Since the start of the Foss Offshore Wind project in Massachusetts, Scott Jason has managed a team working through hurricane season, winter weather and constantly changing conditions. As Manager, Marine Operations at Foss Offshore Wind, he supports a complex operation. His secret sauce involves constant communication and personal engagement to ensure mariners operate safely.
Talk to any Saltchuk Safety Award winner, and they’ll tell you: ensuring that everyone makes it home safely every day is everyone’s responsibility. Each year, Safety Award nominations come from across the Saltchuk family of companies, highlighting employees who go the extra mile for safety. We asked each of the dozen 2024 awardees to tell us something about themselves and why they like to play it safe on the job.
Getting to Know Scott
Q: Tell us about yourself. Where did you grow up? Where did you go to school?
“I’m originally from Massachusetts and attended University of Massachusetts Amherst and Northeastern University.”
Q: Tell me about your career, your current position, and what led you to it.
“My maritime career started after college when I joined the U.S. Coast Guard, looking for excitement, adventure and travel. Once my children were born, I sought out a maritime-related role closer to home. That led me to a small tugboat company, Constellation Maritime in Boston, which Saltchuk/Foss acquired in 2006. Constellation had a family feel and a core group of dedicated employees. They offered me a job doing whatever needed doing and I took it.
It was a foundational decision in my career. I had a hand in executing and managing a wide range of maritime operations over a seven-year period. In 2015, I relocated to Texas with Foss to develop business with oil and gas clients in Houston. My timing couldn’t have been worse, and as the price of a barrel of oil dropped so did my career opportunities.
In 2017 I left Foss and the industry and took a business development role with a large marine and heavy civil contractor in the Northeast. I kept in touch with several friends at Foss and when the opportunity to manage the Vineyard Wind project came along, I jumped at the opportunity.”
Safety to Scott
Q: In your own words, why were you nominated for a safety award? Tell us about working in the unique conditions in New Bedford and moving such enormous offshore wind components.
“I believe I was nominated because I care about people and I am passionate about the work. The project has all the elements of tug boating that are impressive: moving massive vessels in a tight, draft-constrained harbor, passing through New Bedford hurricane barrier with little margin for error, making and breaking tow, mooring alongside a vessel offshore. All of this done typically in less-than-ideal conditions.
We move a gigantic (400-by-100 foot) steel barge. We have to tow it, put it alongside a vessel offshore, disconnect and reconnect. Normally on a tug, you might see making and breaking tow a dozen times in six months. We do it a dozen times a day. These guys get really good at it.
To accomplish it safely and successfully requires experience and teamwork at the highest level.”
Q: Is there something in your life that drove your commitment to safety?
“Having a family changed the way I looked at risk and evaluated safety. We all have people that we care for and people that depend on us. We deserve to work in an environment that honors and values our commitment to others. “
Q: What was your first impression of Foss Offshore Wind? Tell us your favorite story about your time with the company.
“We did the project kickoff in September 2023. (There was a supply chain issue that caused a delay from the planned summer start.) It was the worst time: first hurricane season, then winter. We worked all through the winter.
The crews we have out here are just unbelievable. It’s a real pressure cooker — not a routine operation.”
“Speaking up is critical for safety and continuous improvement.”
Q: Think about a time in your career when you felt like what you were doing might not be completely safe. What did you learn from that experience?
“I’ve had several experiences in my career where I felt unsafe, mostly around unfamiliar tasks. In these situations you need to ask questions and lean on other more experienced people to help keep you safe. At times you may have to put your insecurities or ego aside, but speaking up is critical for safety and continuous improvement. A culture of trust and respect is key to making sure that happens.”
Q: Speaking up for safety can be difficult for some people. What advice would you give to someone within our family of companies who’s convinced their feedback won’t matter — or worse, that they’ll somehow be punished for taking action?
“Safety is everyone’s responsibility. It is my responsibility to ensure there is a climate of trust and respect among our team that encourages people to speak up and work together.
If that isn’t your experience on this project and you’ve discussed this with your immediate supervisor, I want to hear about it personally from you. My door is always open and it will be addressed promptly. Everyone deserves to go home healthy. If you don’t feel safe, speak up and take action. “
Q: How do you help to educate those on your team about safety? We have heard that you are continuously trying to improve the learning cycle around safety. What does that look like at Foss Offshore Wind? What has been the largest area of learning?
I encourage constant communication. I also want us to take the work seriously, but also try not to take ourselves too seriously. Executing new and challenging work can be stressful but it can also be immensely rewarding. I want the team on the Vineyard Wind project to feel supported and proud of what we are accomplishing together.
Like any new endeavor you have to make adjustments to the plan as you encounter unforeseen conditions. Managing through these adjustments safely and adapting our operations to meet operational realities is one of the biggest challenges.
The other constant challenge on this project is schedule uncertainty. Our schedule is completely driven by weather and the progress of others. This inserts a high degree of uncertainty into the project day to day. Managing this uncertainty is one of the biggest leadership challenges our team faces and they are doing an excellent job managing through it.
Our experienced mariners are tasked with training new mariners frequently. Having new blood in the pipeline is exciting but it presents a whole set of safety challenges that needs to be respected.
But for ordinary seamen on their first job, you are seeing everything. It’s an opportunity to hook people into the industry.”
