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(founders and leaders) panel. Ive been involved with SNAME since 1970. As my career went on, I went on to eld inspection doing accident investigations, and went on to be command- ing ocer of the Port of St. Louis, chief of merchant vessel inspection at coast guard headquarters, cap- tain in the Port of Los Angeles in Long Beach, and so on. en nally, from 1992 to 1994, I was commander of the 8th coast guard district in New Orleans, as a one-star admiral. en I became a two-star admiral when I came to coast guard headquarters in 1994 as chief of marine safety, security, and environmental protection. By that time, Id been in the coast guard for 30 years. KELLY: In your view, how e ective has the Prevention rough People program been over these last 17 years? CARD: I think a lot of things have happened in the industry to pay more attention to the people part of it. I work for two di erent companies right now as a consultant on their boards. One is a tanker company and the others a cruise company. Both have really focused [on this] recently. Both of them have done the safety culture audits, where they have a class soci- ety come in and talk to them?in one case, to 85% of the deck ocers on the ships and the engineers. So I think the focus on people, collectively in the indus- try, has increased. PTP has continued to be in the coast guard lexicon. In fact, just last week I was talk- ing with Vice Admiral Brian Salerno about the Costa Concordia accident, and his comments focused on how this cruise ship accident could help re-energize some of the PTP principles. Initially, I could measure the e ectiveness when I was there, and then as vice commandant, I could see things such as less people dying and less oil being spilled, that sort thing. It also, I think, changed the character of the coast guards relationship with the industry from one of [partly] confrontation to one of partnership in a posi- tive way, so that a lot of things happened where the coast guard has worked better with the industry in a variety of areas. Now, the authority is always there, and everyone understands that, but the coast guard is seen more as a safety partner rather than as just a pure safety checker. I think the tenor of the industry has changed and the coast guard has continued with that theme [as part of the] marine safety lexicon. KELLY: Jim, after serving as vice commandant from 1998 to 2000, you retired from the coast guard and became senior vice president and chief technology o- cer at the American Bureau of Shipping, a post you held from 2000 until 2006. CARD: Yes. KELLY: Tell me about your time with ABS. What do you see as your most important accomplishment dur- ing that time? CARD: Well, ABS is a very technically organized orga- nization. Theres lots and lots of smart people. My accomplishment there was helping to organize the work that was going on, keep it focused, and to pay attention to things that werent steel or pipe or wires. at sort of thing, of course, is the bread and butter of a class society, but [our group focused on] risk and risk management, paying attention to things which really are the operational signs of what goes on aboard ship. I think helping to focus that and bring it up to the top people in the organization and in the industry, was probably my greatest accomplishment. Steel and wires and pipes and all that are going to get increasingly tech- nically complex, and weve got good tools and ways of looking at that. e emerging growth area for classi- cation societies is more in helping create the right kind of culture for safety aboard ships. KELLY: Among other honors, you were awarded the Land medal from SNAME in 1997, and the Shepheard award from the Chamber of Shipping of America. CARD: Well, I was proud to receive those. I think, particularly, that the Land Medal recognized, from an industry perspective, how important it was to pay attention to the people part of the equation, but also to recognize that it wasnt just the mariner on the ship who is very important, but all along the line. Its the CEO, the people operating the ships in the oce, the people aboard ship, the Coast Guard inspectors, its the whole gamut. Youve got to have people working together to make it happen and so I think thats what those awards represented, sort of an attitude change as much as a pro- gram to help focus on that. KELLY: Jim, you left ABS in Spring 2006. What are you doing now? Vice Admiral James C. Card USCG, Ret. continued April 2012www.sname.org/sname/mt