Columbia Coastal Establishes New Division

Columbia Coastal Transport, LLC,has announced the formation of a new government/military and project division to assist companies with their cargo needs in these specialized areas. Donovan Murray will head up the newly established government/military division, and Joseph Villa will serve as general manager operations overseeing the project division.

Murray has been with Columbia Coastal since August of 1993, and was named as port manager in Baltimore in August of 1995. Most recently, he has served as regional manager for the company’s Chesapeake services.

In his new post, Murray will oversee the company’s government/military division which handles all manner of U.S. government and military cargoes aboard its U.S. flag barges. The company offers logistics, documentation and complete service support for these specialized moves. With its U.S. flag status, Columbia Coastal is also qualified to handle humanitarian cargo shipments for Private Voluntary Organizations (PVOs) and PL-480 Title II cargoes moving between U.S. ports and beyond. A graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, Murray holds a B.S. degree in Marine Transportation, a Third Mate’s license and a commission in the U.S. Naval Reserve. Villa joined Columbia Coastal in October of 1999, bringing with him 18 years of varied operations experience. Formerly with Sea-Land Service, Inc., Villa held increasingly responsible positions during his tenure there, and gained experience that included terminal operations, equipment control, rail and marine operations. He holds a Bachelors Degree in interdisciplinary studies from Old Dominion University in Norfolk,VA. The Project Division of Columbia Coastal Transport has been offering complete transportation services for special project cargoes since 1995. They handle outsized and overweight cargoes, as well as heavy-liftproject moves and turnkey operations both domestically and overseas