Federal Maritime Commissioner Carl W. Bentzel wrote university supply chain curriculum leaders on December 12, 2024, highlighting opportunities that exist at the Commission for students and graduates.
Text of the letters:
Dear University Supply Chain Curriculum Leader:
As a Federal Maritime Commissioner, I engage daily with multi modal transportation industry leaders that utilize our Nation’s supply chain. The ocean shipping industry, intermodal rail services providers, those engaged in terminal operations and port directors, freight forwarders, shippers, and trucking logistics and warehousing services are critical elements in sustaining business connectivity. There is an opportunity to leverage existing expertise and resources by building a stronger partnership between the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC or Commission) and universities, such as yours, which offer supply chain management programs.
The FMC is an independent federal agency responsible for regulating the U.S. international ocean transportation system for the benefit of U.S. exporters, importers, and the U.S. consumer. We are unique in being the main agency involved in multi-modal shipping, ocean carriers, terminals, trucking, the provision of chassis, and other elements of the supply chain industries that facilitate trade. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed how dependent our Nation is on a fragile supply chain. Consequently, the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 reaffirmed the position of the Commission as the primary regulator of ocean liner shipping services in international trade and provided additional resources for staffing. Despite the growth of budget for personnel, we have struggled to attract highly qualified candidates. In order to mitigate that chasm, I am writing to you to encourage better connectivity and a stronger partnership between leaders in the education of our Nation’s supply chain workforce and the Commission.
Specifically, I support the idea of a targeted recruitment process to make it easier for students (and universities) to take advantage of internships with the FMC and to increase potential work opportunities within the federal government and specifically with the Commission post-graduation. The internship opportunity is a window into the industry; it is one that has already paid dividends to seven interns I have employed in my office alone. A targeted recruitment process, such as this one, would have reciprocal benefits from having maritime expertise and university innovation in regular dialogue. I have worked in the maritime industry for over thirty years, in Washington, as a counsel on Capitol Hill, as a lobbyist, and now as a FMC Commissioner. The value of the engagement with academic institutions and the diversity of their voices and perspectives in building new supply chain policies cannot be understated.
Given that development of supply chain education programs is relatively recent, a greater collaboration between academic university programs educating the supply chain leadership and the Commission is needed. This strategic collaboration has the potential to improve the future sustainability of the global supply chain. To that end, I have worked with the Commission’s Office of Human Resources (OHR) to best facilitate this outreach effort. The Commission’s OHR would like to share information with your supply chain education program’s point of contact about employment opportunities at the Commission. If there is a specific contact at your institution that you would like OHR to reach out to directly and have further discussions, please send that information to ohrmaritime@fmc.gov.
I look forward to the possibilities that this partnership may create for the supply chain workforce of the 21st century.
Sincerely,
Carl W. Bentzel
Federal Maritime Commissioner
Carl W. Bentzel is a Commissioner with the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission. The thoughts and comments expressed here are his own and do not necessarily represent the position of the Commission.