Bartlett Maritime Releases its Corporate Succession Plan & Policy Guidance Document
Cleveland, OH May 23, 2023
Bartlett Maritime Corporation is pleased to announce the release of its Corporate Succession Plan. As the company prepares to execute long-term contracts with the US Navy, the Board of Directors determined that public release of this Corporate policy document is an appropriate step to provide broad assurance that the Corporation has, indeed, planned for the long-term successful execution of these essential contacts. The document’s first page is pictured to the right, and the complete document is available by clicking on the button.
In addition to providing policy and guidance regarding the succession plans for both the Board of Directors and the Corporation’s operating executives, the document also provides the Corporation’s controlling equity owner’s Ownership Continuity Plan and Commitment. This plan provides a 4 decade plus ownership continuity plan. CAPT Bartlett, his wife Lisa Bartlett, who is currently a member of the Board of Directors and Assistant Board Secretary, or one of his 5 children (who have both completed undergraduate educations and successfully previously served in an operating company or banking industry leadership and/or management position) will serve as Chairman of the Board, with the company operating as a privately-held business controlled by the Bartlett family, from now through more than a decade after the full execution of any 30 year contract entered into within the next 5 years.
For the Board of Directors and Operating Executives of the Corporation and its subsidiaries, the plan provides a comprehensive plan and process to develop the most highly qualified, motivated and completely committed workforce and a strong, experienced and proven multigenerational leadership team, as is appropriate for a company engaged in supporting the construction and maintenance of nuclear powered US Navy ships and submarines. At the time of initial issue of this Policy document it is recognized that the Corporation skews to a more experienced leadership team, as is appropriate for a start-up in this challenging, highly technical industry. This is particularly beneficial for the Corporation, both at this stage of development and within the context of the current nuclear-powered ship and submarine industrial base challenges for several reasons:
a. Many members of the Bartlett leadership team are some of the only leaders still involved in this industry who have actual experience with the submarine industrial base when it was last at its peak. This hands-on experience is critical to regrowing the industrial base rapidly.
b. This hands-on experience from the last period of peak volume is largely absent from the current Navy and industry leadership teams at NAVSEA, PEOs and within major industrial base company leadership. Most of these current leaders (outside the Bartlett Maritime Corporation leadership team) have not experienced the nuclear powered ship and submarine industrial base, including both the public and private shipyards, operating at full capacity in the 1980s or the actions taken as part of downsizing capacity at the end of the first Cold War which now must be rebuilt.
c. Current Corporation leadership traces its own development to their own industry mentors, many of whom had the personal experience of the original accelerated nuclear powered submarine program which successfully put nuclear power to sea onboard USS Nautilus (SSN 571) in only 7 years, as opposed to the 15 year schedule prediction of J. Robert Oppenheimer, who led The Manhattan Project to rapidly develop the first nuclear weapon during World War 2. In addition, these original mentors of current Corporation leadership were personally involved in the very successful effort which delivered 65 new submarines into commissioned service – including all 41 submarines of the first generation of SSBNs – in less than 8 years during the 1960s.
d. This successful program history of being able to deliver urgent requirements on an accelerated schedule, impressed on current Corporation leadership by their mentors, resulted in those senior members of the Corporation’s leadership team being able to rapidly shift from Seawolf Class detailed design and construction to successfully both develop and deliver Virginia Class on an accelerated schedule during the tumultuous post-first Cold War period in the industry.
e. This experience and personal history of current Corporation leadership in delivering on challenging, urgent production schedules is, in fact, inherent in the naming of the Corporation’s production optimization program as the Accelerated Performance™ Production Optimization Program.
f. Key members of the current Bartlett Maritime leadership team actually participated in the decision process which produced the current nuclear-powered ship and submarine industrial base configuration, and deeply understand the various tradeoffs which were made.
g. While it is obvious that the Bartlett Maritime Corporation senior leadership team will have all retired by the end of the anticipated 30-year contracts, there is time to grow and develop the next generation of leaders, and to ensure that the next generation of leaders are both well developed and completely prepared to lead this important work. This provides a significant advantage for both the Corporation and its customers as the Corporation’s initial, highly experienced leadership team acts as experienced, hands-on mentors of the next generation of industry leaders, just as those who successfully developed Nautilus in the first place mentored the Corporation’s current leadership.
h. The Corporation recognizes that what is needed most urgently in our industry to fully support the nuclear-powered ship and submarine industrial base right now is leadership which knows “what needs to be done” to exponentially accelerate the pace of improvement and which has the wisdom and knowledge to successfully deliver the required results on an accelerated schedule. Over the next several years there will be a continual focus by the Corporation’s leadership team on building the next generation of leaders for our industry.
In support of the discussion above concerning building the next generation of industry leaders, it is noted that seven of the Corporation’s current leadership team members are approximately a decade or more younger than the Corporation’s current Chairman & CEO and President & COO. These seven leadership team members have undergraduate college graduation dates of 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1990, 1993 and 1994. As such, the Corporation does already include a multi-generational leadership team to ensure an effective succession plan.
Bartlett Maritime Corporation is ready to execute on its groundbreaking Bartlett Maritime Plan™ and to quickly move forward with its plan to significantly improve the capacity and capability of the nuclear-powered US Navy ship and submarine industrial base.
The nation’s Submarine Industrial Base, which in the 1960’s consistently delivered a new submarine into service every 44 days while properly maintaining this rapidly growing fleet and as recently as the 1980’s delivered 5 new submarines into service per year while properly maintaining a Submarine Force of more than 100 submarines, is in the midst of a now-widely-acknowledged and well understood capacity and capability crisis. There are many reports from various agencies detailing this crisis, summarized at www.bartlettmaritime.com. In response, Bartlett Maritime Corporation is preparing to execute its immediately actionable, cost-effective public-private partnership proposal – The Bartlett Maritime Plan™ – to add the required capacity and capability to the Submarine Industrial Base. The company’s team includes an exceptionally well-qualified team of senior leaders in both Naval shipbuilding & maintenance and in various key aspects of commercial industry on both the company’s Senior Advisory Board and the company’s senior operating staff.