Newsome ?front-runner? for S.C. port director post

Newsome ôfront-runnerö for S.C. port director post    South Carolina newspapers are reporting that South Carolina State Ports Authority (SPA) is expected to ask Jim Newsome, the president of Hapag-Lloyd’s America division, to be its new executive director.
   The Charleston Post & Courier reported that 'sources close to the process said the agency narrowed its list to five candidates, with Newsome as the clear front-runner. The SPA board had not yet approved the new hiring, but that is expected to happen at its next meeting.'
   Contacted by American Shipper Monday morning, Newsome had no comment.
   On Saturday, Ron Brinson, the former president of the Association of American Port Authorities, wrote in the Courier Post that 'unless something very strange happens over the next few weeks, the SPA will soon announce the appointment of James I. Newsome III as its fifth chief executive.' Brinson called the selection a 'grand slam.'
   The port has been looking for a new chief executive since January, when Bernard S. Groseclose Jr. resigned as president of the South Carolina State Ports Authority amid criticism that Charleston was losing ground to other East Coast ports, in particular, Savannah.
   Newsome, a Savannah native, has 30 years of experience in shipping, and was recently senior vice president of Hapag-Lloyd’s Southeast region and based in Kennesaw, Ga., before being named president last year.
   Prior to joining Hapag-Lloyd in 1997, Newsome was with Nedlloyd Lines from 1987 to 1997. Positions with that company included executive vice president of the Americas for Nedlloyd Lines and president of Nedlloyd Lines (USA) Corp., based in Atlanta.
   Before Nedlloyd, Newsome spent 10 years with Strachan Shipping Co., where he was president of the company's Hoegh Lines Agencies subsidiary in Jersey City, N.J. He also held management positions in Houston and New York with the company. ' Chris Dupin