Ben Towner

Qualifications & Skills

Team Development and Leadership From Boy Scouts to my professional career, I’ve consistently found myself in leadership positions. My most recent leadership role has been a culmination of my experiences — identifying a need within Maersk, building a business case, and creating a team now analyzing terminal technical performance with an emphasis on outage prevention and mitigation.

Project Management I’ve managed five successful large-scale Terminal Operating System implementations and participated on-site in five others as a technical specialist. These projects spanned 6–18 months, often overlapping, and involved complete IT system changes while maintaining peak terminal operations. Projects spanned the US and multiple countries across different cultures.

Product Owner Lead the implementation of an industrial application systems monitor using the Elastic Stack across thirty terminals globally. This ownership evolved into running the Elastic Stack operations, leading a team supporting the application along with terminal performance edge analytics.

Terminal Operations Experience across refrigerated, breakbulk, and containerized cargo operations. I serve as the translator between Technical and Operations teams, understanding the criticality of keeping the business operational while providing right-sized solutions for operational efficiency.

Direct Report Management Experience hiring and managing direct reports, ensuring the right people are placed in roles where they can succeed. Includes the difficult but necessary experience of managing underperformance for team health.

System Development and Operations Extensive experience with Microsoft SQL and Oracle PL/SQL relational databases, including five years performing data migrations for Terminal Operating System upgrades. Developed several applications solving operational needs at terminals, driving efficiency improvements and cost reductions.

Professional Experience

Lead Engineer — Container Terminal Operating System

APM Terminals | Algeciras, Spain Apr 2025 – Present

• Strategic role leveraging extensive knowledge of terminal operations, TOS support, and observability to influence the future of the terminal operating system through our Future Execution Platform
• Developing a metrics analyzer that applies ML, correlation, and AI analysis to provide detailed system performance analysis and recommendations to support teams
• Subject matter expert for TOS, interfacing with teams and leadership across all parts of the organization

Lead Engineer — Maersk Observability Platform - Edge

Maersk | Algeciras, Spain Aug 2024 – Apr 2025

• Moved from day-to-day team management into a strategic position interfacing with all levels of the organization
• Collaborated with terminal support teams to identify infrastructure and application deficiencies, leveraging deep knowledge of terminal operations
• Focused on delivering value through addressing system visibility deficiencies, decreasing response time and increasing uptime

Senior Engineering Manager — Maersk Observability Platform - Edge

Maersk | Algeciras, Spain Apr 2023 – Aug 2024

• Joined with the Maersk Observability Deployment team to develop and deploy instrumentation solutions improving visibility and reliability across the technical landscape
• Worked daily with APMT Head of Observability to balance strategic vs. tactical efforts for the terminal observability journey
• Continued owning the Central Elastic Stack and all Elastic Stacks in the Maersk landscape

Engineering Manager — Performance Engineering

APM Terminals | Charlotte, NC May 2021 – Apr 2023

• Led this first-of-its-kind team within APM Terminals providing visibility for all 30+ terminals
• Grew the team to 14 subject matter experts, all with some level of terminal experience
• Ensured the team had what they needed to perform at the highest level while developing innovative edge analytics ideas
• Product Owner for all Elastic Applications in APM Terminals

Technical Specialist — Global Terminal Operating System

APM Terminals | Charlotte, NC Oct 2018 – May 2021

• Provided L3 Terminal Operating System support and technical process development to all APM Terminal locations globally
• Product Owner implementing an industrial application monitoring solution using the Elastic Stack, proving valuable for rapid problem identification at each terminal

Terminal Onboarding Manager — Tradelens

Maersk / IBM | Charlotte, NC Feb 2018 – Oct 2018

• Tradelens was part of the Maersk/IBM partnership bringing blockchain security and a single pipeline for container movement visibility to the shipping industry
• Provided subject matter expertise including process and technical development to onboard terminals onto the Tradelens platform
• Built an end-to-end integration solution providing terminals with an easy implementation path
• Responsible for onboarding 20 terminals in 8 months

Technical Project Manager — Team Lead

APM Terminals | Charlotte, NC Jan 2017 – Oct 2018

• Led a small multi-national team to five successful application implementations working with terminal staff both on and off site
• Interacted with multiple internal and external vendors and customers globally
• Collaborated with management to share knowledge of terminal operations, IT, and business cases across departments

Technical Project Manager

APM Terminals | Houston, TX / Charlotte, NC Jun 2013 – Dec 2016

• Successfully migrated six terminals globally to Navis N4 Terminal Operating System
• Specialized in Navis Express to Navis N4 Data Migration
• Identified operational processes for improvement and standardization

Terminal Solutions Manager

Port of Houston Authority | La Porte, TX May 2010 – May 2013

• Project Manager of the Navis N4 Terminal Operating System implementation
• Utilized knowledge of operations and IT to improve processes
• Managed the outgate OCR go-live implementation, eliminating ILA labor, reducing costs, and improving efficiency
• Operational reporting for government and internal/external customers

Vessel Services Superintendent

Port of Houston Authority | La Porte, TX Jan 2009 – Apr 2010

• Supervised Yard/Vessel operations to ensure efficient cargo movement
• Operations database management including building MS Access and SQL databases
• Migrated a data warehouse from Paradox to SQL
• Experience with VB, VBA, MS SQL 2005, and Oracle 9i, Navis SPARCS and EXPRESS

Assistant Port Manager

Turbana Corporation | Freeport, TX May 2008 – Jan 2009

• Responsible for warehouse management
• Managed truck loading, damage control, and inventory management
• Implemented a barcode inventory management system
• ILA Labor management

Education

Master of Maritime Administration and Logistics

Texas A&M University at Galveston | 2012–2014 Extension of my Bachelor’s degree with deeper insight into the Economics, Law, and Operations of the Maritime Industry. Pursued while working full time.

Bachelor of Science in Maritime Administration

Texas A&M University at Galveston | 2004–2008 Completed 39 hours of Maritime System Engineering (Civil Engineering) curriculum alongside the Maritime Administration degree.

Professional Associations

• North America Navis User Group — Chairman (2015), Vice Chairman (2014, 2016)
• TOPAZ — Member-At-Large (2010–2013)