Americans hold key posts at Dubai Ports World

Americans hold key posts at Dubai Ports World    Partially lost in all the commotion about a foreign government-owned company acquiring the right to operate portions of several U.S. ports is the fact that Americans account for a sizable portion of the management team at Dubai Ports World.
      The international port operator agreed to pay $6.8 billion to acquire its British rival, Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co., but U.S. politicians are rushing to block the takeover on the grounds that foreign managers from DP World might be more inclined to aid or ignore terrorists who want to use the port as a base for attacking the United States.
   But the Dubai Port Authority and its international port division have a history of hiring top talent from around the world, enabling the company to become one of the biggest and best-run global port operators in a short period of time. The company has had a pipeline to the old Sea-Land Service carrier group that was bought by Danish container line Maersk from CSX Corp. in 1999.
   DP World’s chief operating officer is Edward “Ted” Bilkey, who previously served as president of Norton Lilly & Co., a Mobile, Ala.-based shipping agency. He also served as vice president of Maher Terminals, which operates a major terminal at Port Elizabeth, N.J. In the late 1980s until the mid-1990s, Bilkey served as executive director of the Dubai Ports Authority and Jebel Ali Free Zone.
   Bilkey is scheduled to retire soon and taking his place will be Anil Wats, managing director Asia and Australia. Wats spent 21 years at Sea-Land Service, rising to chief executive of Middle East business. After Sea-Land was bought by Maersk, Wats was chief executive of parent company A.P. Moller Maersk in Indonesia.
   General Counsel George Dalton previously worked at CSX World Terminals, the international port arm of Jacksonville, Fla.-based railroad CSX. Dubai Ports International bought CSX World Terminals and its nine facilities in January 2005 to form DP World. Before that he worked as counsel for Sea-Land and was a partner in the New York City maritime law firm of Kirlin, Campbell & Keating.
   The head of business development for DP World is Matt Leach, who also joined the company when it absorbed CSX World Terminals. At CSX he was vice president of operations and development, where he led the company’s expansion into Korea, China and Venezuela. Leach joined Sea-Land Service in 1995.
   Michael Moore, DP World’s commercial director, joined the company after six years at Maersk. He started out at Sea-Land Service in 1984.
   Meanwhile, the most prominent DP World executive in the news is David Sanborn, who President Bush nominated in January to head the U.S. Maritime Administration. Sanborn’s nomination is being held up by the Congress until the dispute with the White House about the port sale is resolved.
   Sanborn was director of operations for Europe and Latin America. Prior to this, Sanborn served as French carrier CMA-CGM’s senior vice president North America service delivery. He also served as vice president for network operations at APL, and earlier as director of operations at Sea-Land Service.
   He is a retired lieutenant in the U.S. Naval Reserve and holds a bachelor’s degree from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.
   Other executives also have long ties to the United States.
   The man responsible for putting together the deal for P&O, DP World Chairman Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, attended Temple University in Philadelphia for graduate studies.
   The chief executive of the company, Mohammed Sharaf, received his business degree from the University of Arizona.
   DP World has also said that it plans to keep P&O’s London-based leadership in place.