Most of EA’s clients are the larger employers in town that are instantly recognizable by locals such as University Hospitals, Sherwin Williams, CWRU, Eaton Corp, and MetroHealth. But every once in a while it’s fun to spotlight one of our lesser known clients and my visit last week to the corporate headquarters of Interlake Maritime Services inspired me to do just that.
Interlake owns and operates the the largest fleet of privately owned ships under a US flag on the Great Lakes, Their ten 600′-1,000′ ships carry close to 20 million tons of raw materials around the Great Lakes including iron ore and flux stone for the steel industry, stone for the construction industry, coal for power generation and salt for de-icing needs on roads and highways. Doesn’t that sound so Midwest? So Cleveland? They have built on our city’s history of manufacturing and transportation and continued that legacy into the present day.
Paul Christensen, VP Vessel Operations, shared not only the company’s history during my visit, but his own personal draw to the industry that began when he was a teenager working on a tour boat in New Hampshire.
Interlake’s fleet of ships began life as the shipping arm of Pickands Mather in the late 1800’s led by Cleveland industrialist Samuel Mather and his partners. Most Clevelanders have heard his name and know a bit of his legacy including his summer home, now Shoreby Club in Bratenahl, his winter home, the Mather Mansion, part of Cleveland State University (and one of the few remaining homes from Cleveland’s Millionaire’s Row era). He was senior warden at Trinity Cathedral, the seat of the Episcopal Diocese in Cleveland on Euclid Avenue and he was one of the founding members of The Union Club. A contemporary of John D. Rockefeller, Mather was the richest man in Ohio when he died in 1931. Not a bad start for your company, right?
Now led by President Mark Barker and his team, Interlake has more than 600 employees, most of whom are crew on their vessels.
I arrived at Interlake’s offices wearing my Steamship Paul Tregurtha ballcap, a token souvenir from one of the most interesting vacations I’ve ever taken aboard one of Interlake’s flaghship vessels. Purchased at a non-profit silent auction, six of us enjoyed this five day trip in the mid 2000’s on the Tregurtha from Detroit to Duluth, crossing Lake Huron and Lake Superior which included going thru the Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie. Residing in the three suites overlooking the length of the ship, we sat on the deck and watched the water go by, joined the crew for three meals a day and were given a private tour led by the Captain.
Watching the hard working 20 person crew guide this 1,000′ boat filled to the gills with iron ore was an experience. I was thrilled to learn the Tregurtha is still an active vessel – did you know that ships in the Great Lakes last decades compared to their seafaring counterparts? They don’t have to deal with corrosive ocean salt…yet another advantage of the Great Lakes!
As a small business owner, I so admire when a company can take a gut punch and survive. Interlake had to completely reinvent itself after it’s largest client. LTV Steel, declared bankruptcy in 1986. Interlake came up with new strategies and new clients and kept itself afloat (couldn’t help myself).
Interlake’s holdings now also include tour boats and ferrys, but most of their work still resides firmly in the manufacturing ecosystem. Whenever I see a post on one of their many social media channels, including LinkedIn, it reminds me that our country still makes stuff (appliances, cars!) and Cleveland is a big part of that pipeline.
And is anything more Clevelandy than sitting alongside the Cuyahoga River in the summer and watching in amazement as an ore boat captain guides a 600′ vessel thru the hairpin turns as it heads north to Lake Erie? If Executive Arrangements could only cue the boats for an appearance every time we had a newcomer in the Flats, they would witness a part of our town’s shipping and manufacturing industries in action!
Executive Arrangements’ client bases spans every industry in our region from Fortune 500’s to non profits and educational instistutions, to healthcare and small entrepreneurial firms. More than 100 times a year, we spend a day guiding a candidate and their family through our city, helping them picture their lives in our town including neighborhoods and schools that match their criteria, connections to locals with similar interests and lots of objective info on the quality of life in our town so they can make an educated decision (and 80% of them say yes to the job offer after being with us. If your organization could use a talent attraction and retention partner like EA, call us: 216.231.9311