To better support the diverse needs of customers in the maritime industry, Crowley Maritime Corp. announced this week that it has realigned its marine services organization and introduced new leadership.
Crowley Marine Services, part of the company’s shipping group, will now be comprised of three distinct yet interrelated business segments: offshore services, ship assist and tanker escort, and engineering services — those provided by Crowley and subsidiary Jensen Maritime Consultants. Jeff Andreini, Porter Sesnon and Coulston “Cole” van Gundy have been appointed to head up each of these units respectively.
Andreini has rejoined Crowley after serving four years as chief financial officer for Ardent Holdings, a global marine salvage business in which Crowley previously had a 50% ownership position. With Crowley, he now has profit and loss responsibilities for the company’s offshore division, which includes Crowley’s ocean-class tug and flat-deck barge fleets. The unit provides specialized cargo transportation to the offshore energy sector and the emerging U.S. offshore wind market. He will be based in Houston and report to Johan Sperling, vice president of marine services.
Sesnon is taking the lead role for the group’s ship assist and tanker escort services, which are provided in all major West Coast ports from north Puget Sound, Wash., to San Diego. Utilizing the company’s ship assist and tanker escort tugs in North America, Crowley safely assists ships through some of the tightest, most environmentally-sensitive waterways in the world. Crowley entered the ship assist business at the start of the 20th century, operating steam-powered tugs in San Francisco Bay in 1906. Sesnon, who will have profit and loss responsibilities for the division, will be based in Seattle and report to Sperling
Within Crowley’s engineering group, van Gundy is taking the leadership role in business development to grow the company’s third-party project and construction management services, as well as engineering and design-related offerings provided by both Crowley and Seattle-based Jensen Maritime. Van Gundy will be based in Seattle and report to Jay Edgar, vice president of Jensen.
Prior to joining Ardent, Andreini served at Crowley for 35 years beginning as a dispatcher/administration assistant in San Francisco and Long Beach for Crowley’s tug and barge services. He spent 20 years in Crowley’s Seattle office in numerous roles including director of finance for harbor services, manager of West Coast tug dispatch, and manager of business development.
Prior to joining Crowley, Sesnon worked for five years as a corporate lawyer at K&L Gates LLP in Seattle where he represented private and public companies in a variety of transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, venture capital financing, corporate restructurings, joint ventures, and public offerings. Sesnon joined Crowley in 2018.
Van Gundy joined Crowley in 2006 as an engineer supporting vessels managed from the Pacific Northwest. His first assignment was to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, supporting Crowley’s North Slope operations, and he later began supporting harbor and ocean tugs as a chief engineer.
