Doug Thomas, president and chief executive officer of Bellingham Cold Storage (BCS), Bellingham, Wash., USA, was elected to the position of chairman of the International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses (IARW) on May 8 at the organization’s 122nd Convention & Expo in Hollywood, Florida. He succeeded David M. Harlan, president and ceo of Voorhees, New Jersey, USA-headquartered United States Cold Storage.
Thomas, who previously served as chairman of the World Food Logistics Organization (WFLO), a sister trade association of the IARW, heads up a third-generation family company that operates 16 public refrigerated frozen and chilled warehouses on two properties in Washington state. It maintains more than 14 million cubic feet of freezer and chilled space, and handled in excess of 1.3 billion pounds of product last year. That’s enough throughput, when loaded in reefers, to create a traffic jam from Bellingham to Boston and back to Chicago.
Among the “secrets for success” at BCS, pointed out Thomas, is the company’s “Customer Sticky Factor” philosophy. “We go out of our way to make sure customers are in love with us,” said the ceo.
Other executive officers elected during the convention were Jacksonville, Florida, USA-bsaed Terry Brown, president of Diversified Port Holdings, to the position of vice chairman; and Tom Poe of Crystal Distribution Services, Waterloo, Iowa, USA.
IARW directors-at-large tapped to serve three-year terms were: Derk van Mackelenbergh, managing director of Rotterdam, Holland-headquartered Eurofrigo; Barry Smith of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada-based Nova Scotia Cold Storage; Janice Scott of Mt. Vernon, Wash., USA-headquartered Commercial Cold Storage; and
Luis Jorba of Tlalnepantla, Mexico-headquartered Frialsa Frigorificos S.A. De C.V.
As for the WFLO change of the guard, Colton, Calif., USA-based Bill Hendricksen of Lineage Logistics succeeded Larry Rauch of Los Angeles Cold Storage as chairman. He will be assisted by newly elected Vice Chairman Frank Plant of San Diego Cold Storage, San Diego, Calif., USA, and Treasurer Greg Brandt of
Nor-Am Cold Storage, LeMars, Iowa.
Meanwhile, Dr. Michael Jahncke was named the new chairman of the WFLO’s Scientific Advisory Council. The Virginia Tech professor, an expert in the fish and seafood sector, succeeded the retiring Dr. Daryl B. Lund of the University of Wisconsin.
The jointly held IARW-WFLO Convention & Expo, attended by 665 delegates from 29 countries, featured a sold-out exposition with more than 100 exhibitors. Under the theme of “Profitable Sustainability,” the four-day program covered numerous topics important to the refrigerating warehousing industry. Among them were “Making Smart Energy Management an Operational Asset,” and “Going Solar,” as well as “Cold Chain Opportunities in China” and “Complying with the Food Safety Modernization Act.
