AWO Chairman Arthur F. Mead: “Our industry is resilient and adaptable.”
The participants of the American Waterways Operators, the nationwide tugboat, towboat and also barge market organization, chose a brand-new slate of leaders today throughout the organization’s Spring Board of Directors/Annual Membership Meeting This year, COVID-19 safety measures implied that the occasion was held basically instead in Washington, D.C.
Arthur F. Mead, Vice President and also Chief Counsel at Crowley Maritime Corporation, was chosen Chairman; Del Wilkins, President of Illinois Marine Towing,Inc was chosen Vice Chairman; and also Clark Todd, President & & Chief Operating Officer of Blessey Marine Services,Inc was chosenTreasurer
Mead prospers outbound Chairman Scott Merritt, previous Chief Operating Officer with Foss Maritime Company, LLC.
Based in Jacksonville, Fla., Mead signed up with Crowley in 1996 as an associate company advise. Prior to signing up with Crowley, Mead operated at the UNITED STATE Department of Justice, Admiralty and also Shipping Division, and also held business aquatic transport associated settings at Stolt-Nielsen, Inc., and alsoMaersk Line Limited Mead additionally worked as a UNITED STATE Navy leader with the book element ofMilitary Sealift Command He has a bachelor’s level in aquatic transport from the State University of New York Maritime College, and also a legislation level from Golden Gate University.
AWO President & & Chief Executive Officer Jennifer Carpenter invited and also said thanks to the newly-constituted Board of Directors:
“My vision is of an AWO that is, and is experienced by our members as, your indispensable organization, crucial to enabling your companies and our industry to survive, adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing business and public policy environment,” she claimed. “COVID-19 is the latest challenge and is one for the history books, but it is not the only one, and it won’t be the last.”
Mead stressed the strength and also versatility of the tugboat, towboat and also barge market as it remains to offer the country throughout the COVID-19 pandemic:
“The response to this crisis by AWO member companies, staff and our mariners has been nothing short of extraordinary,” he claimed. “While shelter in place and work from home orders proliferated from state-to-state, our mariners and our workers continued delivering millions of tons of needed raw materials, consumer goods and energy. But during COVID-19, our industry has shown the nation what we’ve always known to be the case: That our industry is resilient and adaptable.”
The market’s labor force, Mead proceeded, has actually long been vital to the success and also protection of the United States:
“Today, the sailors of the American tugboat, towboat and also barge market continue, in danger of infection to themselves, the generous initiative to move the country’s freight on the water throughout this pandemic. They are accustomed to offering their nation in the routine training course of their job, running as component of the most safe, greenest and also most reliable kind of products transport in the nation. And they are happy factors to the country’s protection …
“The quality of their character, their work ethic, their commitment and their capabilities were not just forged over the past two months – they have always been there.”
Mead ended by highlighting the sustaining top priorities for the tugboat, towboat and also barge market past the difficulties of the COVID-19 pandemic:
“We’re mosting likely to require to be versatile and also team up to proceed weathering the COVID-19 dilemma, however maybe extra notably, additionally to challenge the various other difficulties we deal with in the future …
“The Jones Act is a crucial component of America’s protection maritime commercial base and also must be preserved …Subchapter M shift is still taking place. State advocacy and also the requirement for harmony in maritime laws is an expanding top priority.
“We need to continue working with Waterways Council, Inc. to secure necessary funding for waterways infrastructure at a time when competition for federal funds among industries and sectors will be intense… AWO remains critical to all of this.”
