South Carolina Business Review

SC Ports hires first woman leader

By Mike Switzer

Published October 5, 2022 at 5:30 AM EDT

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Earlier this year, the state agency managing our ports changed its leadership and we thought you might like to meet her. Mike Switzer interviews Barbara Melvin, the new president and CEO of the South Carolina Ports Authority in Charleston, SC. She is the first woman to hold this position and the first woman to lead one of the top 10 operating container ports in the country.

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Mike Switzer

After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.

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