Gary Vogel packed all his worldly possessions into his Saab 900, strapped his bed onto the roof and drove from his native Long Island in New York to his first job at a one-man brokerage shop in Stamford, Connecticut.
The year was 1988, with Vogel fresh out of the US Merchant Marine Academy.
Fast forward to 2015, and Vogel had come up in the world. About to be installed as the new chief executive of Eagle Bulk Shipping, he noticed a problem with the dry bulk owner: it was based in Manhattan.
Another move
The solution was a little more involved than loading up the Saab, but Vogel figuratively packed up the entire company and moved it to Stamford.
“I moved to Connecticut more than 30 years ago for a shipping job and the way the maritime cluster grew here in the 1980s and 1990s as companies left New York, it just didn’t seem like there was a logical place to be other than Connecticut,” Vogel told TradeWinds.
“As a shipping hub, it’s been a great place to be for the companies I’ve worked for my whole career. It wasn’t a tough decision. It was where we needed to be if we were to compete for talent and grow the company.”
And grow Eagle Bulk did, under the guidance of career dry bulk executive Vogel, who is to receive the top honour of the Connecticut Maritime Association (CMA) — the annual commodore award — on Thursday in Stamford.
Vogel, 56, can take a two-minute stroll from Eagle Bulk’s offices at 300 First Stamford Place to the Hilton hotel where he will don the trademark tri-corner hat at CMA’s gala dinner.
He could not have imagined such recognition on that first drive in his crowded sedan, on the way to gain his first exposure to the dry bulk sector through the tiny shop called Pinney Inc.
Bills of lading
But, in some ways, it seems Vogel was destined to find shipping as a career from his childhood in East Williston, Long Island, where he grew up in the figurative shadow of the US Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA).
His father was a food importer, and Vogel spent school holidays collating bills of lading for the business. He saw some early shipping names such as Lykes Lines, US Lines and Moore- McCormack Lines.
“It was not very exciting but everyone has to start somewhere,” Vogel recalled with a chuckle. “Shipping was never far away.”
Nor was the water and, from about age 10, Vogel took to sailing on his family’s 22-foot Pearson Ensign. Family holidays involved chartering larger sailboats.
“I’ve always had an affinity for the sea,” Vogel said. “It’s something my family and I still do today.”
When he does get away from the long hours required as Eagle Bulk’s chief executive, Vogel often heads to his 42-foot Morris M42 — a sailboat made in Maine.
“I describe it as my happy place,” Vogel said. “Getting out on the water — for me it’s transformative.”
Connections with commodores
Vogel’s 34-year career in shipping has seen him cross paths with a couple of previous CMA commodores.
His second job came with Skaarup Chartering, founded by the legendary Dane Ole Skaarup.
Skaarup is often credited with leading the migration of shipping companies from Manhattan to Connecticut’s Fairfield County, and was the logical choice to become the CMA’s first commodore in 1990 — the same year Vogel signed on there.
Vogel would go on to spend the lion’s share of his maritime career at Denmark’s Clipper Group, where he rose to chief executive over the course of nearly 16 years.
Clipper had been founded by Torben Jensen, who became the CMA’s 17th commodore in 2006.
Jensen today is vice chairman of Clipper under his son, Frank, and drew special mention from Vogel as he prepared to wear the commodore’s hat himself.
“I worked for him for almost 15 years,” Vogel said. “He provided me with a great opportunity to grow and I learned a lot from him. The way I conduct my business today, I owe to things I learned from Torben.”
Vogel likewise credited the Eagle Bulk team, including five colleagues he has worked with for nearly 20 years, including at Clipper. Bo Westergaard, Eagle Bulk’s chief commercial officer, is one of them.
“This has very much been a team effort and I can’t say that enough,” Vogel said.
