Bruner, Newsome Receive East Coast Connie Awards

The Containerization & Intermodal Institute (CII) will present the 2010 East Coast-based Connie Awards to J. Russell Bruner, Chairman and CEO of Maersk Inc. and James I. Newsome III, President and CEO of the South Carolina State Ports Authority. The evening event on Tuesday, December 7 at The Newark Club will also commemorate the 50th anniversary of CII.

The Newark Club event is in addition to the West Coast-based Connie Awards on September 30 in Long Beach, CA, honoring Ron Widdows and Jon Hemingway. CII holds two Connie events each year to accommodate industry leaders on both coasts. Each recipient is being honored for his significant influence in containerization in worldwide trade and transportation, according to Allen Clifford, CII President.

A special Founders Award will also be presented at The Newark Club to the Institute of International Container Lessors (IICL), recognizing that the founding organizations of CII were the then-fledgling container leasing companies.

Russ Bruner was appointed Chairman, Maersk Inc., the world's largest container carrier, in January 2010. He was named Executive Vice President of the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group in 2006 and assumed the position of President & CEO, Maersk Inc. in September 2004. In June of 2001, Bruner was named Senior Vice President of Maersk Inc. and was responsible for managing Maersk's liner services to and from North, Central and South America as well as Canada and the Caribbean. Bruner joined Maersk Inc. in 1989.

Prior to joining Maersk Inc., Bruner held the position of Regional Manager for Roadway Package System in New York. Bruner also held several positions at Smith's Transfer, located in Baltimore, Md., from 1976 to 1988 with the most recent position being Vice President Northern Region.

A native of Baltimore, Bruner attended Bridgewater College, Va.  He is a graduate of the University of Michigan Executive Program and Harvard Business School AMP. Bruner serves on the Bridgewater College Board of Trustees and the University of Denver Intermodal Transportation Institute Board of Directors.

Jim Newsome became President and CEO of the South Carolina State Ports Authority in September 2009. He was previously President of Hapag-Lloyd (America), Inc., which is part of the world's fifth-largest ocean shipping company, where he was responsible for all activities in North America and Latin America.  Previously, he was Senior Vice President of Area Southeast, based in Atlanta, Ga., for 12 years. 
 
Prior to joining Hapag-Lloyd in 1997, Mr. Newsome was with Nedlloyd Lines from 1987 to
1997.  He was Executive Vice President of the Americas for Nedlloyd Lines and President of Nedlloyd Lines (USA) Corporation.  In this capacity, he was the first non-Dutch member of the Executive Committee of Nedlloyd Lines and was responsible for North and Latin America and the Transatlantic trade.  He held other senior management positions within that company. Mr. Newsome began his shipping career with Strachan Shipping Company.
 
Newsome received a bachelor's degree in Transportation and Logistics in 1976 and a MBA in Transportation and Logistics from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville in 1977. Newsome is a native of Savannah, Ga., is married and has two children.
 
In addition to the Connie Awards, CII will carry out its industry education mission by presenting scholarships to maritime academy cadets. This includes awarding the Thomas B. Crowley Memorial Scholarship to midshipmen at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, funded and managed by Crowley Maritime Corp.; the New York Container Terminal Scholarship to a midshipman at the SUNY Maritime College at Fort Schuyler, funded and managed by New York Container Terminal; the CII Scholarship to a Kings Point cadet, which is funded by Connie proceeds and is managed by CII; and a BSY Associates Scholarship to a college student studying logistics, which is funded by BSY Associates, Inc. of Holmdel, NJ.