Blair Teddy worries a lot — because risk assessment is a big part of his job. As Port Captain, Pacific Northwest for Foss Maritime, he must make sure he has the right crew in place with the right equipment to get the job done safely. He leads by example and inspires others through his day-to-day actions.
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 Blair
Q: Tell us about yourself. Where did you grow up? Where did you go to school?
“I grew up near Redmond, Washington and went to Eastlake High School. I graduated from the University of Washington with a bachelor’s degree in political science.
My family was in construction management, so I joined the family business after college. We started getting cool custom home projects. I made my way up, kind of took over my dad’s company. We did pretty well, even in the recession. It was hard with long hours, but we made it through.
One day we were building a house in West Seattle. I could see the water and I was watching a tug across the water, and I thought: “I’d give it all up to do that.”
I was dating a girl, now my wife, who was from Tacoma. She knew a lot of people who worked on tugboats. They pointed me toward a work boat mate program. I joined Foss in 2019.”
Q: Tell us about your job?
“As Ocean Project Port Captain, I coordinate vessels and crews. I know how the crew pair up and work together, what kind of work they have done that translates to the project.
The Ocean Division is different from most of Foss where they work in harbor services, assisting ships and barges into the dock. We are doing long-haul tows and work offshore all over the world. We also have an emergency rescue towing vessel at Neah Bay in Washington state, supporting rescue operations in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.”
Safety to Blair
Q: In your own words, why were you nominated for a safety award? Tell us about how you use your role to connect and inspire others to put safety first.
“I have been working over the last year or so with the safety committee on policy and procedure alignment. I set up the meetings — getting the right people with a lot more experience in the meeting to talk about how we can build processes that fit with our safety management system.
It’s always a work in progress.”
Q: Is there something in your life that drove your commitment to safety?
“I was a sailor for a good amount of time. When I was sailing, I always wanted to make sure that somebody gave a darn as much as I did.”
Q: What was your first impression of Foss Maritime?
“It’s a place where you can grow. There are opportunities to move around. We are flexible and we are not a single-purpose company. Some companies only do containers on barges. Some only do assist work. We tow aircraft carriers, build East Coast wind farms. We did two rescues off the coast of Vancouver Island at Christmastime.”
“No one is ever in trouble for speaking up. Call my phone, leave a message or email me. I will get back to you.”
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 always have chronic unease — maybe that’s why I do this job. I always worry: Did I put the right people in place? Is this boat as optimized as it can be? Risk assessment is a big part of what we do. It’s a huge part of every day.”
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?
“No one is ever in trouble for speaking up. Call my phone, leave a message or email me. I will get back to you. We have so many great resources: engineers, other port captains, other managers of marine operations within the Ocean Group. If you don’t want to bring it to me, talk to my boss or my boss’s boss.”
