Our People:

BOARD & OPERATING EXECUTIVES

Chairman of the Board: Mr. Renold Thompson, Jr. 
Rod Thompson is our non-executive Chairman, and is a founding investor.  He recently retired as Executive Vice President, Capital Markets, at a top-5 US commercial bank and has a long family history in the maritime industry.  Rod was a long-time investor in Oglebay Norton Company, when the company operated the largest and most successful fleet of commercial carriers on the Great Lakes.  Rod is also an active member of the Cleveland Council on Foreign Relations.  Rod Thompson earned both undergraduate and M.B.A. degrees from Dartmouth College.

Vice Chairman: Mr. R. Thomas Green, Jr. 
Tom Green is one of our two Vice Chairmen, and is a founding investor.  From 1992 to1998 he served as CEO and Chairman of Oglebay Norton Company, when the company operated 12 ships with a total bulk capacity of 400,000 tons and was the most successful commercial carrier on the Great Lakes.  This was the culmination of a 33 year career with Oglebay Norton that started in Iron Ore Sales.  Following his 1998 retirement as Chairman Emeritus, he has been active in non-profit community organizations and has served on the Board of a Community Bank.  Tom Green is a graduate of Amherst College.

Vice Chairman: Mr. George A Sawyer. 
George Sawyer is one of our two Vice Chairmen, and is a founding investor.  George's Naval career began as a submarine engineering officer during the early days of the nuclear submarine era.  He later served in a variety of senior positions in and in support of the US Navy.  These positions include as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Shipbuilding and Logistics.  He also served as CEO of John J. McMullen & Associates (naval architects) and as CEO of Sperry Marine (marine controls).  As an investor in private equity investment group JF Lehman & Company, he serves on several Boards of Directors in the marine industry.  George Sawyer is a graduate of Yale University, and was one of the earliest graduates of the US Navy's Nuclear Power School.

Chief Executive Officer: CAPT Edward L. Bartlett, Jr., US Merchant Marine. 
Ed Bartlett is our President & CEO, and is a founding investor and member of the Board of Directors.  Ed is also a USCG licensed Master/Captain & Third Assistant Engineer Officer in the US Merchant Marine.  He served the US Navy on active duty in a variety of positions on both surface ships and submarines.  Prior to attending Nuclear Power School, he completed a brief tour of duty on USS MILWAUKEE (AOR-2), a Replenishment Oiler engaged in Vietnam War-era underway replenishment duty.  After active duty in the submarine force he left the Navy for an Engineering position at Electric Boat, where he served as Engineering Manager for the Conceptual Design of the VIRGINIA Class submarine nuclear propulsion plant. In this posiiton he managed the development of the numerous innovations which distinguish this exceptional design, two of which were conceived by him.  He also served as the first President of DRS Power Systems, after developing and successfully executing the strategy to create the business unit.  During his tenure at DRS, the business successfully developed the world's most powerful permanent magnet motor.  Ed also operated Goldenrod Blue Associates, a marine consultancy, before forming Cleveland Shipholding Group with his fellow investors.  Ed and our Chief Engineeer, Jeff Bartlett, worked together to develop the conceptual designs of our Flagship design -  the low cost, high performance ULTRA-Green^tm CUYAHOGA Class ships.  Ed Bartlett is a graduate of the inaugural class of the Global Leadership 2020 post-graduate business education program, conducted as a joint international program by the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and the Templeton School of Business at The University of Oxford.  He is a graduate of the University of the State of New York (Marine Engineering) and earned his M.B.A. in Finance from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.  Finally, he is a graduate of the US Navy's Nuclear Power School and subsequently served as an instructor at the advanced phase of Navy nuclear power training.

Chief Operating Officer: Mr. Stuart Theis.

Stu Theis is our COO, and has a long history of service and accomplishment in the maritime industry.  As an attorney and business executive for Cleveland based Oglebay Norton Company, Stu served as President of Oglebay Norton's Great Lakes Marine Division from 1992-2002.  Under Stu's leadership during this period, Oglebay Norton operated the most successful and largest number of vessels on the Lakes, setting tonnage, safety and other performance records.  This included the negotiation of several collective bargaining agreements with the two unions representing the licensed and unlicensed seamen serving in the fleet.  At MA Hanna before that, Stu served from 1985 to 1992 covering all aspects of operations as head of Hanna's owned and managed Great Lakes/St Lawrence Seaway fleet of bulk carriers, several dock facilities in the Lakes and Seaway and Hanna's Ocean Marine Division.  Recently Stu has been engaged in Great Lakes marine consulting, serving as Executive Director of the United States Great Lakes Shipping Association, representing Lakes shipping agencies.  He is a member of the American Bureau of Shipping, Vice President of the National Association of Maritime Organizations (NAMO), a member of the U.S. Homeland Security - National Maritime Security Advisory Committee (NMSAC) and Vice Chairman of the US/Canada maritime industry initiative to improve stakeholder environmental performance called "Green Marine".

Chief Engineer: Chief Engineer Jeffrey R. Bartlett, US Merchant Marine. 
Jeff Bartlett is our Chief Engineer, and is a founding investor.  He is a USCG licensed Chief Engineer Officer, with ratings in Gas Turbines, Diesels, and Steam propulsion plants.  He has extensive experience as Chief Engineer at sea on all types of propulsion plants, and was the US Navy Military Sealift Command's first Chief Engineer on USNS SUPPLY (T-AOE 6), MSC's first AOE/Fast Combat Support Ship.  His Chief Engineer assignments also include multiple T-AO 187 Class Fleet Oilers, as well as on other ship types.  Ashore, he served as MSC Port Chief Engineer (East) and as an Exchange Officer for MSC with the British Royal Fleet Auxiliary Service.  Jeff is an acknowledged expert in Fleet Oilers and Underway Replenishment processes and equipment.  Working with Ed Bartlett, our CEO, Jeff co-developed the conceptual designs for our Flagship design - the low cost, high performance ULTRA-Green^tm CUYAHOGA Class ships.  Jeff Bartlett is a graduate of the Maine Maritime Academy, where he served as Regimental Commander during his Senior Year, and earned an M.S. in Management from Boston University.

EXECUTIVE REVIEW TEAM

In order to supplement and to provide balance for our OPERATING EXECUTIVES in the review of design concepts for new ships and for ship modifications, we have established an
EXECUTIVE REVIEW TEAM, comprised of the following highly experienced design executives:

Team Leader: Vice Chairman George A. Sawyer. 
As part of his Vice Chairman responsibilities, George Sawyer serves as Team Leader of our Executive Review Team.  He brings his many years of ship design, operation, shipbuilding and ship procurement experience to this assignment.

Team Member: RADM William C. Wyatt, USN (Ret). 
RADM Bill Wyatt served an impressive Engineering Duty Officer career in the United States Navy.  He served as the US Navy Program Manager for the design, development and initial shipbuilding phase for the extremely successful SPRUANCE (DD 963) Class destroyers.  This was the first gas turbine powered ship in the US Navy, and served as a model for all surface warfare ships (CG/DDG) that have followed.  He later served as Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Conversion & Repair at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, MS.  In his very active retirement he consults for several companies, and routinely provides support for the CNO's 21st Century Surface Combatant Capabilities Study and the Missile Defense Agency's Seaborne X-Band Radar System Development Program.

Team Member: Mr. J. William Shirley. 
Bill Shirley's Government service was in the Naval Reactors organization within the Naval Sea Systems Command.  His service included an assignment as the Naval Reactors Representative at Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock, in Newport News, VA.  In this assignment he was Senior on-scene Representative of the Naval Reactors Program in the Tidewater, Virginia region.  His final assignment at Naval Reactors, as a member of the US Government's Senior Executive Service, was as the Program Manager for the development of the VIRGINIA Class submarine propulsion plant.  In his active retirement, in addition to this assignment, he provides services to the private equity investment group JF Lehman & Company.

Team Member: RADM Robert E. Traister, USN (Ret). 
RADM Bob Traister has a broad record of achievement in both his Navy and civilian careers.  In the Navy he served as Deputy Commander for Surface Ships for the Naval Sea Systems Command, Chief Engineer of the Pacific Fleet and as Commanding Officer of the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard.  During more than 30 years of service he was also a key Navy leader in resolving cost, schedule and production issues on the LOS ANGELES Class submarines during the 1980’s.  Following his Naval service he served as the Director of Projects and Site Services at the country’s largest nuclear waste site in Hanford, WA.  He also led the construction of Boeing Sea Launch Platform and served as the lead project manager for Boeing’s Sea-Based X-Band (SBX) radar program from inception through delivery.  SBX provides detailed ballistic missile tracking information to the Defense Department’s Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, as well as advanced discrimination capability for interceptor missiles.