Quillen picked to chair overhauled VPA
Ten new Virginia Port Authority board members were sworn in Tuesday at a regularly scheduled meeting.
In an unusual move, Gov. Robert McDonnell on July 22 swept out the port's entire Board of Commissioners, save for holdover Michael J. Quillen, chairman and chief executive officer of Alpha Natural Resources, a large coal producer in Abingdon, Va.
The commissioners elected Quillen as chairman, but took no further action, VPA spokesman Joe Harris said. The meeting primarily served as an introductory forum for members to meet each other and port staff. The board probably will have an informational retreat in August to bring members up to speed about the Port of Virginia's operations, competition from other ports, capital projects, the master plan and other activities, he said. The next board meeting is scheduled for September.
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| McDonnell |
The new commissioners are:
' Jennifer D. Aument of Falls Church, vice president of Transurban Group, an Australian-based owner and operator of toll roads in Australia and North America.
' Scott R. Bergeron of Leesburg, chief operating officer of the Liberian International Ship & Corporate Registry (LISCR LLC), a U.S.-owned and operated company that provides day-to-day management for the Republic of Liberia’s ship and corporate registry. Liberia is the world's second-largest ship registry, with more than 3,500 vessels under its flag.
' James M. Boyd, Chesapeake, who heads the Boyd & Boyd law firm in Norfolk.
' Juliann J. Clemente of McLean, president of Clemente Development Co.
' William H. Fralin Jr. of Roanoke, vice president and general counsel, Medical Facilities of America Inc.
' Frank E. Laughon Jr., Richmond, chairman emeritus Richmond Cold Storage.
' John N. Pullen, Richmond, president and chief growth officer for Luck Stone Corp., one of the largest producers of crushed stone in the nation.
' Robert Stanton, Virginia Beach, chairman of Stanton Partners, a commercial real estate developer.
' Jeffrey D. Wassmer, Newport News, Va., president and CEO of Spectrum Comm, a Defense Department small business contractor.
' Ting Xu, Goochland, president and CEO of Plow & Hearth LLC, a store, catalog and online retailer of home and outdoor living products.
The 12th member of the board, by law, is state Treasurer Manju Ganeriwala.
Governors and municipal leaders regularly replace board members when their terms expire or for other reasons, but it is rare for port boards to be swept out en mass.
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| Connaughton |
Virginia Secretary of Transportation Sean Connaughton said in an interview that the McDonnell administration is disappointed in the cargo volume and that the board overhaul is aimed at 'making the port more operationally efficient.'
The number of TEUs moved through the Port of Virginia declined in February, March, May and June compared to 2010 when other ports continue to experience a rise in container volumes. June's number was off 5.8 percent from a year ago.
'We're the only port on the East Coast that has not recovered to pre-recession levels,' Connaughton told the Virginian-Pilot.
In 2007, the Port of Virginia in Hampton Roads handled more than 2.1 million TEUs. Last year its container turnover dipped 1.62 percent to 1.85 million TEUs. Container volume for the first half of the calendar year is up about 8,000 TEUs to 834,408 TEUs.
Total cargo tonnage was 17.8 million in 2008 versus 15.3 million tons last year. Breakbulk cargo volume is negligible — 477.6 short tons in 2006 and fell to 169 short tons last year.
Ship calls for the first six months of 2011 were down 4.6 percent to 895.
The Georgia Ports Authority, Virginia's main competitor, achieved an 11 percent increase in containers handled to 2.9 million TEUs at the Port of Savannah during the fiscal year ended June 30 and a 37.5 percent increase in automobiles, machinery and other general cargo to almost 2.2 million breakbulk tons at the Port of Brunswick.
On a calendar year basis, the Port of Savannah handled more than 2.8 million TEUs, up 20 percent from 2.6 million TEUs in 2007 and 2008. So far, the port is well ahead of last year's container pace.
McDonnell originally was only going to replace the four board members whose terms were up, but decided to make a wholesale change after assessing the port's mediocre performance, Connaughton said.
The frustration with Virginia's slow rebound in cargo business follows state initiatives to increase traffic such as the long-term lease of the private APM Terminals facility in Portsmouth, finalizing relocation of a double-stack intermodal rail line connecting the APMT facility and the Norfolk Southern's Heartland Corridor, the recent 'annexation' of the Port of Richmond, and the General Assembly's passage early this year of tax credits for shippers who use the port's container terminals, or barge and rail transport, through 2014.
The McDonnell administration takes credit for the initiatives, but some were already under development when it took office in 2010.
A McDonnell administration source said the tipping point for clearing out the Board of Commissioners came when it this year approved a big raise for Virginia International Terminals CEO Joe Dorto, even though the company lost about $13 million to $15 million last year.
VIT is the tax-exempt operating arm of the VPA and reports directly to the Board of Commissioners. Most U.S. ports opt to lease their terminals to private companies that manage cargo operations.
The VPA board makes appointments to the VIT board.
Connaughton, who was reached on his cell phone Wednesday as he traveled to give a speech on agricultural transport in the Shenandoah Valley, expressed strong support for Port of Virginia Executive Director Jerry Bridges despite the port's subpar performance.
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| Bridges |
'We have a lot of confidence in Jerry Bridges,' he said. 'By giving him a board that's more focused on the bottom line he'll be able to take the port to the next level.'
The Georgia Ports Authority board, by comparison, is a 'who's who of Georgia business,' he said.
'They're good people; they've done a good job,' Connaughton told the Virginia-Pilot, referring to the previous board. 'But we are in real strong competition, and we need people on that board who are proven business leaders with experience in trade and in transportation and with finance and business practices that'll help us recover and take us to the next level.'
The previous board included Allen Jones, who heads a physical therapy company; Joe Fleming, pastor at a local Baptist church; Granger MacFarlane, president of Eastern Motor Inns; as well as several lawyers and real estate professionals.
Marvin Friedberg is a principal with the Alpha Group, an international trading company focused on trading branded products, and lawyer Mark Goodwin previously served as senior vice president and general counsel for UPS Freight and before that with Overnite Transportation. ' Eric Kulisch
