U.S. Lines adds to commercial team

U.S. Lines adds to commercial team    U.S. Lines has added to its commercial team in North America as its prepares for the start of its fortnightly U.S. West Coast/Australasia/Asia/U.S. West Coast ANZL service.
   Rolf Kohler has been appointed vice president of commercial for the ANZL service, based in the company’s Santa Ana, Calif., headquarters. Kohler will be responsible for pricing and commercial activity for the southbound Australia/New Zealand trade. He held similar positions with both FESCO and Hamburg Sud.
   Tom Lynch has been appointed vice president of sales for the Midwest and Gulf region. Lynch held management positions with Australia-New Zealand Direct Line and its parent company CP Ships. At USL, Lynch will be based in Chicago and be responsible for managing offices in Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis and Cleveland. He will be tasked with overseeing commercial activity for both the transpacific and Australia-New Zealand trade lanes.
   Lynch’s Midwest team includes Simon McMaster who has been named regional sales manager for the Chicago area as well as the neighboring states of Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota. McMaster was with CP ships in Chicago. Co-managing Chicago and the surrounding areas is Jim Bavaro, who was with FESCO Agencies.
   Also part of Lynch’s team is Eric Taylor, who joins from Hanjin Shipping and has been appointed as USL’s regional sales manager in Detroit. Walter Nameth, from Maersk Line, will manage the Ohio valley and Bob Stanton joins as regional manager of the St. Louis territory. Stanton was with ANZDL.
   USL has also hired Annie France as senior account manager based in Southern California. She is another joining the company from FESCO, who recently sold their services and vessels between Australia/New Zealand to Asia as well as North America to Hamburg Sud.
   USL’s ANZL service will start August using four ships of about 1,100 TEUs with a port rotation of: Los Angeles, Tauranga, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Hong Kong and back to Los Angeles.