Inland waterway barge operator American Commercial Lines tapped Mark Knoy to be president and CEO, replacing Michael Ryan, the Journal of Commerce reported.
Knoy has been president for the last 10 years at AEP River Operations, a subsidiary of the American Electric Power utility that is one of the largest U.S. barge lines.
ACL operates more than 2,400 barges as well as the Jeffboat shipbuilding and repair facility at Jeffersonville, Ind. It went through bankruptcy from 2003 to 2005, and was bought last year by Platinum Equity.
Ryan had been CEO since March 2008. ACL said he stepped down last week, and Chief Restructuring Officer Paul Bridwell will be interim CEO until Knoy arrives Aug. 18.
The company said that while at AEP River Operations, Knoy led it to shift from “a captive subsidiary operating with relatively limited assets into a diversified industry leader with a fleet of 3,300 barges that transport over 80 million tons of commodities annually.”
Bryan Kelln, Platinum’s president of portfolio operations, said Knoy "has demonstrated the ability to lead organizations to very high levels of financial and operational performance."
ACL also tapped David Huls to become senior vice president and chief financial officer. He has been president and CFO at PBH Marine Group, another Platinum unit. Interim CFO Brian McDonald will continue in that role until Huls takes the post Aug. 29.