Mark Banjavich

Mark Banjavich is an ex-Navy diver who, along with French diver Jean Valz, formed Taylor Diving & Salvage, which was later acquired by Brown & Root (Halliburton).

They developed the techniques and equipment necessary (recompression chambers for surface decompression) to extend the use of mixed-gas diving to the deeper depths required by the offshore industry. This is heralded as one of the top 50 key events which shaped the offshore oil industry. Mark was also involved in the development of equipment known as the Closed Circuit, Free-flow Underwater Breathing System (United States Patent 4026283), Helium Reclamation (United States Patent 3964866) and the Electric Heating Apparatus For Supplying Heated Fluid To A Diver's Clothing (United States Patent 3558852).

Mark Banjavich and Jean Valz received awards from the Ocean Star Offshore Petroleum Museum for being pioneers in Offshore Diving and their story is told in detail in the book "The History of Oilfield Diving" by Chris Swann.