Q&A: 10 minutes with Alabama Shipyard CEO

Greg Wagner, CEO, Alabama Shipyard

Marine Log (ML): First, Greg, you became CEO of Alabama Shipyard last year after being CEO at Navarro Capital Partners for the past couple of years. Can you tell us more about your career in the maritime industry?

Greg Wagner (GW): Well, my love for the maritime industry began at age 14 while cleaning sailboat hulls during the summer months in various ports along the Long Island Sound. When I graduated from high school, I knew I wanted to do something related to the ocean and ships, and that led to my decision to attend SUNY Maritime College in the Bronx, N.Y. I graduated with a degree in marine operations while successfully completing a Dual License Program. I attained a 3^rd Mate Unlimited Oceans License and a 1000 Horsepower Designated Duty License in 2001. 

After a short stint shoreside working as a critical infrastructure manager focusing on electrical grids in lower Manhattan post 9/11, I decided to work on attaining my engineer’s license on Military Sealift Command vessels in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and Roosevelt Roads in Puerto Rico. During this time, I was able to upgrade to a 4000 Horsepower license. Once the Military Sealift Command contract for which I was working was ending, I found myself going back to sea on my mate’s license, this time in the Oil Field, where I sailed until I attained my Master Unlimited license working on pipelay and saturation diving vessels. 

A little over a decade ago, I decided to move shoreside to continue to grow in the industry on the managerial side. Since then, my roles have focused mainly on vessel management, operations, project operations and eventually reaching the CEO level at Navarro Capital Partners LLC, an oil and gas ship management company focused on marine operations in Mexican waters.

ML: As for the shipyard, it has made a lot of progress in terms of modernizing the 116-year-old facility over the last several years. Can you tell us more about this?

GW: The facility originated in 1916 providing ship repair and shipbuilding services and by the 1940s had thousands of employees building Liberty ships and T2 tankers for the war effort. A vast majority of improvements to the facility were done during WWII, meaning they are over 80 years old.  To date, we have invested tens of millions of dollars on improvements to our dry dock, Alabama (one of the largest in the U.S.), pier reconstruction (to meet NAVSEA standards), new roofs, fiber optics & wireless technology to connect the facility and upgrades to the electrical grid for to meet the needs of ships with sensitive electronic systems. We have had tremendous growth and success during the past couple of years bringing the shipyard back and plan to continue on this path.

Marine Log (ML): What can current and potential customers expect from the shipyard in the coming years? Will there be more updates to the yard or perhaps new services provided?

GW:  There will absolutely be more updates and services provided, we are continually expanding and improving facilities to meet the needs of our customers. One of the exciting and unique opportunities on the horizon for Alabama Shipyard is being in the running to dismantle the first Nuclear Aircraft Carrier Ex-Enterprise CVN-65. We are one of three locations in the U.S. approved to complete this project. Ship dismantlement is a complimentary business line to our ship repair business line.

ML: What would you say takes up the bulk of Alabama Shipyard’s orders in terms of vessel type and customer type?

GW:  The unique features of our 355-acre facility include 8,000 linear feet of available pier space and one of the largest docks in the U.S., enabling us to service a wide range of vessels in operation today. Currently, the bulk of our contracts are large Military Sealift Command, MARAD, and Oil and Gas commercial vessels.