American Salvage Association elects officers

OCTOBER 1, 2013 — Paul Hankins, Vice President for Salvage Operations at Donjon Marine Co., Inc., was elected President of the American Salvage Association (ASA) at its recent fall meeting  in Arlington, Virginia. Mr. Hankins succeedsTim Beaver, Global Diving & Salvage, Inc., who served as President from 2011-2013.

Paul Hankins  

Todd Schauer, Resolve Marine Group, was elected Vice President, and Jim Elliott, Teichman Group, was named Secretary/Treasurer.

Mr. Hankins has over 30 years’ experience in the marine industry after graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1981 with a Bachelors of Science in Naval Architecture and from George Washington University in 1991 with a Master’s degree in Environmental Management.  He has participated in countless national salvage and oil spill response operations and exercises and has held positions with the Navy SUPSALV; with SERVS Alyeska in Valdez, Alaska; as Deputy Director of Maritime and Land Security at the U.S. Transportation Security Administration; and as president of Donjon-SMIT.

“I am very pleased to head this new team of impressive leaders in the salvage industry, as we work to continuously improve marine casualty response while protecting people and the environment,” said Mr. Hankins.

In addition, David DeVilbiss (Global Diving & Salvage, Inc.), Robert Tyson (Svitzer), George Wittich (American Marine Corporation), were elected to ASA’s Executive Committee.   John Cameron (Charleston Pilots) was elected chairman of the Associate Membership Committee, and will serve on the Executive Committee in that capacity.

“Tim Beaver has been a tireless leader for ASA for the past two years.  We owe him a huge debt of thanks for his service to our members and to the salvage industry,” Mr. Hankins said. “I expect that ASA will be very active in the next couple of years as the new regulations for non-tank vessel response plans are implemented, and we continue to work on obtaining responder immunity, environmental protection, and other challenges in the salvage industry like those presented by Arctic response and megaships.”