Charles Wesley Robinson (September 7, 1919 – May 20, 2014) was an American entrepreneur who was involved with many successful business adventures in the mining and shipping industry. He also served as United States Deputy Secretary of State.[1] He was president of CBTF Co. and M Ship Co., a board member of Nike and Chairman of Nike's Finance Committee.
He then received an assignment to the heavy cruiser USS Tuscaloosa and spent nearly two years on the treacherous Murmansk run. The young lieutenant found himself in charge of the main engine division on the ship during the D-Day landing of Normandy, during which the Tuscaloosa engaged in a long battle with a German battery (reported by the Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent Ira Wolfert in the August 1944 issue of Reader's Digest).
After further duty in the Pacific at Iwo Jima and Okinawa, in February 1946, Robinson had earned enough points to be discharged from the Navy and left for Palo Alto, California, to enter the Stanford University Business School. He graduated with a business degree through an accelerated program in May 1947.
1947–49 Golden State Dairy. Managed the company's manufacturing plants in California. Received several patents for creative, but not necessarily successful ideas, including "Nucaroma"—which packaged the smell of a new car in an aerosol can. Became president of a new startup subsidiary company—Harvestaire Corp.
1952–74 Founder and President of the Marcona Mining Company (financed by Utah Construction Company and Cyprus Mines), which began by operating an iron ore mine out of San Juan, Peru. (This region was named the District of Marcona by the Peruvian government in 1955.) The Marcona board members from Utah Construction consisted of Mariner Eccles, Ed Littlefield and Alan Christensen see photo. Through Robinson's innovative vision, the Marcona company expanded into the shipping industry. In an effort to support the transport of iron ore to Japan, Robinson continued to push for larger ships eventually designing and in 1961 constructing the first Panamax, the largest vessel to navigate the Panama Canal. This 105,000-ton ship received much press coverage at the time. Other innovations included the development of a slurry system (Marconaflo) to transport iron ore from mine into and out of ships in a fluid state and development of the first joint oil/ore carriers.
1950–74 Mining/steel operations and port development in Brazil, Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, Australia, India and Chile. This includes establishment of Samarco (joint venture between Marcona and Samitri, a Brazilian company) through which iron ore mined at Minas Gerais (Brazil) was transported via slurry pipeline to a port they developed at Ponta Ubu. Robinson selected Al-Jubail (Saudi Arabia) as the location to develop a port to deliver the iron ore and develop Saudi Arabia's first steel mill. Oil was then transported back to Brazil from Saudi Arabia in the same ships.
1988–2014. Set up the DynaYacht Company (now CBTF Co.) based in San Diego, California. Worked with Alberto Calderon, Bill Burns, Matt Brown and Peter Isler to create a radical new appendage design that uses a canting ballast for righting moment and two foils - one forward and one aft of the keel - for side force and steering functions of the yacht. The prototype had been used on the boat called the US in the America's Cup Race. The Canting Ballast Twin Foil technology (CBTF technology) design won Sailing World's "Boat of the Year Award" in 2001.
1998–2014. M-Ship Co. Another concept, the 'M-Hull' was originally designed to reduce bow waves to reduce erosion in the canals of Venice, Italy. This technology has been used on an 80 ft (24 m) boat called the M80 Stiletto, under construction by the US Military, as well as a recreational 8 ft (2.4 m) sailing Dinghy called the Wahoo. The Wahoo received the Bronze award in the 2003 Industrial Design Excellence Awards competition.
Robinson was married since 1957 to Mara (Lindovna) Robinson, who was a founder of the Opera-West Company in San Francisco in the 1950s and was active in the '60s in trying to dissolve racial barriers. She has served on many boards including the San Francisco Opera Company, St. John's College and Save Venice Inc. They have three daughters, Heather L. Robinson (b. 1957), Lisa A. Robinson (b. 1959) and Wendy P. Robinson (b. 1962).
“If I knew ahead of time, it wouldn’t be any fun”—Reply in response to a San Francisco Business magazine reporter’s question in 1974 as to what Robinson thought he would accomplish in the job of Under-Secretary of State.
“Management by self-induced crisis”—Robinson’s description of his business style.
"No one who has any self-doubts would ever wear a bow-tie"—Robinson quoted in a New York Times article April 22, 1979 on the returning fashion of bow-ties (Robinson had always worn a bow tie)