How we got here.
CLS Wind was founded in 2021 by Kent Johnson and Andres Garcia, two engineers with a combined half-century in heavy-lift and mechanical engineering. Their conviction was simple. The jack-up engineering proven over more than seventy years offshore could be repurposed for the loads and geometries of modern wind, sending vertical loads into the foundation rather than the tower and scaling linearly where cranes scale exponentially. The years since have been the steady work of proving that conviction, milestone by independent milestone.
2022
- Arup completed a structural assessment of the 15 MW fixed-offshore design.
2023
- Selected for the Business Network for Offshore Wind IPF Startup Alley.
- Exhibited at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston with the Greentown Labs cohort.
- Featured in the Reuters Events US Offshore Wind Supply Chain Accelerator.
- Filed the first international patent applications.
2024
- The American Bureau of Shipping issued Approval in Principle for the 15 MW offshore concept design.
- Kent Engineering completed independent load modeling on the 15 MW floating design.
2025
- Established CLS Wind (UK) Ltd in Edinburgh, the UK operating company.
2026
- Endorsed by the UK Department for Business and Trade under the Global Entrepreneur Programme.
- Selected for the ORE Catapult Launch Academy National 6, the UK offshore renewable energy accelerator.
In memoriam
Kent A. Johnson
Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer · 1966–2026
Kent co-founded CLS Wind and led it as Chief Executive Officer. Across more than twenty-five years in heavy-lift, mooring, and pulling systems, he held a conviction that engineering proven over decades offshore could change how the world installs wind. CLS Wind is the expression of that conviction.
He led the company's partnerships, its investor relations, and its patent strategy, and he set the standard the team continues to hold. We carry the work forward in his memory.