Daniel Walsh, president and CEO of TRAC Intermodal, has been elected Chairman of the Washington, DC, based Institute of International Container Lessors (IICL) for 2024. He succeeds Olivier Ghesquiere, president and CEO of Textainer Group Holding Limited.

Walsh has been president and CEO of TRAC Intermodal, which is North America’s North America’s leading supplier and manager of marine chassis equipment, since August of 2020. Prior to joining TRAC, he held executive management positions at XPO Logistics and Brambles Ltd.

Also elected by the Board of the IICL were Katherine McCabe, president and CEO of CAI International, Inc as First Vice President; Jeremy Matthew, CEO of Seaco Global, as the association’s Second Vice President; and Than Seeds, president and COO of FlexiVan as treasurer.

Meanwhile, Ghesquiere has agreed to continue working with the IICL Executive Committee for another year.

Mark Hardiman has been appointed as the new CEO of the Port Tanjung Pelepas Sdn Bhd (PTP) in Malaysia. Previously, he held the same position at the port of Salalah in Oman. He replaces Marco Neelsen who is standing down after seven years heading the port, which is a joint venture between MMC Group (70%) and APM Terminals (30%).

“I am honoured to be part of PTP, an established regional transhipment hub with a long and successful track record in the industry,” he said. “I look forward to working with the Board of Directors and the team and am confident in our ability to achieve our growth plans and further cement our strong relations with our clients.”

Hardiman has considerable experience in the ports and terminals industries. While at APM Terminals and in addition to his stint at Salalah, Hardiman served as COO and managing director at Khalifa Bin Salman Port, Bahrain, and as general manager for the Africa, Middle East and India (AMI) region where he was based in APM Terminals regional office in Dubai.

Paul Gooch, director of The Logical Group GmbH, a Supply Chain and logistics consultancy, has been elected as president of the International Tank Container Organisation, (ITCO) for a two-year period.  He starts his new role on 1 January. Gooch has more than 45 years’ experience in supply chain management and logistics services in the oil and chemical industry, having worked for nearly 30 years in senior management positions at Dow Chemicals.  He replaces Reg Lee who has retired.

Carl White has taken up the role of warehouse and logistics director at Pall-Ex Group, a leading pallet distribution network. He has over 23 years of experience and previously worked for Knights of Old whose parent company KNP Logistics collapsed into administration in September 2023. His main responsibility is to develop Pall-Ex Group’s 3PL division.

EV Cargo’s Palletforce has appointed Mark Tapper as its new CEO. Previously, he was COO of the group. He joined Palletforce in 2016 as operations director and became COO in 2021. In his new role, he will report to Heath Zarin, founder, chairman and CEO of EV Cargo, and chairman of Palletforce. In other moves, David Breeze has been promoted from Network development director to COO and Dave Holland assumes a role that involves driving member relations and engagement strategy. He also serves as EVP marketing and communications.

The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners has approved the appointment of directors for the Port of Long Beach’s Program Management Division and the newly created Central Procurement Services Division. Monique Lebrun, who has served as the Port’s assistant director of Program Management since December 2022  is to become director of Program Management. She joined the Port in September 2008 and has worked in several roles within the Design and Program Management divisions.

Meanwhile, Terra Van Andel, the Port’s Streamlines project manager since 2022 will become the first director of the Port’s Central Procurement Services Division. It has been created to standardize purchases and contracts across the Long Beach Harbor Department’s 19 divisions.

The two appointments become effective on 13 January.

Jonathan Daniels has been named the new Executive Director of the Maryland Port Administration (MPA).

He has more than 30 years of port and economic development experience, most recently as  CEO and port director at Port Everglades in Florida. At Port Everglades, Daniels was responsible for implementing a US$3B master/vision plan to expand the port’s container, energy and cruise businesses. Prior to working at Port Everglades, Daniels served as the executive director and CEO for the Mississippi State Port Authority in Gulfport, where he was responsible for the development and oversight of the state’s port authority, to include implementation of a US$570M  federally funded expansion and reconstruction project. 

The Port of Los Angeles has appointed Chris Brown as its Chief Harbor Engineer. He replaces Dina Aryan-Zahlan, who was recently promoted to Deputy Executive Director of Development at the San Pedro Bay port in southern California. Brown will lead the planning, development and design of infrastructure and facilities that support the diverse operations of the nation’s busiest seaport, including wharves, terminals, rail, roadways and public space. Prior to this role, Brown had been Assistant Chief Harbor Engineer responsible for division sections handling structural, specifications, architectural and electrical elements of the port’s infrastructure projects.