Lombardi will take over from Stephen Blust, who is retiring as president but will remain at IICL as a senior advisor.
Prior to this appointment, Lombardi ran his own consulting firm, Lusoco Consulting, and worked with Global Logistics Development Partners as a marine logistics consulting associate.
He previously spent 40 years working for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, including serving as Deputy Director of Port Merchandising and managing the department’s day-to-day operations and capital investment preparation.
After retiring from the Port Authority, Lombardi spent five years as an executive at third-party logistics company Romark Logistics.
This extensive experience is what attracted IICL to hire Lombardi, IICL President Robert Sabio said in a statement Monday. “We are confident that he will serve as a strong leader who will guide the organization as the industry continues to evolve,” he added.
Blast has served as President of IICL since 2006, after serving a four-year term as Chairman of the US Federal Maritime Commission. Prior to that, he served nearly four decades in the ocean container shipping industry.
IICL said it benefited from Blust’s extensive industrial and regulatory experience during his leadership. He has guided the container leasing industry through complex issues, such as combating the use of counterfeit refrigerants and global financial market turmoil.
“Mr. Plast’s collaborative approach to developing an agile organization supported members in reducing risks and adopting best practices to mitigate operational challenges,” the institute said.
Plast, 72, told the American Shipper newspaper that he was very pleased with this work on technical issues involving improving the economics and environmental safety of the ocean container. This included designing a new flooring system to reduce the use of hardwoods and applying safer anti-corrosion coatings to the steel exterior surfaces of the boxes.
Blast also pointed to IICL’s work on container safety issues, such as container stacking and reinforcement. In addition, IICL has further integrated operational and regulatory matters surrounding the container structure.
IICL was founded as a trade association representing lessors of marine containers and intermodal structures in 1971. Its member companies include Beacon Intermodal, CAI, Direct ChassisLink, Flexi-Van, SeaCube Container, Texttainer, TOUAX, TRAC Intermodal and Triton International.
Related news
Do you know where your structure is?
How much wood can a container manufacturer make?
Protect refrigerated containers from premature corrosion
Click for more FreightWaves/American Shipper articles by Chris Gillis.
