Matson Navigation Co. Senior Vice President Gary North is retiring on April 1 after a maritime career that spanned four decades, the company said yesterday.

"Gary's contributions to Matson have been enormous and encompassed such milestones as the startup of our Guam service, formation of Stevedoring Services of America Terminals on the West Coast and automation of the company's hub terminal facility at Sand Island," said James Andrasick, Matson president and CEO.

North joined Matson in 1967 as a cargo planner in Hawai'i's freight department. He worked for Seatrain and U.S. Lines in the 1970s and early 1980s, and rejoined Matson in 1987 as vice president and area manager for Hawai'i.

In 1989 he was promoted to vice president, operations, and transferred to Matson headquarters, which were then in San Francisco. He was promoted to senior vice president of Matson in 1993. He relocated to Honolulu in 2003 and assumed his current role as senior vice president, Pacific.

North will continue to serve as a consultant to Matson.

He will be succeeded by Vic Angoco, who has been promoted to vice president and head of the company's operations in the Pacific, including Hawai'i, Guam and Micronesia. He also will serve as executive vice president of the Matson subsidiary, Matson Terminals Inc.

Angoco, currently country manager, Guam, will relocate to Honolulu.

Len Isotoff will succeed Angoco as general manager, Guam and Micronesia, for Matson and will transfer from Honolulu to Guam.