Fairwinds Landing partner promotes new CEO

Portsmouth-based advanced engineering and manufacturing company Fairlead — a Fairwinds Landing project developer — announced Monday it is promoting its president, Fred Pasquine, to president and CEO, effective immediately.

He succeeds Jerry Miller, who will take on the role of executive chairman after 40 years of leading Fairlead and its earlier iteration, Earl Industries.

The company — along with real estate development company The Miller Group and Balicore Construction — formed Fairwinds Landing LLC, which spearheaded the development of the 111-acre Fairwinds Landing project at Norfolk Southern’s Lambert’s Point Docks in Norfolk.

Fairwinds Landing is intended to be a maritime operations and logistics center supporting Hampton Roads’ offshore wind, defense and transportation industries. The Dominion Monitoring & Coordination Center, an offshore wind energy monitoring and coordination center, is expected to be completed at the site in September. Also at Fairwinds Landing, Newport News Shipbuilding started production in 2023 at a satellite campus.

Fairlead specializes in systems engineering, modular shipbuilding, advanced manufacturing and integrated defense infrastructure, with a significant portion of its work supporting the U.S. Navy.

Pasquine has been president of the company since 2017 and has helped the company achieve numerous milestones, including the launch of a modular shipbuilding business that has delivered more than 4,000 tons of aircraft carrier units and submarine modules, development of more than 30 power and control products for submarines and unmanned surface vehicles on programs of record, expansion of ship repair and sustainment capabilities and launch of breakbulk terminal operations at Fairwinds Landing.

Pasquine said that Miller, who is still the majority owner of Fairlead, had selected him for the role. Miller remains CEO of The Miller Group.

“There’s never been a more important time to grow our company to support the U.S. Navy, and I’ve never worked with a better leader than Fred Pasquine to take on the CEO role,” Miller said in a statement. “His deep industry knowledge, commitment to our employees, dedication to our customers and vision will guide Fairlead into the future.”

Pasquine described becoming CEO as “a professional dream come true.”

“It’s really been something I’ve been trying to work towards, and [Miller’s] been, and continues to be, an exceptional mentor of how you treat people, how you honor them, how you take intelligent risks, how you are principled with the amount of profit that you make relative to that risk,” Pasquine said. “It’s about being competitive but not being greedy. And that’s a unique combination.”

Headquartered in Portsmouth, Fairlead delivers turnkey mechanical, electrical and shipboard solutions to the U.S. Navy and critical defense partners. It employs more than 400 people and anticipates adding another 100 employees over the next 12 to 18 months. It operates facilities across six locations.