Hapag-Lloyd USA CEO sought as Canaveral port chief

Canaveral Port Authority commissioners on Friday unanimously picked Capt. John W. Murray, currently president and chief executive officer of Hapag-Lloyd USA, as the port’s next leader.    Canaveral Port Authority commissioners on Friday unanimously picked Capt. John W. Murray, currently president and chief executive officer of Hapag-Lloyd USA, as the port’s next leader.
   While contract negotiations are still underway and expected to be concluded by Jan. 20, Murray will replace outgoing Canaveral Port CEO John E Walsh, who departs Jan. 21. If necessary, the port authority said Rodger Rees, its chief financial officer, will step up as interim CEO.
   Commission Chairman Jerry Allender said Murray “brings strong business experience and leadership skills that will help the port navigate to our next level.”
    As American Shipper previously reported, Walsh tendered his resignation as Canaveral Port Authority CEO in late September under pressure from the port’s executive board, after he offended members of the public opposed to plans for a freight-rail connection at a board meeting in August.
   The rail plan involves taking control of a near dormant rail line that connects the Kennedy Space Center’s industrial area with the Florida East Coast Railway’s main line and extending it a dozen miles to the port. Walsh issued an apology several days after the meeting, but it was not enough to quell public anger, especially since the Brevard County Board of Commissioners had already adopted a non-binding resolution opposing the port’s plan.
   The vote to terminate Walsh, who had served as CEO since March 2013, was 4-1. He began his tenure with the port authority in February 2011 as deputy executive director of infrastructure, construction, and real estate.
   Murray joins a host of former liner carrier executives in recent years tapped to become port directors, such as Jim Newsome, former president of Hapag-Lloyd (America) who became head of the South Carolina State Ports Authority in 2009; former Horizon Lines executive Brian Taylor to CEO of the Jacksonville Port Authority in 2013; John Reinhart, former president and CEO of Maersk Line Ltd., to CEO of the Virginia Port Authority in 2013; and Gene Seroka, former head of commercial in the Americas region for APL, to executive director of the Port of Los Angeles in 2014.
   Many port authorities throughout the country are exploring ways to expand their container businesses and increasingly looking for executive leadership from among the liner carrier ranks.