Duarte-Peláez named new AAPA chairman

   Armando Duarte-Peláez, a longtime board member of Colombia’s Sociedad Portuaria de Santa Marta, has been installed as theAmerican Association of Port Authorities’ (AAPA) chairman 2012-13.
   Duarte-Peláez accepted the new appointment’s duties at a membership meeting in Mobile, Ala., in late October.
   Kurt Nagle, AAPA’s president and chief executive officer, called Durate-Peláez “a strong advocate for integrating all Western Hemisphere ports under the collaborative AAPA ‘umbrella’ to give them a unified, international voice in maritime- and transportation-related issues.
   “He has the knowledge, leadership skills, enthusiasm and industry respect to advance our association’s mission of connecting port communities with the global marketplace, and we look forward to his chairmanship for the coming year,” Nagle added.
   Duarte-Peláez is also owner and president of Association Dupela-Duaga Ltda., C.I., a mining developer, as well as a freight transportation consultant and provider in Colombia.
   In other AAPA news, Adolph N. Ojard, executive director for the Duluth Seaway Port Authority, in Duluth, Minn., was elected U.S. delegation chairman for 2012-13. Tay Yoshitani, the Port of Seattle’s executive director, was named chair-elect, while Port of San Diego Executive Director Wayne Darbeau became the delegation’s new vice chairman. Ojard will also chair AAPA’s U.S. Legislative Policy Council.
   AAPA’s Canadian delegation named Gaétan Boivin, president and CEO of the Trois-Rivières Port Authority, as its chairman, with Bernie Dumas, president and CEO of the Nanaimo Port Authority, becoming the delegation’s new chair-elect.
   The Latin American delegation elected Alejandro Couttolenc, gerente de comercialización for Administración Portuaria Integral de Veracruz, México, as their president. The delegation’s vice chair will be Rodolfo Sabonge, vice president of market research and analysis for the Panama Canal Authority.
   For the Caribbean delegation, Orlando Forbes, port director of the Freeport Harbour Co., will serve as its 2012-13 chairman.