2026 Greater Houston Port Bureau Maritime Leader of the Year

A candid conversation with Tom Marian, General Counsel for Buffalo Marine Service, Inc. who has been selected as the Greater Houston Port Bureau's Maritime Leader of the Year for 2026.  Tom has served on multiple boards and committees including Gulf Intracoastal Canal Association (Chairman), American Waterways Operators (Chairman), Lonestar Harbor Safety Committee (Chairman), Houston Maritime Center and Museum, Pilot Board Investigation and Recommendation Committee, Southeast Texas Waterway Advisory Council, and serves on the Greater Houston Port Bureau Board of Directors. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Okay, well thanks Tom for Thank you. Thanks for for joining me today and uh agreeing to do the podcast. Um so uh you have been nominated as the Greater Houston Port Bureau's Maritime Leader of the Year. Uh so congratulations. Thank you very much. Uh and so we just want to kind of talk about you know how you got to where you're at um and where uh what what the the maritime community has done for you and how you know what you've contributed to the maritime community. So I think we can start with um you know how did you how did you get into the maritime community? Let's go a little bit into your your past.

SPEAKER_04 1:27

Well the Coast Guard kind of forces them, right? Yeah, you you know, you've been in the Coast Guard. So we grew up on the water. I mean, as a kid I did, and my father was in the Coast Guard, so went to the academy and spent 21 years moving around the country and um played a significant role in Walways Management. So that gave me a lot of exposure to the industry, the stakeholders that are associated with the industry, what's what's behind the machine, the economic engine in the various ports throughout the United States. So it that's that's the I guess my exposure was all because of the Coast Guard.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Okay. And I I love waterways management. I always tell everybody that was one of my favorite jobs. Um, because you just you you do get to work with all those stakeholders and it's something different. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think that was one of the best things was it was just always something different.

SPEAKER_04 2:19

Well, the thing I loved about I was a black hole. I was a buoy tender guy.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 2:22

Um now when you have one in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and when you have one in Hollywood, Hawaii, you don't have much to complain about. But the uh thing that I enjoyed is that, well, it's not rocket science, it's pretty basic. You drive a 40, 50-year-old ship up to a buoy and you put it on the buoy deck and you you mic the chain and you test the buoy and you paint it. At the end of the day, you look behind you and you say, Oh look, look, we did. So you could see your accomplishments. Um, not that they're any less or more than what others do in the other branches of the service, but it's just there was something that was um over there. It was something that was that was real, it was beneficial, and uh before all of the side portion. Before all of the the high-end technology and the consolation GPS, it was yeah, yeah, thanks very much. That's gonna do it over all on the tape. Okay, anyway, so yeah, cut, got, got, uh, take two, take two. There's your mail, yeah. Enjoy it. Have some friggets cold. No. Um, but anyway, so black black hole sailors, you you you saw what you accomplished. Um was a was a it wasn't the s the most glamorous of jobs, but it was a job that served the purpose.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

I was on the buoy deck. Um that was my first tour uh coming out of boot camp.

SPEAKER_04 3:46

Which buoy tenant?

SPEAKER_01 3:46

I was on the Buttonwood.

SPEAKER_04 3:47

Oh, so she was at a Gallison?

SPEAKER_01 3:49

No, that was actually out of San Francisco.

SPEAKER_04 3:51

Oh, she was out of San Francisco.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Yeah. I think she was down here.

SPEAKER_04 3:55

Yeah, she was. Yeah, at some point. Yeah, they move them around every once in a while. Yeah, that was so you were on a ship that was built in 1944.

SPEAKER_03 4:02

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 4:02

So it was a barn door rudder, it was a single screw, there's no bow thruster, there's no Z drives, there's no stern thruster. It was great because if you didn't have it, if you if you didn't learn how to drive the ship, um, you had a lot of problems because it was all about where's the current, where's the wind. Because you're on the buoy deck, yeah, and you're looking up at the ship driver saying, come on guys, let's let's get this set the buoy so we can go on the next week.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

We're like, why is this taking so long? Like uh we're we're right there, we're right at the buoy, yeah. And you can't get can't get close to it.

SPEAKER_03 4:35

Nope.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Um so yeah, no, you knew exactly what we were thinking of. Um well that's awesome. And so then how did you make the transition? I mean obviously you retired, right? Um, but how did you find the transition from Coast Guard life to industry?

SPEAKER_04 4:52

Given the job, the last my final job I had before I retired as the CEO of the VTS Vessel Traffic Service, you were working with the stakeholders. So there was this collegiality and this um uh this this constellation of stakeholders that was working together to for a common goal to ensure that the port functioned well and business did what it had to do to so they could um make ends meet. So so I was in the middle of that wearing my uniform in blue. Um I was familiar with the players. I I had spent the bulk of my career on the Gulf Coast, so the area wasn't foreign, the the the jobs were not, it wasn't something that I wasn't familiar with. So it wasn't that difficult. Um the biggest thing was just figuring out what to wear every day because I was so used to being told what to wear every day.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Knowing you're right about that. Um so but you're originally from Northeast? Is that right?

SPEAKER_04 5:51

No, I'm a I'm a four coaster, I'm a roller coaster. Born in California, West Coast.

SPEAKER_03 5:56

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 5:56

Uh mom who was from the West Coast, Seattle, who married a fat who married uh a guy who the my father was the coast guard from the uh east coast, so we moved from California to Long Island, okay, and then at the ripe old age of 13 moved to Canada, the North Coast, lived on the Great Lakes, and then um spent the bulk of my adult life on the Gulf Coast.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

Okay. So then it wasn't that hard to like to settle down here in this area?

SPEAKER_04 6:23

Um no, it wasn't, and I think you know, like hey, moving teenage daughters is horrible.

SPEAKER_03 6:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:30

I mean, boys are easy, but teenage daughters are psychological warfare. Um and so I had at the time I had four teenage daughters, eldest daughter was graduated from college from high school. I asked her about hey, where are you applying in school? And she said, I'm gonna apply UT and A and N. I said, Well, you know, you've got a pretty impressive CV. Why don't you apply to Ivy League? And she said to me, Dad, I want to be close to home. This is where home's gonna be, right?

SPEAKER_03 6:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:55

So it kind of it forced, it didn't force. It encouraged me to say, all right, I can't move anymore because I was looking at several moves in a short period of time. Um, and again, I at some point you gotta stop uploading the kids because it's difficult for them.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

Yeah, no, you're excellent, exactly right. Um, and that was where I was at. Yeah, you know, yeah, you realize what you're doing. So um well, so if you could look back at you know how you got to where you're at, if you could give your younger self uh any advice, what would you give them?

SPEAKER_04 7:30

Listen. All knowledge and experiences are cumulative. Um as I used to tell some of the uh young sailors at different at different commands I was at, it says understand well beyond what you're responsible for. Figure out what area of expertise or whatever specialty, whatever job you have, figure out how that fits into the big picture. Because if you have an understanding of how what your task does in relation to a logical process, it it helps you think differently, it encourages you to think outside the box, um helps you be more creative. So that was one thing I always looked at. I said, Well, okay, why am I doing this and what does it mean and what impact does it have? The story I tell on the obverse of that is I remember years ago, a trusty uh warranty lieutenant who talked to me about reports. And I was as a young JG, I was gutting through a bunch of reports, and um he was looking at me, he was looking at me, and after while I saw shaking said, he said, What's up, sir? Why should I get in? He says, You gotta understand, Mr. Marion, that the way this works is that you take the report and put it in the tool. If no one ever asks for the report, it's not worth doing the report. And I thought, well, I guess that's one way of getting out of work. But on the flip side, he had a point. You know, why is this being done? So that's why I always try to understand what task that the task that I'm performing, what impact does it have in the grand scheme of things?

SPEAKER_01 9:09

Yeah, no, and I think that also uh that also goes into leadership as well. Um you know, when what in the task that you're giving, like how does that relate to everything and is it something that's needed?

SPEAKER_04 9:25

Oh yeah, and I think the other thing is that when you're in that leadership role, whatever the organization is, if you don't understand as a leader what your personnel are doing or why they're doing it, it's far more difficult for you to motivate them uh or to teach them that whatever you want them to do makes sense. And there's nothing worse than spend a lot of energy on something which doesn't amount to.

SPEAKER_03 9:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

When I know you had um a lot of influences in just support community, you were the chair of the Lone Star Harbor Safety Committee. Um you were also one of the um chairmen for the port bureau as well. Yes. Um how do you think that those opportunities helped to shape you into the person that you are? Or did they?

SPEAKER_04 10:12

I no, I think it again, as I said before, everything's cumulative. So while I was familiar with the Hogan Sach, which was the predecessor to Lone Star, which is a federal advisory committee, I was keenly involved in that, and and we had used that vehicle to create the port coordination team, uh, which essentially uh created a very collaborative environment for stakeholders when there was when there were um situations that had potential to adversely impact the port and the country's largest port. So you were sitting down with these stakeholders and you were trying to understand well what were their concerns and what are the what are their issues, but on the same token you were trying to ground truth um what the real priorities were. So between Hogan Sach and then um the port coordination team transitioning to the private sector and becoming involved with the port bureau, which had some of the same uh stakeholders involved, gained a better understanding of what their economics were, what their goals were, um, and how their role in the port contributed to the larger impact of the port itself.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

Okay. Um and then do you see, I guess where do you see those organizations going? Or where would you like to see that go?

SPEAKER_04 11:28

Well, the well loans, I mean Lone Star is doing what it should be doing. It was weathered on the vine because the restrictures associated with the Federal Advisory Committee Act. Uh and I can say this because I'm a lawyer, lawyers can evolve. They unfortunately there are a number of lawyers that like to say no, because it's easy to say no. So Hogan Sack was reined in as to what they could do and what it couldn't do. So when we initiated the process to transition from a federal advisory committee from the Hogan Sack and let that sort of die slow death, we created a harbor safety committee, and it's I think it's it is the most successful, if not the most vibrant one, in the nation. Um so that's brought in the right team, the right stakeholders, and the Port Bureau. I mean, when I first was brought aboard, gosh, 20, it was 20 years ago, I was brought aboard as a as the chairman, actually. Um it was in search of a mission. It it had lost its way. And and I think part of it was because my prior exposure to marine exchanges was in Punch and Sound when I was in Seattle.

SPEAKER_03 12:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 12:31

And at that VT as the Vessel Traffic Service Managing Operations. And what we would do is we would every couple, I think twice a day, we would fax the vessel arrival sheets to the Marine Exchange. And the Marine Exchange would take that information, they'd repackage it, and they'd send it out to their to their uh customers. So the Coast Guard, and there was an MOU which allowed us to do that, but the Coast Guard essentially was providing information to the private sector that they didn't have access to. And the Marine Exchange had the ability to serve as the vehicle or the platform to do that. Well, once the new generation BTS came online in Houston, and once AIS became a mandatory carriage requirement, that particular role for the Marine Exchange, which was a significant part of the Orbio back then, uh, that ceased to exist. I mean, what was the what was the raison d'etre for having a marine exchange when I can pull all that information straight from uh the ether, so to speak, via AIS? Um so it it was a huge challenge to kind of write the ship and convince the stakeholders that um this is a viable organization, it serves a function, and um and to really engage on a lot of issues that had been spread across a much broader 501c3, 501c6 environment. Uh, you know, the Greater Eastern Partnership or the WGMA, or you had the Propeller Club, you had all these organizations that were playing a role, but uh ultimately the Port Bureau did a phenomenal job on taking all of these Venn diagrams and consolidating them into one platform. And I mean the proofs in the pudding, look look what we have now. It's it's incredible. Uh the staff, the talent, uh the board of directors, the members, the membership level. I remember when we were just doing everything we can to have 90 plus members. And uh those days are long gone.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

Yeah, no, and now we're looking at over 200 and I think 30 members. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and then I think just our uh networking events alone, the commerce club ones that we do every month, uh, that has over 200 people.

SPEAKER_04 14:47

Oh, there were there were commerce club lunches. I remember one that had eight people show up. And and a good a good commerce club club lunch is when you had 40 or 50. That was considered a phenomenal event.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

Well, and let's talk about um yeah, let's talk about networking and I mean how important do you think it is for networking in this area?

SPEAKER_04 15:13

Given given that this is the most diverse city in the in the United States, and it is from a socio and economic standpoint, from a business standpoint, in a city that has the largest port, the biggest port, most vibrant port in the nation, I think it's critical. Um I mean the analogy I use is that you know this. So I remember one time I came home, I was living up in Kingwood at the time, and I came home wearing my uniform, and the neighbor said, Oh, you're in the Air Force. I said, No, no, that's the coast. The uniforms are the same, but this is the Coast Guard. Oh, well, what are you doing living up here? I said, What do you mean? So, well, shouldn't you be in Gallison near the coast? I said, No, no, no, I no, I work on the ship channel. Why would you work on the ship channel? I said, Well, because it's the it is the busiest port in the country. It is? I mean, people have no idea what that that channel does for them, the region, the nation writ large. So I I tell that story because when we we network and we we cast the net, so to speak, a lot of people's eyes are open to say, oh my gosh, look at all of the businesses that are benefiting from what plies in the waterways. Look at all the synergies that exist amongst the different players. And, you know, I'm a brown water guy and work for Buffalo Marines. You know, it's about toads, it's about in the transportation. It's not it's like buoy tenders, they're not sexy and glamorous, like the big ships, the container ships. But, but I mean it is the backbone of what keeps fuels America. It's a mag home or what allows America to have the most efficient transportation system in the world. And um just the countless number of barges that move on the ship channel, people have no idea what's on them or what they do and how they contribute to the economy writ large. So coming back to your question, it all boils down to look, if you if you network, you educate people, you inform them, you invite them as to what this city or this port is all about. And the port bureau, they've been they've been an honest broker because they're not trumpeting any particular cause of bringing together the collective concerns of a wide array of stakeholders, and they do a wonderful job of balancing their interests in building consensus so that industry and the port thrives.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Yeah, no, you're absolutely right. Um well, Tom, you are just a wealth of knowledge and expertise, and um you know you've got a lot not only invested in this port community, but you've given so much to the sport community. Um, you know, that's you can definitely see why you're you've been selected as wearing one for your videos. They probably just ran out of choices, that's all I thought.

SPEAKER_04 17:57

But that's nice to say that the bottom of the barrel, okay. Oh, that's that guy, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:02

No, I it was an easy decision for the board to make that yes, it should be you. So congratulations again. Um we do have one little fun thing to do. Okay. Uh so we have some rapid fire questions. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_04 18:16

Here we go. Jeopardy.

SPEAKER_01 18:17

Yes. Well, it's um it's either one or the other. So so here we go.

SPEAKER_04 18:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

Morning person or night owl.

SPEAKER_04 18:26

Morning.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

Coffee or energy drinks?

SPEAKER_04 18:28

Coffee. Black.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

Beach or mountains?

SPEAKER_04 18:31

Beach.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

Oh, I love beach. Well, I thought after seeing your house that it would be mountain.

SPEAKER_04 18:37

That's what I have to pull so I can look at the water. No, no, no, that's what but but that that's a good so so that's I said I said to my wife, I don't want to see any neighbors. And not not not that I'm a I'm a recluse or what have you. It's just uh I want space. I mean Houston, Houston has some beautiful houses in beautiful neighborhoods, but I'm looking up at my neighbor's second floor. Whatever.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

Okay, that makes sense. Um barbecue or seafood?

SPEAKER_04 19:03

Seafood.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Sweet or savory.

SPEAKER_04 19:06

Savory.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

Text or phone call.

SPEAKER_04 19:10

Phone call.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

Uh what's more important? It's experience or attitude?

SPEAKER_04 19:17

Wow, that's a good one.

SPEAKER_03 19:20

That's a really good one.

SPEAKER_04 19:23

Um I said in the grand scheme of things I'd have to say attitude.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 19:29

It's close though.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

What's one word you would use to describe the maritime episode?

SPEAKER_04 19:36

Oh wow. For this port I've said frenetic, but that's probably not the most accurate word to describe. So um holistic.

SPEAKER_01 19:46

Okay, yeah. I can see that. Yeah, for sure. Okay, well great. Um, thank you again. Oh, you're welcome, yeah. Thank you for taking the time and sorry about your food got cold. No, that's fine. This is good. Now we can sit down and enjoy our food.

SPEAKER_04 19:59

Yeah, you can now you know you're off tape and have margarita too, right?

SPEAKER_01 20:02

Yeah.