PMSA urges Port of Seattle to expedite CEO search

Given the Pacific Northwest port’s importance to the region’s economy, the open chief executive officer position must be filled quickly, according to Jordan Royer, vice president in the Seattle office of the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association.    The commissioners of the Port of Seattle should act quickly to replace outgoing Chief Executive Officer Ted Fick, according to Jordan Royer, vice president in the Seattle office of the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association (PMSA).
   The port named Chief Operating Officer Dave Soike interim CEO after Fick’s sudden resignation in February amid a Washington State Auditor’s Office investigation into an alleged $4.8 million in potentially illegal payouts to port employees. Commissioners said at the time the port would initiate a public process to find a permanent replacement later this year.
   Due to the various challenges and opportunities the Pacific Northwest Port is facing, and it’s importance to the region’s economy, the open CEO position is too important to wait to fill, Royer said in a recent op-ed in the Seattle Times.
  “Port commissioners don’t have the luxury of conducting a yearlong process to install a new executive director or CEO,” he said. “They need to move forward quickly to appoint someone with proven abilities, respect in the community, and the management and leadership skills to quickly restore public confidence and take on the challenges that lie immediately ahead.”
   Royer noted that a more than $2 billion project is already underway to expand the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and the newly formed Northwest Seaport Alliance between the ports of Seattle and Tacoma “faces huge challenges in the hypercompetitive and changing ocean container shipping business.”
   Additional issues facing the port this year that will require “complicated negotiations” with local and state government officials, organized labor, and area industry groups include “the uplands at Pier 90/91, the rebuilding of Alaskan Way, the NBA arena issue, the demolition of the Highway 99 viaduct, the Lander Street crossing, airport noise, the future of Terminal 46 and the rebuilding of the Colman Dock ferry terminal,” he said.