Emerson Santiago
COO & General Manager
About
Emerson Santiago is the COO & General Manager of CARGOWARD® and Seachios® Marine Services, where he directs end-to-end operational delivery across Brazil and broader Latin America, including recurring coordination in Argentina and Uruguay. Trained in Business Administration and active in shipping since the 1980s, Emerson combines long-term industry expertise with disciplined execution governance—ensuring port calls and technical scopes are delivered safely, consistently, and in line with shipowner expectations.
Emerson’s career was built inside the engine room of port logistics: he served as a shipping agent across multiple agencies in Brazil and later held leadership roles including Branch Manager at Wilson Sons, one of the region’s most established maritime groups. This background gives him a practical command of port formalities, stakeholder interfaces, and the operational realities that can make or break schedules—berth windows, service coordination, documentation control, and exception handling.
In his current roles, Emerson governs daily operations and performance across core service lines such as cargo hold cleaning, tank cleaning and sludge management, and port-call support functions—aligning manpower, equipment readiness, HSE discipline, and reporting standards to reduce operational risk and rework. He is particularly known for building repeatable execution systems: clear scopes, sequencing, permit-to-work governance, escalation paths, and closeout documentation that supports internal accountability and external stakeholder confidence.
Beyond delivery management, Emerson provides strategic operational governance—linking commercial commitments to execution reality, improving coordination across ports and countries, and strengthening service consistency across different terminal environments. His leadership style emphasizes clarity, control, and calm decision-making under pressure, enabling teams to deliver high-trust outcomes across complex, multi-party port operations.
At CARGOWARD® and Seachios®, Emerson remains focused on scaling dependable execution across Brazil and Latin America—so shipowners, operators, and charterers receive predictable delivery, strong documentation, and technical consistency across every port call.
