When Mary Jo Muoio passed her customs brokers exam, she did so in style: Her score was the highest in the nation. It was 1983, a year after joining Barthco Trade Consultants, where she eventually rose to senior vice president. When Ozburn-Hessey Logistics acquired Barthco in 2006,
Muoio kept that title at OHL.
That year, Muoio became the first female
president of the 800-member National Customs
Brokers and Forwarders Association of America, and last July she was elected to a second term as head of the 112-year-old Washington-based association. She has been the association’s point person on key Customs initiatives, including
C-TPAT, “ 10+ 2” and the Automated Commercial Environment.
In 2006 testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee, Muoio was outspoken in her praise for Customs’ security initiatives, but equally outspoken about the agency’s attention to commercial operations. “The truth is that CBP is not balancing its twin responsibilities of security and commercial operations,” she said at the time. Since then, Customs has worked more collaboratively with the trade community to ensure supply chain security and the free flow of trade.
Muoio serves on the board of governors for the New York-New Jersey Forwarders and Brokers Association and is a former president of the Philadelphia Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association.
It takes a special leader to negotiate a waterfront contract and sell it to the members of the union and the employer’s organization. Last July, Bob McEllrath, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, and Jim McKenna, president of the Pacific Maritime Association, agreed on a six-year contract that promises labor peace, prosperity for longshoremen and improved productivity at marine terminals. Despite more than two weeks of labor slowdowns in late July, the contract was reached with a minimum of disruption compared to what happened in 2002, when extensive slowdowns provoked an employer lockout and involvement by a federal mediator.
Both sides can claim victory in last year’s negotiations. The ILWU entered
the talks with seemingly no leverage as cargo volumes and man-hours were down, but McEllrath gave up nothing of substance. The ILWU contract remains the gold standard for blue-collar labor in America. McKenna extended the productivity gains in the 2002 contract, which provided employers with a free
flow of information, to include flexibility in the use of modern, productive cargo-handling equipment, even if that equipment eliminates some jobs.
Tom Griffin has been Agility’s project logistics guru since becoming president of Agility Project Logistics in Houston in late 2007. He had spent the previous decade in senior management at
Transoceanic Shipping, which Agility acquired in 2005.
His shop fits neatly into Agility’s rapid acquisition and expansion strategy that concentrates on emerging markets,
project logistics and project logistics in emerging markets. With more than 35 years of international projects operations experience, Griffin commands wide respect in the project shippig industry. His background includes project logistics planning, implementation, execution and performance monitoring, finance and administration.
Griffin had a direct hand in one of Agility’s big logistics coups in early 2008 — a long-term contract to handle project cargo for Norwegian group Aker Kvaerner. Shortly after the Aker deal was announced, Griffin said that under the agreement his unit would handle all forwarding and project shipping needs to any Aker operating unit or company. The Aker contract, which runs through 2012, covers several industries, including oil and gas, chemicals, mining and power generation
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