The Port: Another Candidate for CEO

His name is Bernard Groseclose. But everyone calls him Bernie.

His claim to fame: President and CEO of the South Carolina State Ports Authority, the low country counterpart of the Virginia Port Authority.

Groseclose led the SCSPA, the overseer of the city port of Charleston, from 1996 to 2009.

Like Stan Payne, the former general counsel of the VPA and President and CEO of Port Canaveral, Groseclose is a consultant, specializing in international port and maritime issues.

In 2010, Groseclose was one of five finalists for the CEO of the Port of Tacoma, according to The Charleston Post and Courier.

Virginia courses through his veins.

Groseclose graduated from Hampden-Sydney College with a BA in Economics and received an MBA at the College of William and Mary.

His jobs since he left the SCSPA:

Principal at International Port & Maritime Consulting, International Port & Maritime Consulting, August 2012 – Present (1 year 3 months)

Director, Maritime & Seaport Operations GDS LLC, October 2011 – July 2012 (10 months), Reston, Virginia

International Ports & Maritime Consultant, BSG Consulting, June 2009 – October 2011 (2 years 5 months), Charleston, South Carolina

To grasp the quintessential Groseclose, here are excerpts from an editorial written by Molly Parker of the Charleston Business Journal in 2009, the year Groseclose exited the SCSPA.

Perception is powerful — far more so than reality.

And the perception was that Bernard was the stuffy type you assume preferred martinis to beer and probably had soft hands. That’s dandy if you are the CEO of a toilet paper company, but the waterfront is a calloused-hands, working man’s business.

Those who called him Bernie and knew him in a more personal setting would defend him as misunderstood. He tried to reach out — speaking to civic organizations all around town — but fought a losing battle, they argue.

But for a dozen years, the vast public knew the public face of the S.C. State Ports Authority as Bernard S. Groseclose Jr.

What he had — and what the SPA continues to have — is a supersized public relations problem.

For that, Groseclose is not all to blame — if he is to blame at all. He was a product of the culture, evidenced by the way he was ushered into his position in 1996 and out of it in 2009: in secret

Groseclose reportedly (I wasn’t here) assumed the role after the only public advertising for the position was posted inside the SPA headquarters. When he resigned, it was during a closed-session meeting of the board. There was no public vote to accept his resignation (perhaps because it has yet to be finalized) or to name his interim replacement.

The SPA board is not known for its candor. It prefers to make big decisions behind closed doors, shutting out the media (generally just two reporters) and the public that doesn’t even bother showing up.