Next Panama Canal administrator, deputy named

Vasquez, the new administrator, will take office in September; Espino de Marotta, who led the canal’s expansion program, will take office in January 2020.    The Panama Canal Board of Directors announced Friday the appointments of Ricaurte Vasquez as the next administrator and Ilya Espino de Marotta as deputy administrator.
   Vasquez will take office on Sept. 4 and will succeed Jorge Quijano, who has been at the helm for seven years. Espino de Marotta will take office in January 2020, when the current Deputy Administrator Manuel Benitez retires after more than 40 years with the Panama Canal.
   The board made both decisions in compliance with a process mandated by the Panamanian Constitution and Organic Law of the Panama Canal Authority.
   “As part of the Panama Canal Authority’s autonomous institutional process, the board of directors developed its evaluation criteria based upon an analysis of the Panama Canal’s vision, mission, values, strategic objectives and challenges for the coming years,” said Roberto Roy, chairman of the board and minister for canal affairs. “After months of undergoing this strategic planning process, the board of directors determined that Mr. Vasquez has the expertise needed to lead the waterway through its next era of growth.”
   Vasquez, who will become the waterway’s fourth Panamanian administrator, has more than 30 years of experience in financial and international capital market management and in the public sector.
   Espino de Marotta has more than 30 years of experience at the Panama Canal, where she began her career in 1985. She was recently appointed the vice president of transit business and led the canal’s expansion program as executive vice president for engineering.