The Tribune

Crowley Maritime Corporation’s liner services division yesterday announced that Tony Otero has been named vice-president of Caribbean services, which includes the Bahamas.

He will remain domiciled in Crowley’s Jacksonville headquarters, and report to John Hourihan, who was recently named senior vice-president and general manager of the company’s Puerto Rico and Caribbean services.

In his new role, which is currently held by Matt Jackson – who will assume a new position on Crowley’s petroleum services team from January 1, 2013 – Mr Otero will be responsible for the coordination of sales, marketing and operational shipping activities throughout Crowley’s Caribbean operations.

These serve more than 24 islands, including the Bahamas, Trinidad, Barbados, Dominican Republic, Haiti, the US Virgin Islands and many of the other Leeward Islands.

“With Tony at the helm of Crowley’s Caribbean services, we are now able to better align the islands that we serve in the eastern and western Caribbean under one team, which allows us to develop a management focus on select islands and increase our portfolio of services,” said Mr Hourihan.

“He has the experience and skills to continue fostering and growing our relationships with customers in that region.”

Mr Otero, who is a bilingual English-Spanish communicator, started his career as a senior accountant at Crowley in 1998 after working for several years at Deloitte & Touché.

During his time at Crowley, he has held positions including accounting manager, finance director, vice-president, finance and planning for the liner and logistics business units, and vice-president of Dominican Republic and Haiti services.

He is also a 2009 recipient of Crowley’s highest honour, the Thomas Crowley Award. Mr Otero earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting and his master’s degree in accounting from the University of Florida, and he is a certified public accountant (CPA).

The news comes two weeks after Crowley announced changes in its senior leadership team, including Mr Hourihan and Steve Collar trading roles; Frank Larkin’s new appointment as senior vice-president and general manager of logistics; and the pending retirement of John Douglass, who held the position of senior vice-president of Puerto Rico and Caribbean Services for 25 years.