Page 39: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 2026)

JOHN MCDONALD, CHAIRMAN & CEO, ABS

Many claim to have ‘saltwater in their veins,’ but all you have to do is walk into the corner of? ce of John McDonald, the new Chairman and CEO of the American

Bureau of Shipping (ABS), to see that him saying “I was born into maritime” is not hyperbole. The ? rst thing that greets you is a Dusan Kadlec nighttime painting of the Brooklyn Bridge, a painting that has special meaning to him as he remembers being on a boat in New York harbor in 1983, his father USCG Captain of the Port of

New York at that time, watching the ? reworks over the bridge for the celebration.

There are maritime executives who ? nd the industry by accident, then there are those that are destined to be in it from birth; McDonald is the latter. He takes the helm of ABS at arguably one of the most exciting yet tumultuous times in maritime history, as it is an industry facing multiple in? ection points in terms of decarbonization and fuel transition, automation and autonomy, digitalization, robotics and seafarer training, to name but a few. McDonald discussed this and much more in his inaugural maritime CEO interview with

Maritime Reporter & Engineering News from his of? ce in Houston.

By Greg Trauthwein he majority of people have jobs; many have “Born into Maritime” careers; but John McDonald is one of the se-

McDonald says he was born into maritime, and in talking to lect that has a job, a career and a mission. The him, this is not a throwaway line.

new Chairman and CEO of ABS is not some-

His father was a Coast Guard captain, and McDonald essen- one who discovered the industry late, or chose tially grew up on Governor’s Island in New York, literally sur-

T it strictly as a career move, or found his way rounded by vessels, maritime safety and the working harbor. into it through some lateral jump from ? nance, consulting or

Summers were spent on the Maine coast, where his family’s ties technology. He talks about maritime the way many people talk ran deep and where life on the water was not recreation so much about family: It was there from the start; it shaped the setting as routine. He lobstered as a kid. His brother went on to the Coast and the routine; it shaped the people around him. In his telling,

Guard Academy and later retired as a captain. Maritime, in other life, career and the waterfront are one in the same.

words, was not a profession outside the front door. It was and is

That matters because as of January 2026 McDonald took the family business and the household language.

the helm at ABS, the world’s largest classi? cation society and

He has three children who have grown up at ABS, in Korea, one of the most in? uential organizations in global shipping at

London, Singapore and many other places, and those experi- a time when the industry is juggling more change than at any ences have shaped them into the people they are today. After point in recent memory. ABS sits at the intersection of clas- he graduated Maine Maritime Academy, McDonald, started si? cation, safety, digitalization, regulation, energy transition, sailing and worked several years at sea. He even met his wife autonomy, cyber risk, shipyard modernization, and as of early courtesy of maritime when he signed on to work aboard a cruise 2026, mariner training too. It is a broad palette of mutual pri- ship in Hawaii. She was the purser signing him aboard. For two orities for certain, but it all comes back to the simple premise years he stayed with that work before family life and the reali- of ships operating safely, ef? ciently, effectively and globally. ties of shore-side stability pulled him in another direction. He

ABS is a technical organization in a highly practical busi- joined ABS in 1996, and the rest is a long arc through survey, ness. With McDonald, what stands out is not theatrics or operations, business development and executive leadership.

chest-thumping. It is that he views the job through the lens

In addition to the Kadlec painting, McDonald’s of? ce houses of a lifelong mariner who knows that the future only matters more clues that belie his deep maritime connection. A model of if it can be made safe, useful and workable.

the USCGC Eagle, the Coast Guard’s training ship upon which “We have a very strong safety culture; it’s built into us, both his father and brother sailed; where his dad’s retirement not only with our people, but in everything that we do as ceremony was held on the Thames River and where he, as a an organization.” www.marinelink.com 39

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