HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb 11, 2026--
The Greater Houston Port Bureau (“Port Bureau”) is pleased to announce that Tom Marian, General Counsel for Buffalo Marine Service, Inc., has been selected as the 2026 Maritime Leader of the Year. Marian will be honored at the Port Bureau’s Annual Maritime Dinner on August 22, 2026. The Port Bureau Board of Directors named Marian as the 2026 honoree for his exceptional leadership and steadfast dedication to advancing the maritime sector and Houston port region.
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Marian joined Buffalo Marine Service in 2007. Prior to this, he attended the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and graduating in 1984, he was assigned to San Juan, Puerto Rico and spent the next nine years in the waterways management arena in New Orleans, Honolulu, and Seattle. He transferred to New Orleans to attend Tulane Law School and subsequently assigned to the Eighth Coast Guard District legal staff as a Judge Advocate. In 2000, Marian was detailed to the Joint Interagency Task Forth South in Key West as the Command’s legal advisor. Upon completion of that tour, he was transferred to Vessel Traffic Service Houston/Galveston as the Commanding Officer. In 2005, Marian retired from the Coast Guard.
“We recognize Tom Marian as the Greater Houston Port Bureau's 2026 Maritime Leader of the Year. He has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the growth and success of our maritime industry and made a profound impact on the Houston port region. I deeply appreciate his personal support for these many years,” said Vincent DiCosimo, Chairman of the Greater Houston Port Bureau.
Marian has served on multiple boards and committees including Gulf Intracoastal Canal Association (Chairman), American Waterways Operators (Chairman); Lonestar Harbor Safety Committee (Chairman), Houston Maritime Center and Museum, Pilot Board Investigation and Recommendation Committee, Southeast Texas Waterway Advisory Council, and serves on the Greater Houston Port Bureau board.
“As a board member of the Port Bureau board for 20 years, I have had the privilege of witnessing the growth of the organization’s influence throughout the ports it represents. The network it has forged with its members has been instrumental in forging a community of interest focused on the wellbeing of the nation’s largest port. The annual Maritime Dinner celebrates the accomplishments of many individuals and stakeholders, and I am honored to be a part of it,” said Marian.
The Houston Ship Channel is the nation’s busiest waterway. Collectively, the more than 200 private and public terminals along the 52-mile channel make the area the nation’s largest port for waterborne tonnage. The Channel supports 1.54 million jobs in Texas and 3.37 million jobs nationwide, and economic activity over $500 billion in Texas – nearly 20 percent of Texas’ total gross domestic product (GDP) – and $1.2 trillion in economic impact across the nation.
Over 800 maritime, transportation, and industry professionals and their guests attend the Annual Maritime Dinner to recognize maritime leaders or companies that have exhibited outstanding leadership and support for the port region. Recent honorees include Roger Guenther, immediate past Executive Director of Port Houston, Jürgen Schröder, founder of Schröder Marine Services, Inc., David Grzebinski, CEO of Kirby Corporation, Port Houston Commission Chairman Ric Campo, and Jim Teague, Co-CEO of Enterprise Products Partners L.P.
The Annual Maritime Dinner is supported by Title sponsor Buffalo Marine Service, Inc., Queen of the Fleet sponsors, Callan Marine, Energy Transfer, Enterprise Products Partners L.P., Kinder Morgan, Kirby Corporation, Port Houston, Shamrock Marine, Targa Resources, and Vopak. Proceeds from the Annual Maritime Dinner support the Port Bureau’s regional maritime advocacy efforts. Table and sponsorship opportunities and additional information are available online at www.txgulf.org/annual-dinner.
About the Greater Houston Port Bureau
Founded in 1929, the Greater Houston Port Bureau is a non-profit trade organization that promotes the greater Houston Ship Channel region. The Port Bureau provides 240 members, stakeholders, and the community support for advocacy, education, research and analytics, networking events, business referrals, Texas vessel information, and support in business growth. Our members include public and private terminals, public and private ports, pilots, vessel operators, local/state/federal government agencies, financial institutions, universities, and other stakeholders. For more information visit www.txgulf.org or call 713-678-4300.
The Greater Houston Port Bureau is pleased to announce that Tom Marian, General Counsel for Buffalo Marine Service, Inc., has been selected as the 2026 Maritime Leader of the Year. Marian has served on multiple boards and committees including Gulf Intracoastal Canal Association (Chairman), American Waterways Operators (Chairman); Lonestar Harbor Safety Committee (Chairman), Houston Maritime Center and Museum, Pilot Board Investigation and Recommendation Committee, Southeast Texas Waterway Advisory Council, and serves on the Greater Houston Port Bureau board.
MOSCOW (AP) — Moscow will observe the limits of the last nuclear arms pact with the United States that expired last week as long as it sees that Washington is doing the same, Russia's top diplomat said Wednesday.
The New START treaty expired Feb. 5, leaving no restrictions on the two largest atomic arsenals for the first time in more than a half-century and fueling fears of an unconstrained nuclear arms race.
Russian President Vladimir Putin last year declared his readiness to stick to the treaty’s limits for another year if Washington followed suit, but U.S. President Donald Trump has argued that he wants China to be a part of a new pact — something Beijing has rejected.
Speaking Wednesday to the parliament's lower house, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that even though the U.S. hasn't responded to Putin's offer, Russia will respect New START's caps for as long as it sees that the U.S. observes them too.
“The moratorium declared by the president will remain as long as the U.S. doesn't exceed these limits,” Lavrov told lawmakers. "We will act in a responsible and balanced way on the basis of analysis of the U.S. military policies.”
He added that “we have reason to believe that the United States is in no hurry to abandon these limits and that they will be observed for the foreseeable future.”
“We will closely monitor how things are actually unfolding," Lavrov said. "If our American colleagues’ intention to maintain some kind of cooperation on this is confirmed, we will work actively on a new agreement and consider the issues that have remained outside strategic stability agreements."
Lavrov's statement followed a report by Axios claiming Russian and U.S. negotiators discussed a possible informal deal to observe the pact’s limits for at least six months during talks last week in Abu Dhabi. Asked to comment on the report, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that any such extension could only be formal, adding that “it’s hard to imagine any informal extension in this sphere.”
At the same time, Peskov confirmed that Russian and U.S. negotiators discussed future nuclear arms control in Abu Dhabi where delegations from Moscow, Kyiv and Washington held two days of talks on a peace settlement in Ukraine.
“There is an understanding, and they talked about it in Abu Dhabi, that both parties will take responsible positions and both parties realize the need to start talks on the issue as soon as possible,” Peskov said.
New START, signed in 2010 by then-President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, was the last of a long series of agreements between Moscow and Washington to limit their nuclear arsenals, starting with SALT I in 1972.
New START restricted each side to no more than 1,550 nuclear warheads on no more than 700 missiles and bombers deployed and ready for use. It was originally set to expire in 2021 but was extended for five years.
The pact envisioned sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance, although they stopped in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and never resumed.
In February 2023, Putin suspended Moscow’s participation, saying Russia couldn’t allow U.S. inspections of its nuclear sites at a time when Washington and its NATO allies openly declared they wanted Moscow’s defeat in Ukraine. But the Kremlin also emphasized it wasn’t withdrawing from the pact altogether, pledging to respect its caps on nuclear weapons.
In September, Putin offered to keep the New START’s limits for another year to buy time for both sides to negotiate a successor agreement.
Even as New START expired, the U.S. and Russia agreed on Feb. 5 to reestablish high-level, military-to-military dialogue following a meeting between senior officials from both sides in Abu Dhabi, the U.S. military command in Europe said. The link was suspended in 2021 as relations grew increasingly strained before Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
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The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Additional AP coverage: https://apnews.com/projects/the-new-nuclear-landscape/
In this photo released by The State Duma, The Federal Assembly of The Russian Federation Press Service, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, centre, delivers his speech at the State Duma, the Lower House of the Russian Parliament in Moscow, on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (The State Duma, The Federal Assembly of The Russian Federation Press Service via AP)
In this photo released by The State Duma, The Federal Assembly of The Russian Federation Press Service, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, baclground right, delivers his speech at the State Duma, the Lower House of the Russian Parliament in Moscow, on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (The State Duma, The Federal Assembly of The Russian Federation Press Service via AP)
In this photo released by The State Duma, The Federal Assembly of The Russian Federation Press Service, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov gestures as he delivers his speech at the State Duma, the Lower House of the Russian Parliament in Moscow, on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (The State Duma, The Federal Assembly of The Russian Federation Press Service via AP)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov speaks during a news conference following his meeting with OSCE Chairman-in-Office Ignazio Cassis and OSCE Secretary General Feridun H. Sinirlioglu at Zinaida Morozova's Mansion in Moscow, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool)
FILE - U.S. President Donald Trump greets Russian President Vladimir Putin, Aug. 15, 2025, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
FILE - This photo taken from a video distributed on Dec. 9, 2020 by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service, shows a rocket launch as part of a ground-based intercontinental ballistic missile test at the Plesetsk facility in northwestern Russia. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP, File)
