Executive Moves: U.S. ports, French solutions provider

Surett is promoted to CFO; Cornede is named executive director; Matthews is tapped as association president.    New Jersey-headquartered Ports America, on Friday announced the appointment of Richard Surett as its new chief financial officer. 
  Surett has been with Ports America since 2010 and most recently held the position of senior vice president of FP&A and treasury. He has more than 20 years of experience in mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity financings and financial planning and analysis.
   Ports America is the largest independent marine terminal operator and stevedore company in the United States. The company currently operates in more than 42 ports and 80 locations. 
   Ports America announced last week that it had appointed Mark Montgomery as its new president and chief executive officer. 

   SOGET, based in Le Havre, France, has appointed Hervé Cornede as executive director.
   Since September 2009, Cornede has held the position of commercial director and member of the management board of the Port Authority of Le Havre. He also has served as the commercial and marketing director of the HAROPA port complex since its creation in January 2013. 
   Cornede has been a general delegate of Transport & Logistics of France and a deputy general delegate of the Industrial Federation for Transport Organizers and Freight Forwarders  as well as the French Forwarders and Logistics Association.
   SOGET develops and operates digital solutions for trade facilitation and is a founding member of the International Port Community Systems Association.

   Evan Matthews, executive director of the Connecticut Port Authority, has been named president of the North Atlantic Ports Association. He will serve in the role for the next two years.
   The North Atlantic Ports Association (NAPA), founded in 1949, has about 100 members, all connected to seaports and ocean commerce in some way and all located between Virginia and the Canadian Maritimes. 
   “My work with the North Atlantic Ports Association is tied directly to the work of the Connecticut Port Authority and gives Connecticut a greater voice at the table when it comes to discussing the various economic development issues surrounding the maritime economy in this region,” Matthews said. “Connecticut is very serious about expanding our role in the maritime sector and holding a leadership role at the regional level will help in that effort.”

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Kim Link Wills

Senior Editor Kim Link-Wills has written about everything from agriculture as a reporter for Illinois Agri-News to zoology as editor of the Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine. Her work has garnered awards from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Magazine Association of the Southeast. Prior to serving as managing editor of American Shipper, Kim spent more than four years with XPO Logistics.