Page 32: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 2012)

32Maritime Reporter & Engineering News Dean Taylor bid farewell to his post as Tidewater Inc.?s chief executive officer on May 31, following a prosperous, far- flung career of 34 years at the New Or- leans-based company. COO Jeff Platt, who has worked side by side with Taylor for 15 years, took the helm. And Jeff Gorski was named the new COO. In his decade as chief, Taylor guided Tidewa- ter's fleet expansion. The company has poured hundreds of millions of dollarsyearly into an energetic building-and- acquisition effort. Tidewater owns 342 vessels, the world?s largest fleet serving the global, offshore-energy industry. Taylor is modest about his record, how- ever, and said in late May ?my biggest accomplishment as CEO won't be known for some time. I believe the company will benefit from our investments in people and equipment, but the results won't be truly evident for awhile.? Tidewater has nearly 7,700 employees, with corporate HQ in New Orleans, sales in Houston and a number of overseas of- fices. Its fleet works in more than 60 countries, with the Gulf of Mexico pro- viding just six percent of total revenues. The firm operates Quality Shipyards, a wholly-owned subsidiary, building and repairing vessels in Houma, La. During Taylor's tenure, Tidewater had three, con- secutive years of record revenues from 2007 to 2009. The company's stock reached an all-time high in mid-2007.This year, Tidewater's profits for the fis- cal quarter ended in March 2012 ex- ceeded expectations. And the company has managed to avoid accidents and in- juries, keeping its insurance costs in check. Taylor started as an assistant man- ager at Tidewater in mid-1978 in Morgan City, La., after serving as a U.S. Navy of- ficer for seven years. A series of rapid promotion at Tidewater took him and his family to posts around the world. ?To date the biggest growth area for Tidewater has been West Africa, and we've had good opportunities in the Mid- dle East, Far East, South America and Mexico,? Taylor said. ?Other opportuni- ties will continue to evolve in the imme- diate future because of increased demandfor offshore drilling since last year.? In the quarter ended in March, the company's Sub-Saharan Africa-Eu- rope regional operations contributed nearly half of the company's profits from vessels. Another lucrative area was the Americas, followed by Asia-Pacific and the Middle East-North Africa. Taylor said ?the healthiest part of the global marine industry is the offshore segment. Most other segments are plagued by overcapacity and under-uti- lization of equipment. Offshore isn't in that situation yet, though it could be if itoverbuilds.? ?A major risk for any capital-intensive business is having too much supply,? Tay- lor said. ?But, in our case, the supply ofoffshore ships is not excessive for the de- mand at hand.? SPANNNING FIVE CONTINENTS Taylor was appointed GM of Tidewa- ter's business in Italy in 1979, and in1981 was named GM of its Brazilian ac- tivities. He was promoted to Regional Manager for the Middle East, India andEast Africa in 1985. He directed Tidewa- ter's joint ventures and businesses in Mexico starting in 1986, and began steer- ing its Venezuela activities in 1992. Taylor was designated corporate VP in 1993. In 1995, he directed Tidewater's business in the Americas south of the Rio Grande, including the Caribbean. He was promoted to Executive Vice President in late 2000, with ongoing operations re-sponsibilities in Brazil, Mexico, Trinidad, Venezuela, Angola, West Africa, Nigeria and the North Sea. He steered all inter- national sales activities. In October 2001, Taylor was named President, and in March 2002 he took over as CEO from William O?Malley. He has been a mem- ber of Tidewater's board since 2001, and was appointed Chairman in July 2003 (and will remain non-executive Chairman through 2013.)Taylor was at the helm when Hurricane Katrina closed the company's corporate office in New Orleans for three months in 2005, sending employees to Amelia, La., and Houston. In a momentous event during his watch, the company's vessel Damon B. Bankston in late April 2010 rescued all 115 survivors from BP's Deepwater Horizon well explosion. Assessing his record, Taylor said, ?I think any CEO is only as good as the suc- cessors who follow him. I'm confident Jeff Platt and his team will do a great job.? He added ?if I haven't done a good job preparing them, then results of my ef-forts won't be as good as they could have been. My biggest accomplishment willbe if Jeff Platt and team have a remark- able run as leaders of this company." PLATT AT THE HELM After a 15-year career with Schlum-berger Well Services and Rollins Envi- ronmental Services, Jeff Platt joined Tidewater in 1996 as GM of business in Brazil, and soon moved up the ranks and around the world. Platt said ?one of my biggest accomplishment at Tidewater to date is participating in an effort led by Dean Taylor to renew and expand our fleet, while still maintaining our financial discipline. The company today has the newest and largest OSV fleet in the world.? When asked about challenges for Tidewater in the next few years, he said ?we'll continue to concentrate onfleet modernization, continue adding to the fleet and expanding our service offerings. Dean has left the company in great shape, operationally and finan- cially.? Platt said the company has grown during a period of financial turbulence around the world. ?That has strengthened Tidewater, giving us lots of opportunities in the future,? he said. ?We'll find ways to build on our opportunity, build our Changing of the Guard At Tidewater, CEO Jeff Platt Steps in for Retiring CEODean Taylor By Susan BuchananMR June12 # 4 (25-33):MR Template 6/11/2012 4:16 PM Page 32