Young Bros announces new president
by Michael Hansen, Hawaii Shippers Council, December 29, 2017
Young Brothers Limited (YB) posted on December 28, 2017, to their website the press release, “Joseph Boivin appointed new president of Young Brothers,” announcing Boivin will assume duties as of December 22, 2017, replacing the retiring Glenn K. Y. Hong who served as the company’s president for 25 years.
YB is the sole inter-Hawaiian Island ocean common carrier providing regularly scheduled liner service from their hub port of Honolulu Harbor to six ports on five Neighbor Islands (also known as the outer islands). As a common carrier by water, YB is regulated by the Hawaii State Public Utilities Commission (HPUC) under The Hawaii Water Carriers Act of 1974 (HWCA) as amended (15 HRS 271G-8 through 271G-25) with a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) as a monopoly. YB is a Jones Act operator as is required for the coastwise trade.
The interisland service provided by YB is operated on a radial basis with all interisland voyages beginning and ending at their Pier 39/40 terminal in Honolulu Harbor employing ocean tugs and cargo barges and typically calling at a single Neighbor Island port (with the exception of Kaunakakai, Molokai Island and Kamalapau, Lanai Island which are served by joint voyages).
YB is a subsidiary of Foss Maritime Company of Seattle, Washington, which in turn is a subsidiary of Saltchuk Resources Inc., a Seattle-based privately-owned conglomerate with annual revenues of approximately U.S. $3 billion (2015). Saltchuk also operates through its subsidiary TOTE Inc. group several ocean shipping services in the Alaska, Puerto Rico and Caribbean trades (both Jones Act and Foreign-flag). TOTE was the owner and operator of the Jones Act Roll-on/Roll-off (Ro/R0) containership EL FARO, which sank en route from Jacksonville, Florida, to San Juan, Puerto Rico, off the Bahamas Islands on October 1, 2015 with all 33 personnel on board lost.
On August 17, 2017, TOTE announced that they would be launching a new liner container service in the interstate Hawaii trade between California and Hawaii ports with four newbuild containerships, which were to be constructed at Philly Shipyard Inc. Although TOTE said the new service was to be inaugurated in 2020, there appear to be problems with this proposed timeline (and perhaps the project) due to container terminal availability in Honolulu Harbor.
With his retirement from YB, Saltchuk announced on August 17, 2017, that Hong would move on within the corporation. At the time, Hong said his, “new role will consist of representing the company’s growing interests in the Hawaii region.” That would presumably include the other Saltchuk companies in Hawaii including Akeo Kula Inc. (Aloha Air Cargo) and Hawaii Petroleum Inc. (Ohana Fuels Mau Petroleum, Minit Shop & HFN). It would seem a major assignment for Hong would be securing a container terminal in Honolulu Harbor for its proposed interstate containership service.
Although Bovin has no direct maritime or shipping experience, his previous employment with The Gas Company (d.b.a., Hawaii Gas), the State’s sole gas utility, would have given him a great deal of experience dealing with a HPUC regulated company operating under a CPCN. Presumably that was attractive to Saltchuk/Foss.
Key excerpts from YB:
Young Brothers, Ltd has announced the appointment of Joseph Boivin as the company’s new president effective January 22, 2018. As president, he will be responsible for the company’s strategy, execution and overall operations.
Boivin most recently served as senior vice president of The Gas Company, headquartered in Honolulu. . He will replace Glenn Hong who is retiring to take on a new role at Saltchuk, Young Brother’s parent company.
"Joe’s management experiences in utilities, transportation, and customer service as well as his knowledge of Hawaii’s business community and regulatory processes make him an ideal fit for Young Brothers,” said John Parrott, President of Foss Maritime, which oversees Young Brothers in the Saltchuk family of companies.
Prior to his eight years at The Gas Company, Boivin served as senior associate in the Honolulu office of global management consulting firm, Booz Allen Hamilton. Before that, he served as managing director of the investment firm Washington Capital Partners in Washington, DC; a research staff member at the Institute for Defense Analyses in Alexandria, VA; and a manufacturing engineer at Northrop Grumman’s Dallas, TX facility.