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Executive Moves: PATH, Long Beach and Manatee

Three women — an engineer, geologist and accountant — are tapped for new roles.

   The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced that Clarelle DeGraffe, the deputy director of PATH since 2015, will be the new director of rail transit and general manager of PATH, effective Monday.
   She will replace PATH Director Mike Marino, who announced his intention to retire last fall.
   DeGraffe will oversee the department’s capital program, including the ongoing project to replace equipment and rebuild tunnels severely damaged during Superstorm Sandy and the completion of the remaining phases of modernizing its century-old signal system.
   During her tenure as deputy director, DeGraffe, an engineer by training who has served the port authority for 29 years, helped steer PATH through a series of major modernization and repair projects.   
   Marino, who has served as director since 2015, will assist DeGraffe during the transition period before retiring early next month. Marino is credited with the successful implementation and federal certification of positive train control safety technology.

   The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners has appointed geologist Kimberley Holtz (pictured above) to lead the survey division at the nation’s second-busiest seaport.
    Holtz comes to the port after 11 years with the city of Long Beach. Most recently, she was a geologist with the energy resources department. Before that, she was a senior surveyor for public works. During a 12-year stint with Orange County, she helped establish its GPS network.
   Holtz is the only person who is both a licensed professional land surveyor and a licensed geologist in the state of California.
   The Port of Long Beach’s survey division checks depths in the harbor to support safe navigation and assists port operations in areas such as utility marking, property rights and construction projects.

   Abby Lindecamp, who has held accounting positions in Florida’s Manatee County for nearly two decades, has joined Port Manatee in the newly created position of deputy director of business administration and finance.
   “Abby’s familiarity with Port Manatee from preparing financial reports for the Manatee County Port Authority in addition to comprehensive reports encompassing the entire county government has ideally readied her for this new position,” said Carlos Buqueras, Port Manatee’s executive director. “She is already enthusiastically working alongside Denise Stufflebeam, the port’s senior director of business administration and finance, who has been with the port since 1991.”

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.