation ship design and engineering firm means assembling a talented team with diverse experiences and capabilities. But individual qualifications are only part of the story. Motivation, drive, and determination are the difference.

Tridentis professionals understand the role they play in securing our nation, and protecting the sailors, marines, coast guardsmen, and merchantmen that work the ships we engineer. We see ourselves as part of the American maritime enterprise that promotes safety, ensures security, projects power, protects free commerce, and ultimately wins wars.

Each individual brings their own unique talent and effort to the fight. And at Tridentis, each is empowered to pursue their professional aspirations, contribute their ideas and innovations, and bring their very best to the mission.

What motivates our team to pursue excellence in naval engineering?

WRITING THE NEWEST CHAPTER

IN THE STORIED HISTORY OF

NAVAL ENGINEERING ENTREPRENEURS

Much like the successful naval engineering entrepreneurs that came before, David Jochum had the vision, drive, and determination to create something new. Feeling stifled by the bureaucracy of the traditional naval engineering firm he worked for, he believed he could do it better. So he took a risk.

Mr. Jochum continued to work while he earned his MBA from George Washington University. Then, in 2007, he drew upon the professional network and experiences he built working for shipyards and engineering firms, sailing competitively, and building a life in the nation’s capital to found Tridentis.

It started with small tasks and unconventional assignments—a stability analysis here, some drawing support there, a random three-month stint commuting between DC and Houston—but through his relentless drive, Mr. Jochum started building a good reputation and more steady work. It was enough work to hire an employee, then another, then another, and soon it was a real business.

Successful subcontracting experience eventually resulted in winning Prime contracts, whose success drove further wins and growth. Enough work in Norfolk led to opening an office there. Then, recognizing the potential of autonomy, Tridentis developed multiple concepts, secured SBIR contracts with NOAA, and ultimately spun off its Hawaii-based Advanced Marine Vehicles business that continues to innovate. Then, as work for PSNS continued to grow, the company opened its newest office in Bremerton.

Eighteen years later, Tridentis is a mature small business capable of meeting the complete range of ship design and engineering requirements—across all disciplines, all stages of design, and all stages of the ship life cycle. And through the hands-on leadership of Mr. Jochum, many of the same priorities for the business remain today:

Prioritize hiring engineers and designers with diverse technical capabilities and backgrounds, able to flex between a variety of tasks
Make corporate operations lean and efficient to provide the most cost-effective support to customers and remove barriers to high performance
Empower employees to think and act independently in ways that deliver high value and exceed customer expectations
Focus on pursuing contracts and projects in true ship design and engineering, to avoid diluting the company’s technical focus and rigor
Ensure a healthy mix of work in various design phases, disciplines, locations, and ship types to keep employees interested and engaged
Build and maintain healthy shipyard relationships and draw employees with deckplate experience to understand and integrate builder perspectives in design
Be “in the arena” by continuing to innovate and develop new concepts and solutions

Mr. Jochum continues to inspire the exceptionally talented team at Tridentis, and intends to remain the hands-on leader driving the company’s success for many years to come.