Mount Pleasant Magazine July/August 2020

33 www.BestOfMP.com | www.ILoveMountPleasant.com | www.MountPleasantMagazine.com BY HELEN MIT TERNIGHT Running a Tight Ship JimNewsome Leads the Port with Aplomb R emember Charleston before the back-to-back tour buses and the magazine spreads on cute inns? It was a city adrift. Even the port, which can anchor a waterside community, was down. That is, until Jim Newsome. In September 2009, Newsome moved to Charleston to take over the South Carolina Ports Authority. The turnaround in the economy has been echoed by the port growth, and Newsome has overseen the doubling of container volume — containers are those big metal boxes you see moved from truck to ship and vice-versa. He has also overseen large growth projects, including upgrades to the Columbus Street Terminal in downtown Charleston and the Wando Welch Terminal in Mount Pleasant, as well as building the Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal in North Charleston and deepening the harbor. Newsome said he was drawn to ports early in life. “I grew up in Savannah, and my dad was the number- two person at the Georgia Ports Authority. I used to work with him on Saturdays, and I went to college to major in transportation,” he said. In the transportation field, promotions mean