Boatline CEO Looks Ahead

By JULIA WELLS

Steamship Authority chief executive officer Fred Raskin said this week that reports of his impending resignation are premature, although he did admit that the decision is now at hand: Will he stay in the top post at the boat line that he stepped into barely two years ago, or leave?

"I haven't made a final decision, although I think I will shortly and I'll talk to the board about it before I make a final decision," Mr. Raskin said from his office in Woods Hole yesterday morning.

"It will depend on whether the job has some continuing interest or not, whether I've gotten some things done and whether I can have some fun," Mr. Raskin said. "But no matter what happens, I do not think my personal presence here - or absence - is a matter of great importance. I think we have focused on the right things from the customer's point of view and I think that costs are going to continue to be the focal point. Strangely enough, in spite of all the static I think that the organization generally does run right," he added.

Last week the news surfaced that Mr. Raskin had exercised an arcane clause in his contract that could lead to his resignation by midsummer.

In a brief memorandum circulated to employees this week Mr. Raskin downplayed the news.

"I want you to know that this wasn't a resignation, and I haven't made any decision to resign," he wrote. "What I have decided is that the continuing commute from Andover, requiring four or five hours each day, is becoming too difficult. . . . [I]n the coming months I will decide whether or not to move down to the Cape, which is necessary for me to continue working here for the long term," he also wrote.

Mr. Raskin is now completing the second year of a five-year contract. The complicated contract has been amended twice as the CEO clashed repeatedly with his board over issues of governance and lines of authority.

In his memo to staff this week, Mr. Raskin downplayed any friction with the board as a factor.

"You may have also heard that my decision was impacted by policy differences that I have had with the board on certain issues. This is not true," Mr. Raskin wrote. "While the board and I differ in specific issues, do not doubt that both the board and management have the best interests of the Steamship Authority at heart and discussion, disagreement and even argument over important issues are not bad."

Yesterday Mr. Raskin reiterated his statement about the commute.

"I don't think it's necessarily good for the organization to have a CEO spending four or five hours a day in the car," he said. "It's a sequential question - whether I am going to move down here and uproot my family is going to depend on whether this is a job I see as staying in for - pick a number - two to ten years."

When Mr. Raskin was hired, the title for the top post at the boat line was changed from general manager to CEO. The change was accompanied by a hefty salary hike; Mr. Raskin is now paid just over $175,000 a year, compared with a salary of $90,000 for Armand Tiberio, the general manager who preceded him.

This week Mr. Raskin did not shy from a blunt assessment of the problems on the board of governors. There has been much talk on the board of governors in the last two years about governance models, but Mr. Raskin said he is less concerned about models and titles and more about leadership and teamwork from his board.

"The critical governance issue is can the board select objectives and stick to them? I am not saying those objectives should be the CEO's objective - they should reflect the community values, blah blah, but once they select them can the board stick to them and let management go on and do its job," he said.

"This is a very unhealthy structure because the board is constantly being tugged at by its constituents and it's not 68-42, it's 51-49. Do you have a board that can say I am going to lead, I am going to take some bruises, but we told management that we're going to do this so we're going to do it?" He continued:

"Should I decide that gee, I'm not going to make the move, I'm not going to commit, it will probably be more because of the structure and the enabling act and the legislation. I don't think it can change. There is a lot of community input and that's good, but you can't take each day and do a post mortem.

"In every organization there are board members and management members that don't see eye to eye, and I think there is way too much emphasis - particularly in liberal Massachusetts - too much is made of can't we all agree. That is a sure way to disaster.

"Looking at the last board meeting, it wasn't a good board meeting, and I am hopeful that the board could act more as a team themselves."

Mr. Raskin's contract is extremely complicated, but in simple terms he is now working under a clause that will allow him to submit his resignation in the next two months. The board could also ask him to resign during the same period. If he resigns, he stands to collect $85,000 in severance pay.

Mr. Raskin emphasized that he has not yet decided what he will do, but his remarks were studded with road signs.

"This place will be fine," he concluded.