CROWLEY MARITIME CORPORATIONrowley Maritime was founded in 1892 by Thom- came ill, and the line of succession – which he had envisioned as Crowley in San Francisco. Its ? eet: A single would take 10 to 15 years – was compressed to three years Whitehall rowboat purchased for $80, used to ferry when his father passed away and Tom took the helm of the Cpeople and supplies from shore to ships anchored $1B per year company. in the Bay. From these humble beginnings has grown one of At the age of 26.the strongest and recognizable maritime franchises in U.S. “I didn’t have a lot of time to plan and think ahead of what history. A diverse, privately held $2B plus per year U.S.-based was going to happen,” Crowley said. “And there were many transport and logistics organization with a ? eet of more than days when I sat there and thought ‘is this even possible.’ But 200 U.S.-? agged vessels, a company which is still held pri- I knew that if I didn’t at least give it a try that 20 years later I vately by the Crowley family, run today and for the past 20 would feel bad.years by Thomas B. Crowley, Jr., Chairman and CEO. So I was running the company and my dad was dying at the same time, and the pressures were huge. My day-to-day strat-The Best Laid Plans egy was ‘one day at a time.’ If I can get through this day, there From an early age Tom Crowley, Jr. knew that the family will be a fresh day tomorrow,” Crowley said. “Early in my ca-business that bore his name would indeed be his destiny, too. reer, it wasn’t about ‘where am I going to take this company,’ “I don’t know when it was exactly that I knew I wanted to or ‘what type of leader do I want to be,’ it was more about work here, but with our last name attached to it, I felt that I putting out ? res and just trying to keep my head about me.”would have something to do with the business,” said Crow- And keep his head about him he did. At the time of Crowley, ley. During his high school and college years, Crowley would Jr. taking the helm, the company was a $1B per year company work at the company in a variety of jobs. with about 5,000 employees. Today the company is just about A self-described “operations guy,” he saw the diversity of 5,300 employees, but it has doubled to more than $2B per year.the business and the operations, and saw ample opportunity for himself. Soon after joining the company upon graduating Diverse Operationscollege, though, fate entered the picture, as Tom’s father be- Today’s Crowley Maritime is signi? cantly changed from the “We embarked on a newbuild program with our ATBs to replace the single hull tonnage that was being phased out, and we felt that we were an early mover into the ATB space, building out a