Michael Hansen

Michael N. ("Mike") Hansen was born in Honolulu, attended Punah ou School, Willamette University, and the University of Hawaii.
His maritime employment began in the early 1970’s (48 years ago), and included hands-on experience working in a shipyard, and at Hawaiian Tug & Barge in several trade and supervisory positions.
After that, Mike began a career as a maritime entrepreneur running his own ship agency in Honolulu from the late 1970’s through the 1990’s. He was also involved in ship chartering and founded a container shipping company that operated a direct liner service from Honolulu to the South Pacific for more than five years. These activities required an in-depth knowledge of the maritime cabotage laws of the U.S. commonly known as the Jones Act.
Mike is currently active in consulting on a wide range of maritime issues and commercial shipbroking.
Since the late 1990’s, Mike has been the President of the Hawaii Shippers Council, and continues to be actively involved with the Jones Act and other shipping issues affecting island shippers. He is widely known as a commenter on these issues.
The Hawaii Shippers Council is a business league organization incorporated in 1997 to support the efforts of the national Jones Act Reform Coalition.
The Council represents merchant cargo owners known as “shippers” who tender their goods for shipment with ocean carriers variously known as shipping companies, ship owners and ship operators.