Industry Interview: Maersk Line, Limited
INDUSTRY INTERVIEW
Interview with Bill Kenwell
Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer
Maersk Line, Ltd.
Bill Kenwell is the senior vice president, chief commercial officer at Maersk Line, Limited (MLL). He currently has full responsibility for MLL’s U.S. flag liner fleet and associated logistics support operations. Bill also serves as the company’s primary liaison to USTRANSCOM, Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC) and DLA.
Prior to his current position, he served as the director of integrated marketing for Maersk Inc and for 29 years he was with Sea-Land Service in the United States and Asia. During his career at Sea-Land, Kenwell was in charge of global sales, corporate marketing, Pacific Rim sales and marketing, the Hawaii-Guam Service, buyers consolidators and Sea-Land Logistics. He also served with CSX Transportation, where he was vice president of sales for North America and where he managed several of CSX’s international offices.
Kenwell earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Villanova University and completed the executive marketing program at the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College. He is also a life member of the National Defense Transportation Association (NDTA).
Q: Can you give me a thumbnail about Maersk Line, Limited? How much of your business is defense related?
A: Based in Norfolk, Va., MLL provides U.S. government agencies and their prime contractors with transportation and maritime services. Since incorporation in 1947, we have grown our fleet of owned, operated and chartered vessels and have expanded our service offerings to include a broad spectrum of logistics-related services. MLL’s fleet of 30 U.S. flag container, tanker, dry-bulk, multi-purpose and roll-on/roll-off vessels transports more U.S. government cargo in support of military and humanitarian missions than any other company.
As a global organization, we are a prepositioned logistics force for the DoD, with infrastructure, people, systems and relationships already in place in almost any location around the world, where the military needs us.
Q: What are MLL’s core capabilities that are most relevant to the military logistics community?
A: MLL is best known among the military logistics community as a leading ocean container carrier, but MLL also provides end-to-end logistics support to the DoD in a variety of other areas. We offer creativity and flexibility to address complex issues such as unit moves—simultaneously transporting a collection of containers, vehicles and other cargo assigned to a particular military unit.
We also provide trucking, cargo visibility and other inland services to ensure that cargo is delivered. Our U.S. flag tanker, Maersk Rhode Island, delivers thousands of barrels of diesel and jet fuel for the DLA; and, at any given time, more than 500 of our U.S. civilian mariners are operating Navy sealift and prepositioning ships loaded with cargo and equipment to deploy and sustain U.S. forces around the globe.
Q: What are the key areas in which MLL is currently supporting the DoD?
A: MLL provides a broad spectrum of transportation and maritime services to the DoD. In 2007, MLL’s U.S. flag liner vessels carried more than 70,000 forty-foot containers of U.S. military cargo. MLL operates and crews 30 noncombatant government-owned sealift, prepositioning and ocean surveillance ships for the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command and the U.S. Maritime Administration [MARAD].
MLL, along with other U.S. flag commercial carriers, also provides the DoD with assured access to ships and intermodal infrastructure through participation in the Voluntary Intermodal Sealift Agreement and the Maritime Security Program.
Q: How would you characterize progress on seabasing?
A: MLL is a leader in the development and implementation of seabasing and seabasing support technologies. We continue to refine our seabasing concept, known as the Afloat Forward Staging Base [AFSB], which was originally developed for the Office of Naval Research.
The AFSB concept, which is based on conversion from a commercial container ship, provides DoD with a flexible platform for power projection, expeditionary warfare or humanitarian missions that can be delivered with much less cost and in less time than would be needed to build a new platform from the keel up. In addition to the AFSB concept, MLL also continues to work with the Navy and our industry partners on the development of the ramp, crane, lighterage, stowage and operational technologies essential to a sea-based logistics platform.
Q: With the OPTEMPO of the U.S. military, what is the capacity situation with to available space and transit times on your vessels?
A: In the transportation sector, commercial carriers assign assets to trade routes based on supply and demand. While military OPTEMPO similarly impacts transportation assets needed for the DoD, the partnership between industry, labor, USTRANSCOM, MSC, SDDC, MARAD, DLA and the NDTA Sealift Committee allows us to jointly develop and implement successful strategies and tactics necessary to support the men and women of the U.S. military.
In fact, within just the last six months, MLL has responded to the DoD’s needs by shifting three additional ships to our U.S. East Coast-to-Middle East route, establishing weekly U.S. flag service to the region, and by adding two roll-on/roll-off ships to our fleet and the MSP. We are committed to delivering on our promises, measuring our performance and serving our customer. ♦