DC Velocity - February 2014

4 DC VELOCITY FEBRUARY 2014 www.dcvelocity.com inbound

Kate Lee, a supply chain marketing and research strategist at Newburyport, Mass.-based Fronetics Strategic Advisors, has joined DC VELOCITY’S team of bloggers. Lee has nearly 20 years of domestic and international experience working with industry executives and academics in such areas as content development, business intelligence, demand generation, qualitative and quantitative research, social media, and strategic partnerships.

“I am delighted to be able to add to DC VELOCITY’S growing
portfolio of thought leadership,” Lee said. “Today’s supply chain
executives must extend their skill set beyond operations and into
nontraditional areas that are fast becoming mainstream. I hope
my insights can enlighten the magazine’s readership and, by
extension, help them perform more effectively.”
Fronetics Strategic Advisors is a new strategic advisory firm that
assists companies and private equity firms involved in the global
high-tech supply chain, electronic asset disposal, and integrated
logistics industries.

Lee’s blog can be found at http://blogs.dcvelocity.com/ productivity/.

Supply chain strategist joins DCV’s stable of bloggers

One of the greatest benefits of attending the Transportation & Logistics Council’s annual conference is the opportunity to learn about current issues in transportation law and regulation from nationally known experts. The conference presentations, which are always informative, frequently touch on controversial topics.

That’s sure to be the case at the “kickoff session” for the group’s

40th Annual Conference, slated for March 17–19 in Nashville, Tenn. The featured speaker is Anne S. Ferro, administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). FMCSA is the federal agency that administers the truck drivers’ hours-of-ser-vice regulations and the Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) program, among other safety initiatives. Ferro will speak about those controversial subjects and provide an update on the agency’s implementation of “MAP- 21” (the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act), new rules on registration and licensing, and FMCSA’s five-year strategic plan. She’ll also address how these changes affect shippers, carriers, and intermediaries, and will respond to questions.

The conference features sessions on a wide range of topics, including insurance and risk management, supply chain cyber crime, and a special panel where leading transportation attorneys will address current issues and recent court decisions. The conference will be preceded on Sunday, March 16, by three optional full-day seminars presented by leading transportation attorneys: Contracting for Transportation and Logistics Services; Freight Claims in Plain English; and Transportation, Logistics, and the Law.

For more information about the conference program, visit www.TLCouncil.org or call (631) 549-8984.

FMCSA’s Ferro to headline transportation conference

We’ve always thought of the transportation industry as an inter-
esting, but not particularly exciting or suspenseful, corner of the
business world. Apparently, we were wrong. Or so the jacket copy
for Viking Raid: A Robert Fairchild Novel would indicate.
Written by Matthew McCleery, president of Marine Money
International, which publishes Marine Money magazine and other
ship finance publications, Viking Raid follows ex-hedge fund man-
ager Robert Fairchild and a Norwegian shipping tycoon as they
attempt a $500 million initial public offering “but end up wedged
between an American shale gas wildcatter and the energy-hungry
People’s Republic of China,” according to the book’s press release.

This is the second of McCleery’s shipping industry novels. The first was The Shipping Man, which also focused on the complex and potentially problematic connections between Wall Street and the maritime world. It received a favorable review from Forbes and praise from several shipping industry executives. Both books are available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble online.

But wait … there’s more. In 2012, CNBC.com Managing Editor Allen R. Wastler, who for many years ably covered the maritime industry for The Journal of Commerce, self-published a novel (as “Rev Wastler”) titled Cargo Kills. The novel, which is available on Amazon.com as an e-book, is described on the bookseller’s site as follows: “Dark docks, gritty shipyards, diesel-stained trains and trucks ... cargo is a dirty business ... and a deadly business. When ocean liners mysteriously sink and a dead body floats up under a cargo pier, a young reporter finds the story of his life. Problem is, can he keep his life long enough to tell it?”