Experienced maritime professional James Butcher has joined the Jacksonville Port Authority as the port’s business and marketing consultant in the Northeast, enhancing the efforts of JAXPORT’s core marketing team. Butcher will be based in the metropolitan New York/New Jersey area and will maintain regular contact with current and prospective JAXPORT customers in the region where most steamship carriers and major cargo customers operating in the U.S. are headquartered.

Butcher has more than 40 years of experience in the transportation and logistics business and was a founding member of the U.S. Division of Höegh Autoliners, the major Norwegian vehicle ocean carrier. Butcher started with the company as operations manager and advanced to positions of increasing responsibility before being named president in 1999. In his senior leadership roles with Höegh, Butcher helped oversee the line’s expansion to four U.S. port terminals, including JAXPORT’s Blount Island Marine Terminal, where the company continues to maintain a thriving operation.

In 2009, Butcher assumed the roles of Chairman and Director of Höegh Autoliners Inc. and its subsidiary, Alliance Navigation LLC.

“Jim Butcher’s respected name and reputation will help us continue to offer first-rate service to our valued current customers, while also proactively and consistently spreading the word about JAXPORT’s efficiencies to potential new partners,” said JAXPORT CEO Paul Anderson.

“In our incredibly competitive business, it is crucial for customers to have constant contact with a representative working on our behalf,” said JAXPORT Executive Vice President Roy Schleicher. “I am certain that Jim’s knowledge and existing relationships will open many doors for JAXPORT.”

Butcher has held various senior positions with the Maritime Association of the Port of New York and New Jersey and in 2010 joined the faculty of the State University of New York’s Maritime College as an Adjunct Lecturer in the Global Business and Transportation Department.