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LEADERSHIP TEAM
TODD BUSCH
President
Chief Executive Officer
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ADRIAN SAMUEL
President
Tidewater Canada
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AARON DEGODNY
Vice President
Chief Commercial Officer
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WILLIAM (BILL) COLLINS
Vice President
Quality, Health, Safety, Security, Environment (QHSSE)
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JOHAN SPERLING
Vice President
Chief Operating Officer
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JULIE DeBOEVER
Vice President
Human Resources
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NEIL PERLMUTTER
Vice President
Chief Financial Officer
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TODD BUSCH
President, Chief Executive Officer
Todd Busch was named Tidewater's President and CEO in January 2020. Todd retired from Crowley Maritime Corporation in 2019, as Senior Vice President & General Manager, reporting directly to Tom Crowley, company chairman, president and CEO. Todd was with Crowley for more than 32 years, and held positions with many of the company’s business units including Government Services, Jensen Maritime, Vessel Management Services, Marine Solutions, Harbor Services and Titan Salvage.
Collectively these business units encompassed naval architecture and marine engineering; vessel construction management; facilities management; offshore engineering; project management, ship assist & escort, salvage & wreck removal, ship management and government contracting. In addition, he served as chairman of the board for Ardent Global, the emergency response & marine services company, owned jointly by Crowley and Svitzer.
Todd joined Crowley as an ordinary seaman in 1986 and earned his masters’ license working aboard company tugboats and salvage vessels. He came ashore in 1994 as a tug dispatcher and has held a variety of positions with increasing responsibility. In 2002, Busch was awarded the Thomas B. Crowley trophy, the highest honor a Crowley employee can receive.
Todd represented Crowley in the International Salvage Union (ISU) for over 12 years and served on the executive committee for 10 years. In 2009, he was elected to President of the ISU, a position he held until September 2011.
Todd has also served as a director of the Clean Pacific Alliance, director of the Marine Response Alliance, executive member for Americas of the American Bureau of Shipping, executive committee member for Americas at DNVGL, as well as a founding executive committee member of the American Salvage Association.
Prior to joining Crowley, Todd sailed on vessels for the Southwest Alaska Pilots Association, and attended Arizona State University where he studied architecture.
He has been married to his wife, Coreen, for over 30 years. They have two children, Britney a graduate of the University of Alabama and the University of Washington Law School, and Garrett, a graduate of Florida State University.
Todd Busch
AARON DEGODNY
Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer
Aaron Degodny was named Tidewater’s Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer in October 2020 and is a member of Tidewater’s Leadership Team. In this role, Aaron responsible for leading the company’s strategic growth initiatives and all commercial related activities including sales, marketing, pricing, business development and customer outreach and communication. He will also have oversight of Tidewater Environmental Services and work closely with Tidewater’s Canadian entity, Island Tug and Barge, in supporting the ongoing evolution and growth of its business.
Aaron brings more than 25 years of experience in the transportation and logistics industry, with the majority spent in the bulk commodities and industrial products sectors. Throughout his career, Aaron has negotiated $3B+ in growth initiatives with leading global industrial enterprises, and his broad experience spans private equity-backed, publicly traded and privately held companies in the US and Canada.
Prior to joining Tidewater, Aaron served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Rand Logistics, Inc., a leading provider of bulk freight shipping and ship repair services throughout the Great Lakes region. He was hired by Rand in February 2016 as Chief Commercial Officer and was promoted after Rand Logistics was acquired by American Industrial Partners (AIP), a New York-based private equity company. During his tenure at Rand, Aaron transformed the company’s commercial, logistics and customer service functions into a best-in-class operation; engineered market repositioning; and significantly improved both pricing and yield.
Aaron spent 20 years at the Canadian National (CN) Railway, where he held leadership roles in multiple commodities sectors. As Director of Sales for Bulk Commodities for the US and Canada, Aaron oversaw one of the railroad’s largest business segments. In addition, he served as Director of Sales for Industrial Products and National Account Manager for Grain and Fertilizer. Aaron began his career Cargill, Inc., the largest privately held company in the world, and worked in various roles focused on commodity trading, logistics and transportation.
Aaron holds a Bachelor of Business Administration, with an emphasis in transportation logistics and economics, from Iowa State University.
Aaron Degodny
WILLIAM (BILL) COLLINS
Vice President, Quality, Health, Safety, Security, Environment (QHHSE)
Bill Collins was named Tidewater’s Director of EHS&S in April 2012. Bill oversees the company’s environmental, health, safety, security and quality programs and is also a member of Tidewater's Executive Management Team.
Bill brings 18 years of experience managing regulatory compliance to Tidewater. Prior to joining Tidewater, Bill managed compliance for ConocoPhillips' petroleum storage/distribution terminals and pipeline facilities in Oregon and Washington. He has also held the position of senior scientist/compliance specialist with several earth and environmental consulting firms in the Pacific Northwest. His experience includes multi-media environmental compliance and reporting, auditing EHS policies, procedures and regulations, and supporting operations through permitting marine structure construction and repair, maintenance dredging, and pipeline installations and reroutes.
At Tidewater, the EHS&S department is the steward of the company’s strategic goal of incident free operations, and to this end, Bill has focused his group toward implementing a behavioral-based safety management system, developing a Comprehensive Management System to manage the company’s policies and procedures, developing an electronic task-based compliance management system to ensure regulatory compliance, and compiling and tracking a list of EHS&S key performance indicators for evaluating continuous improvement.
Bill has a Bachelor of Science degree from Radford University and Master of Science degrees from the University of Florida and the University of New Orleans emphasizing geophysics and hydrogeology. He is also a licensed geologist/hydrogeologist in Washington, Oregon, and Florida.
Bill Collins
JOHAN SPERLING
Vice President, Chief Operations Officer
Johan Sperling was named Tidewater’s Vice President and Chief Operating Officer in August 2020 and is a member of Tidewater’s Leadership Team. Johan is responsible for the company’s Maintenance and Engineering Department, Vessel Operations, Dispatch and Terminal Operations. Additionally, he will work closely with Tidewater Environmental Services and Tidewater’s Canadian entity, Island Tug and Barge, to support their efforts for safe and reliable operations.
Johan started in the marine industry working as a contractor for American Bureau of Shipping in New Orleans. In 2001, he relocated to Seattle to join Jensen Maritime Consultants, Inc., as a naval architect and marine engineer, where he eventually became one of ten owners of the company.
In 2008 Jensen Maritime was acquired by Crowley, and at the time Johan held the position of Director of Business Development for Jensen Maritime, where he was responsible for the company’s sales and marketing efforts. In 2010 Johan was promoted to Vice President of Jensen, where he was given the responsibility for the day-to-day engineering management along with the profit and loss management for the business. In the years 2010 to 2018, Johan held multiple roles within Crowley’s light assets teams, including serving as Vice President of marine solutions, which saw him lead Jensen (Crowley’s naval architecture and marine engineering subsidiary), the company’s new construction group, and the offshore project management team.
In January 2018, Johan transitioned to Crowley Shipping, where all of Crowley’s vessel operations were managed, and Johan was responsible for Crowley’s marine services group, where he lead the ship assist and escort services as well as having the oversight of the ocean-class tug and flat-deck barge fleets, which provide specialized cargo transportation to diverse shipping companies, offshore oil markets, and renewable energy markets.
Johan has a Bachelor of Science degree in Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering degree from the University of New Orleans.
Johan Sperling
ADRIAN SAMUEL
President, Tidewater Canada Inc
Adrian Samuel joined Tidewater Canada as President in December 2017. Prior to Tidewater Canada, Adrian was President of Coast 2000 Terminals, one of the largest export inter-modal transloading and container yard storage facilities in Canada. He spent six years serving the Asia Pacific Gateway through the Port of Vancouver transloading forest products and agricultural commodities between various modes of transport with a focus on loading, storing repairing and transporting ocean containers for the major steamship lines. Prior to his leadership roles in intermodal transloading, Adrian spent eight years leading the business development team and driving the commercial strategy at Seaspan Coastal Intermodal (now Seaspan Ferries). In total Adrian brings well over 21 years’ experience in transportation and logistics. In all his leadership roles, Adrian played a key part managing the P & L, developing strategy and driving a safety first culture. Over his career, Adrian also has significant experience with M & A, change management and operations.
At Tidewater Canada, Adrian is responsible for setting the overall business strategy in driving operational excellence and fiscal discipline while ensuring a culture that demands the highest attention to safe and incident free operations for all Tidewater Canada employees, contractors, customers and other stakeholders. Adrian is focused on sustainable and managed growth but prides himself in ensuring that the people, process and systems remain in step.
Adrian has a degree from UBC in Political Philosophy, a Business Diploma through BCIT in Transportation & Logistics Management and an MBA in Strategy from SFU. He has served on various industry advisory boards and steering committees related to port activity.
Adrian Samuel
NEIL PERLMUTTER
Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
Neil Perlmutter
Neil was named Vice President and Chief Financial Officer in January, 2023, and is a member of the Leadership Team. Neil is responsible for Financial Planning & Analysis, Accounting, Risk Management and Information Technology.
Neil brings over 20 years of marine transportation and logistics experience. Prior to joining Tidewater, Neil served as Chief Financial & Administrative Officer for Resolve Marine Group where he completed a financial restructuring, reduced debt, drove a rigorous cash management discipline, and implemented a detailed planning process.
Neil spent five years at Crowley Maritime Corporation, as Vice President of Finance for their Liner & Logistics businesses, improving forecasting and reporting, and developing a robust strategic plan. Neil began in the maritime industry with Sealand Service and served in various roles, including Director of Americas Finance and Director, Yield Management. Additionally, Neil served as Vice President of Strategic Planning & Business Development for Horizon Lines, and Chief Financial Officer for Sea Star Line.
Neil holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Bryant University and an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechic Institute.
Julie DeBoever
JULIE DeBOEVER
Vice President, Human Resources
Julie DeBoever joined Tidewater’s Human Resources team in December 2013. Julie is the Vice President of Human Resources and is a member of Tidewater’s Leadership Team.
At Tidewater, Julie is responsible for providing company direction for all human resources functions including planning, developing, establishing, and administering all human resources policies, procedures and functions in accordance with Company business objectives and legal and collective bargaining agreement requirements.
Julie is an experienced Human Resources Professional with over two decades of managing human resources teams in mid-sized companies. She has broad-based experience in both private and public sectors in all major functional of areas of Human Resources Management with a strong focus in labor relations, employee relations and HRIS. Prior to joining Tidewater, Julie worked for C-TRAN (Clark County’s Public Transit Agency) for nineteen years and last held the position of Senior Human Resources Manager.
Julie received her undergraduate degrees in Human Resources and Business Management from Portland State University. She is also certified as a Professional in Human Resources. Julie enjoys mentoring up-and-coming HR professionals where she shares her knowledge and passion for HR.
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