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Career Tracks: Maersk veteran picked to lead Westwood Shipping

Redwood Logistics, Direct ChassisLink and Svitzer bolster leadership ranks

Jack Mahoney has been hired to lead Westwood Shipping Lines as president and CEO. (Photo: Westwood Shipping)

Maritime industry veteran Jack Mahoney has been named president and CEO of Westwood Shipping Lines Inc. following a nationwide search.

Mahoney, a 21-year Maersk executive, will succeed Guy Stephenson, who is retiring as president and CEO after serving in that role since 2007. 

Stephenson, who will continue in a support role as executive adviser and general counsel, said Mahoney “brings a wealth of relevant experience and leadership skills to set Westwood’s next course. I am confident that Westwood will be in excellent hands.”

Mahoney most recently served as vice president of Maersk’s automotive business, based in New Jersey. Before that he served three years as president of Maersk in Canada. 


He began his transportation industry career in sales with Sea-Land and later transitioned into sales and trade management roles with OOCL before returning to Sea-Land. After Maersk acquired Sea-Land, Mahoney worked in sales and trade roles at various U.S. locations as well as Maersk’s headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark. 

Mahoney officially will join Westwood at its Puyallup, Washington, headquarters on Sept. 8. With about 90 employees, Westwood transports forest products as well as containerized, noncontainerized and oversized cargo to more than 20 ports in Japan, Korea, China, Canada and the Pacific Northwest.

Westwood is a wholly owned subsidiary of J-WeSco Ltd., formed by a consortium of three Japanese companies. The majority owner is Sumitomo Warehouse Co.

Mike Reed joins Redwood Logistics.

Redwood Logistics

Chicago-headquartered Redwood Logistics has hired Mike Reed as its chief product officer to drive advances in the company’s services, technology solutions and partner commercialization strategy.


Reed’s 15 years of logistics experience includes serving as project44’s chief strategy officer and Echo Global Logistics’ chief technology officer. 

“Mike will be working to further centralize, commercialize and gain companywide leverage on some of our most valuable and maturing assets and solutions, such as the digital freight brokerage, RedwoodConnect, our data and our partnerships,” said David Rowe, Redwood’s chief operating officer. “Redwood’s existing team has done a fantastic job of getting these solutions to where they are today and we are excited to see Mike join the team and work to help us get to the next level.”

Reed said he “recognized immediately that Redwood has built a groundbreaking kind of technology — a connectivity platform that leverages supply chain data in ways that can benefit shippers and partners of all sizes.”

Direct ChassisLink Inc.

Mike O’Malley has joined Direct ChassisLink Inc. (DCLI) as senior vice president of government and public relations.

Mike O’Malley joins Direct ChassisLink Inc.

O’Malley most recently was the president of the Railway Supply Institute. Before that he was the vice president of procurement and supply chain management for CSX. O’Malley also has worked for the U.S. Department of Transportation and as a Federal Aviation Administration chief of staff. 

DCLI President Lee Newitt said O’Malley’s “extensive knowledge and expertise in public policy, government affairs and international trade will make him an extremely valuable asset to our organization.”

O’Malley will be based in Jacksonville, Florida.

Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, DCLI owns, leases and manages more than 153,000 marine chassis and 89,000 domestic chassis.


Svitzer

Global towage operator Svitzer, headquartered in Copenhagen, announced that, effective Sept. 1, Lise Demant will leave her role as global chief commercial officer to assume the position of managing director for Europe, succeeding Kasper Friis Nilaus, who was promoted to CEO of Svitzer A/S in June.

Also effective Sept. 1, Videlina Georgieva will succeed Demant as global CCO and become part of Svitzer’s global leadership team. 

Demant joined the company in 2013 as chief operating officer for Svitzer Asia Pte. Ltd. She previously was the head of offshoring for Maersk Tankers.

Georgieva joined Svitzer from Maersk Line in 2010 and most recently has been the global head of strategy, portfolio and performance management. 

Both women are based in Copenhagen and report to Nilaus, who said, “I strongly believe in developing people and creating opportunities and I am very pleased that the ideal candidates for these two key positions are found within the company.”

Nilaus said both have proven industry track records and represent “the dedicated commercial mindset we need to succeed now and in the years to come. I have worked with Lise and Videlina for years and I have high respect for their individual competencies and their strong shared drive to always improve what we do to remain a committed and innovative partner to our customers.”

Denmark-headquartered Svitzer has promoted Videlina Georgieva, left, and Lise Dumant. (Photo: Svitzer)

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Click for more American Shipper/FreightWaves stories by Kim Link-Wills.

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Kim Link Wills

Senior Editor Kim Link-Wills has written about everything from agriculture as a reporter for Illinois Agri-News to zoology as editor of the Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine. Her work has garnered awards from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Magazine Association of the Southeast. Prior to serving as managing editor of American Shipper, Kim spent more than four years with XPO Logistics.