Woman-Owned Marketing Communications Firm Marks 30 Years as Premier Agency in Global Trade and Transport.

WEST CALDWELL, N.J. -- BSY Associates Inc., Started by NJ Journalist in 1974, Carves a Special Worldwide Niche in PR/Advertising

E[acute accent]It is generally accepted that women are as capable as men in the world of business, so it's not a bad idea to acknowledge one of them as she celebrates 30 years as a lynchpin in that most masculine of all strongholds, international trade and transportation. E[acute accent]Barbara Spector Yeninas did it the hard way back in 1974 when she left a flourishing career as an award-winning journalist covering transportation for the Newark Evening News to provide marketing communication business-to-business services that would promote and define the nascent container-shipping industry. E[acute accent]Today, the company's franchise includes public relations, advertising, special event and association management, design--from ads to webs--and successful marketing advise to businesses of every size. On board, as the company grew from a one-person entrepreneurial venture to one of the most respected agencies covering this field throughout the world, is the team of bright and talented professionals Yeninas has been lucky to employ along the way. E[acute accent]Just more than two years ago in a succession plan, Yeninas hired Gordon Forsyth IV of Fair Haven, who has had an excellent reputation in the journalism end of the same industry, as an editor and an associate publisher by the age of 31 and a knack for strategy and marketing. "I saw in Gordon the kind of integrity and talent that our long-term clients deserved as well as a sense of curiosity and wonder that would bring new perspective, new energy, new business and new brilliance to our work." He is executive vice president and creative director. The partnership has worked and the company has taken some major growth steps in recent months. E[acute accent]Another new executive hire was Scott Saltz of Scotch Plans, a specialist in business management who is Vice President of Client Services and manages the business side of the agency. "Scott has brought a sensibility and a 21st century approach to managing the company financially, planning growth and looking after client needs for the account management team, headed by Yeninas and Forsyth." E[acute accent]"In all," says Forsyth, "the executive team is a good fit. Add to it our multi-talented support staff which includes Grace Marino and George Nikanorov, as well as designers, writers, graphic specialists and technology gurus. Together, we have a team with a reputation second to none in this area, possibly in the world," said Forsyth, alluding to some of the national honors the agency has won for its work. E[acute accent]Many of the newcomers to BSY were born after containerization opened up a new merchant class for international markets in the early 1960s. But they haven't flinched and easily took on the mantra of this unusual business. E[acute accent]Container shipping provided a safe, clean, controlled way to ship manufactured goods to foreign points and for shippers a method by which that merchandise could be transported to customers without concern for damage, pilferage, or loss. As a result, greater numbers of manufacturers were induced to enter the export market; many grew to become the international conglomerates that have fostered globalization - the engine that drives commerce today. E[acute accent]The then Barbara Spector stuck her toe in the waters of Newark Bay with the men who covered the waterfront as it was being redefined by containerization. "I wrote the story when the first shovel of dirt was excavated to create what is now one of the busiest container centers in the world, Port Elizabeth," she remembered, noting that her commitment to the women's movement was often more actual than philosophical. "On the very day other women were burning their bras in Atlantic City, I was covering a wildcat dock strike in Port Newark," she said. E[acute accent]She was eventually appointed Maritime Editor for the News- catapulted into what was definitely a man's world. "I did have to prove myself, I knew instinctively that I had to work harder and longer than the men around me, but it wasn't really an issue. I learned the best way - from the ground up. It served me well in the end, because I was certainly rewarded for it. Promotions and awards attested to the fact that a person who is doing a good job in any industry is to be valued, regardless," she says now from a vantage of forty years. E[acute accent]"And I have had an awesome mentor, Helen Delich Bentley, a waterfront journalist in Baltimore who later became chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission and a congresswoman. She taught me to never say 'no', to always say "let's try'." E[acute accent]And try she did. Covering containerization closely gave Yeninas a unique perspective at a critical time in the industry's development. Transportation had been redefined by the very fact of containerization, and there was a need to convey to financial institutions, the government, foreign interests and American manufacturers the reality of 21st century transport. "I could see that the players themselves were not always doing an adequate job in terms of their message," she said. "Most of them were not attuned to the refinements of corporate communication -nor should they have been. These were men, people like Malcom McLean, the inventor of this kind of transportation, were caught up in the cataclysmic changes of a very meat and potatoes industry. They could hardly be expected to factor nuance into the movement." E[acute accent]As the result of a lingering strike in 1972, the News folded. "We loved being journalists, but in retrospect this proved to be the best thing to ever happen to my career. I moved easily to address those specific needs which I recognized when I was covering the waterfront," Ms. Yeninas said. E[acute accent]Along the way she married a fellow picketer, Joe Yeninas, a cartoonist and editorial art director at the paper. And then she opened a public relations and advertising agency in August 1974 as a transportation specialist - a niche that the agency dominates to this very day as BSY (Barbara Spector Yeninas) Associates Inc., (www.bsya.com) the premier marketing communications firm offering business-to-business consulting, public relations and promotional services to companies active in international trade and transportation. The company has grown to represent some of the new age firms offering e-commerce and IT solutions to the industry and to other companies, as well as for other industrial-based firms around the country and the world. E[acute accent]The first BSY client was ACT/PACE Line, which provided service between North America and Australia and it remained an agency client for 19 years. BSY's second major client was Evergreen Marine Corporation of Taiwan - today one of the largest transportation companies in the world, but then--in 1975--a newly formed container line inaugurating limited service into the United States. That association has endured to this day as Evergreen now boasts a fleet of over 130 container vessels serving more than 80 countries worldwide. BSYA also represents Horizon Lines, the successor company to Sea-Land Service and its various subsidiaries, along with a host of other ocean carriers, port entities, and associations, among them Lloyd Triestino and Hatsu Marine Ltd. E[acute accent]For 17 years, Yeninas has been the North America Port Representative for Europe's second largest harbor, Hamburg, Germany, and also has a long history as Executive Director of both the Containerization and Intermodal Institute and the NY/NJ Foreign Freight Forwarders & Brokers Association. And each of these affiliations has brought these global associations to New Jersey-based headquarters office in America. E[acute accent]The company also has managed for more than 25 years, the three largest transportation award dinners in the Northeast ranging in guests from 400 to 1200. "A wedding," she mused, "is a piece of cake by comparison. Nevertheless, our pride is in the loyalty and longevity of our client relationship and the world-of-mouth reputation that has fueled our growth." E[acute accent]West Caldwell-based since its inception, BSYA will mark its 30th anniversary with a move to enlarged quarters in Holmdel, NJ--in the burgeoning business-to-business environment of Monmouth County. This is a not a long reach for Yeninas, who graduated from high school in Lakewood, attended Monmouth College (graduated from NYU) and then returned for her first journalism job at the Asbury Park Press. In 2000, Yeninas was named New Jersey Businesswoman of the Year by the Essex and Hudson County Girl Scouts of America. E[acute accent]A proponent of specialization, Mrs. Yeninas--with the help of her executive staff-- has looked within to take her own agency into the 21st century by developing expertise in areas critical to companies and products involved in world trade technology. "The potential for technological refinement in the transportation industry is enormous and very exciting," she said. E[acute accent]"We are working with innovative clients every day who require our attention as they develop a full range of transportation services that are defined by e-commerce initiatives - efforts I could never have imagined 30 years ago." The company has also brought into the fold business services and maintenance clients. E[acute accent]Two daughters born along the way--Joanna, now 28 and deputy editor of Seventeen magazine and Laura, an Art History major at the University of Maryland. "I've checked homework by fax from Taiwan and spoke to doctors from Germany at 4 p.m. local time," said the doting mother. "And I have a supportive husband, one of the good guys, who 33 years ago knew the wife and life he was getting." E[acute accent]Almost a lifetime in terms of modern global trade - an era of tumult and triumph for those who are committed to its growth and Barbara Yeninas allowed herself a rare moment to savor the success BSY has achieved. "I have known for years that transportation is an industry full of the rough and tumble of international commerce but, as I look back, I have to say so far it's been a very smooth ride."