It's official: Newsome to be SPA president
New leader will assume position on Sept. 1
By Allyson Bird
As Jim Newsome waited just outside the door, the State Ports Authority board on Tuesday announced its unanimous approval to hire the shipping line executive as the fifth man to head the agency.
Board members and business leaders packed into the boardroom stood and clapped as Newsome stepped inside and shook hands with chairman David Posek.
The Post and Courier
Jim Newsome, who has been named CEO of the State Ports Authority conducts a press conference at the agency's headquarters on Concord Street on Tuesday.
"Charleston is a world-class port, and we've got a world-class leader," Posek said.
Newsome, 53, will start as the SPA's president and chief executive officer on Sept. 1. He
signed a three-year contract Tuesday for a $300,000 annual salary, or $36,000 more than what former Chief Executive Officer Bernard S. Groseclose Jr. was paid.
"I think there's a world of opportunity here, and Charleston's also not a bad place to live," Newsome said.
His hiring marks the culmination of a five-month search. Groseclose resigned abruptly during a January performance review in the wake of declining container volumes and news that the port's largest customer, Danish shipping giant Maersk Line, planned to pull all its local services by the end of its contract next year.
A 13-member committee, comprised of business leaders from around the state, considered more than 100 candidates for the job. The group narrowed its search to five interviews and three finalists.
The two other finalists and their most recent jobs were: Douglas Tipton, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Wallenius Lines Holdings, and F. Brooks Royster III, vice president of the logistics company Merchants Terminal Corp.
The SPA would not reveal the two other candidates, despite a Freedom of Information Act request from The Post and Courier.
"The law specifies that at least the final three applicants must be disclosed, and we have disclosed the final three," SPA public relations director Byron Miller said.
Jay Bender, attorney for the South Carolina Press Association, said the search committee should have held a public vote to shorten the list from five names to three even if, as Miller said, the two applicants willingly dropped out of the running.
"The decision to narrow it to three, I suspect, was made somewhat informally, and it was illegal," Bender said.
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Bill Stern, vice president of the SPA board and chairman of the search committee, said "the stars aligned" in bringing Newsome onboard.
"Once Jim Newsome expressed interest in the position, the search committee pretty much stopped the courting process with other applicants and focused on how we could get married with him," Stern said.
He called Newsome "one of the most respected port executives in the country."
A Savannah native, Newsome became the first non-German president of the America division at shipping line Hapag-Lloyd in January. He previously served as the company's southern area senior vice president for more than a decade.
With more than 30 years in shipping, Newsome also worked in executive positions with the company formerly known as Nedlloyd Lines and, before that, worked his way up with Strachan Shipping Co.
His father, Jim Newsome Jr., worked for the Georgia Ports Authority and with organized labor there.
Newsome will join the State Ports Authority at a particularly tough time, when financial predictions put container volume 19 percent below last fiscal year and predict another 6 percent drop next year.
The state Legislature recently overrode a gubernatorial veto to restructure the agency.
At a news conference following the announcement Tuesday, Newsome praised Charleston for its deep channels, its world-renowned productivity and, in this economy, its unwavering progress in constructing a new terminal.
He said finding resolution with Maersk remains a top concern, that he looks forward to learning more about the bi-state terminal with the Georgia Ports Authority planned for Jasper County, and that it was "too early to discuss major changes" within the agency.
Newsome lives in Atlanta but works in New Jersey just outside of New York City. He is married with two grown children and said he has not chosen a particular area of Charleston in which to live.
Asked if his ties to the Georgia Ports Authority mean future interest in returning to his home state to work, he responded with a firm "No."
Reach Allyson Bird at 937-5594 or abird@postandcourier.com.
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algorelost (anonymous) says...
I thought everybody was upset over the amount of money that Groseclose was paid, so the answer is to give a raise to the new guy. Also no mention of bonus money, so how much are they really going to end up paying him.
June 24, 2009 at 8:28 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
hairy1663 (anonymous) says...
They can easily afford it now that they have cut holiday pay for all hourly employees. Once again the SPA management places all of the burden on the employee to make up for their own screw ups.
June 24, 2009 at 8:42 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
steeler6pack (anonymous) says...
if this is true about cutting holiday pay to all hourly employees i suggest all hourly employees should stand outside the gates over looking all salary employees trying to do hourly employees jobs.this is called standing up for what is yours.thats why there is a union called the I.L.A.on the waterfront across the nation.they won't take anything away from them.this is why this port needs to be privetized these port board members still think of workers as their slaves.state port workers and port truckers must be under a union contract.s.c. port workers you should do what the crane operators did a few years ago bring management to their knees.FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT !!!!!
June 24, 2009 at 9:15 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
MartinAVanderHorst (anonymous) says...
The port should be privatized and only overseen by a small SPA, made of a committee of legislators, port worker reps, law enforcement reps, &c. Someone like Newsome, with shipping company marketing and logistics experience, would be a decent fit for the SPA Director. The individual terminals ought to be leased or sold to shipping, logistics, and stevedoring companies. This would promote competition between shipping companies, bolstering greater efficiency within each terminal. It would also allow the ILA and other unions to work directly with shipping companies, leaving the SPA out of dealings. If a labor dispute arose, only one terminal/shipper would be affected, as opposed to now, when the entire Port feels it.
June 24, 2009 at 11:24 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
CHRISJIII (anonymous) says...
What they saw no conflict of interest in hiring this guy? Seems to me that he would be more in favor of boosting Savannah's port operations as opposed to Charleston's seeing that he's a Georgia native and had ties to Savannah's port.
June 24, 2009 at 12:03 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
CaptKick (anonymous) says...
None of the comments so far make any sense whatsoever!
Sounds like some folks that have some sour grapes and don't really know what they are talking about.
June 24, 2009 at 12:22 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
CombatCoastie (anonymous) says...
And what's your input, Capt?
June 24, 2009 at 12:53 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
algorelost (anonymous) says...
Captkick
What does sour grapes have to do with wondering why everyone was upset when previous CEO was making 240,000 a year plus got a 25K bonus, but now hire someone at 300K plus bonus.
June 24, 2009 at 1:57 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
CaptKick (anonymous) says...
Go do some homework and find out what the Port Director of Savannah, Wilmington, Norfolk , Jacksonville , etc. make. I think you will find out that Mr. Newsome and Mr. Groseclose don't even come close.
June 24, 2009 at 2:53 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
CombatCoastie (anonymous) says...
Capt, you should have brought that up earlier without the "sour grapes" attitude. I agree with Vanderhorst about the Port Authority not being so huge. I have no problem with how much the Director is paid as long as he gets the job done well and better than his predecessor.
June 24, 2009 at 3:53 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
hairy1663 (anonymous) says...
"Posted by CaptKick on June 24, 2009 at 2:53 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Go do some homework and find out what the Port Director of Savannah, Wilmington, Norfolk , Jacksonville , etc. make. I think you will find out that Mr. Newsome and Mr. Groseclose don't even come close."
And like wise check and see what a crane operator makes at those same ports compared to Charleston. While your at it see if any of their employees were made to take a pay freeze to pay for a new bridge,loose their holiday pay and some of their overtime pay.
I'm well versed with SPA procedures, I worked there for a VERY long time. Operators that are involved with ship activities use to work over 3000 hrs a year. Their work assignments are scheduled daily by 1700 hrs for the following day. Never knowing which terminal or what time they have to work the next day until they get it. Then usually they have no idea how long they have to work,which could be anywhere from 5 to 24 hours or more. They have only 4 days off out of 365 that are somewhat guaranteed and that only because the ILA doesn't work on them. The Employee's at the SPA give plenty enough just in the every day operation of the port, it's about time management did their fair share.
Hopefully Mr. Newsome will recognize it!
June 25, 2009 at 12:23 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
bigdavek (anonymous) says...
Correction, they didn't loose holiday pay. They just changed the rule that holiday pay doesn't count as time worked when figuring up overtime.
June 25, 2009 at 10:19 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
steeler6pack (anonymous) says...
bigdavek if you work on a holiday what type of pay do you recieve for that day?i bet it is time and half or double time. so it should count toward overtime. but if the workers don't question it they'll slide it under the table.but look at it this way you'll are helping pay the port director's new salery. by the way if you'll were union this would not happen.good luck with this regime taking from hourly employees to give to salary workers.this is how southern regimes operate the port plantation.unions helps waterfront workers.
June 25, 2009 at 6:17 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
palmettotree (anonymous) says...
You have to work 40 hours to get OT here at the port. It used to be that the holiday would go towards that 40 hours now it isn't. If you have a holiday and don't work it you have to work extra at night or on the weekends to make up that 8 hours difference before you get any OT. It isn't that bad really. I am sure that if you are working that day you would still get holiday pay and work pay and you won't have to work an extra 8 to get OT during the weekend, but I can guarantee that you will be the last one asked to work it. That is the way I read it anyways.
June 25, 2009 at 9:52 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
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