Page 27: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (December 2022)

GREAT SHIPS of 2022 “First and foremost, we’re a family business based on family

Pasha Group Celebrates 75 “What started out as a personal vehicle storage company values. My grandfather was very hands-on in his service sta- tion work; he was visible, very much a part of the success of has evolved into a world-class global logistics and transpor- tation company,” said George Pasha IV. “As we mark our the team from the ? oor plates up. That’s certainly still the case 75th anniversary and welcome George III to Long Beach, we with the company today.”

As his grandfather was a product of the depression, he was are proud to continue my family’s legacy of innovation and more conservative by nature, whereas “my dad grew up in environmental stewardship, while recognizing our employ- the 50s, a more idyllic time,” said George Pasha IV. “He was ees as our extended ‘Ohana’.” much more entrepreneurial and aggressive, and he certainly “We started out with humble beginnings. My grandfa- was a great early steward in terms of setting us off into the tra- ther had two gas stations in San Francisco, which [essen- tially] formed the current company,” said George Pasha jectory that we’re in now. It’s with great pride that we’re able

IV. “My dad joined him in high school and decided that to put his name on the stern of the George III, and we wish he’d like to do something bigger and different than just gas he was here. My grandfather would love to be in the engine station work. So we built, over about a 50-year period, a room of the George III; he was an automotive engineer, and logistics and transportation company, and started handling he would be extremely proud of and interested in what’s hap- new vehicles for the OEMs. That was the initial legacy pened over the course of the last 75 years.” business. From there we diversified into break bulk and other commodities.”

According to George Pasha, IV, the company took a turn into shipping when around 2000 “General Motors encour- aged the industry to build a pure car truck carrier for the Ha- waii trade lane. In 2005, we delivered the ? rst pure car truck carrier and still the only pure car truck carrier in the Jones

Act trade. In 2015, we were getting ready to deliver a second ship, a combination ship for the Hawaii trade lane. We were talking to the folks at Horizon Lines, and those discussions led to an opportunity to acquire the Horizon Hawaii assets … quite a leap for us.”

The Horizon acquisition, according to George Pasha IV, “just about doubled the size of our company in every way that you can measure it from a top line revenue, head count, and EBITA point of view. So today as we look at 2022, we’re a little more than a billion dollars in revenue, with about 2200 teammates that support the day-to-day operation of the business.”

While the new LNG ships are a physical manifestation of the Pasha Group’s commitment to ESG matters, it’s not the only move as George Pasha IV said the company’s ties to the community and environment concerns are long-tenured.

“The LNG ships are certainly one manifestation, but we’ve had the opportunity to pioneer a number of terminal projects,” he said. “One was in the Port of Los Angeles and called Green

Omni Terminal that started with solar battery power electric vehicles, including heavy cargo handling equipment. We were early on, and so we’ve had some struggles trying to make all of that work, but we had some support from MarAd grant money to install a microgrid and take that to a more practical next-level as well.”

Keeping the family business growing and successful is the mantra of George Pasha IV and his management team today. www.marinelink.com 27

MR #12 (18-33).indd 27 12/4/2022 3:42:20 PM