Manatee County Port Authority Narrows the Run for New Director

The Manatee County Port Authority meeting started late, but it came on strong. Executive Director David L McDonald cut right to the chase, introducing Sherrill A. Uyeda who is a senior partner at Alliance Resource Consulting LLC, the firm hired to do the vetting process for a new director to run the Manatee County Port Authority 

Over the past couple of months Uyeda has campaigned for and organized a total of 78 possible candidates, their resumes and interviews. Commissioners had copies of all of the reports she had put together, and they have had the past week to study them. Uyeda gave each applicant a number, 1 through 78, and through a process of elimination had chose 10 she felt were most qualified. Commissioners were about to go through the first step in their process to decide who the director would be.

Uyeda briefly reviewed her reasons supporting the top 10 that she had choose from the 78 applicants, then handed the process over to commissioners. She asked each commissioner to write down the numbers of the top five they felt best qualified from the 78. Uyeda did her magic on a display board, gathering their votes and recording the numbers each commissioner selected. Remarkably it was becoming quite clear who the top six contenders would be. 

Commissioners proceeded asking indept questions about the six finalists, which brought some doubt and confidence to the top choices. It appeared all of the six were qualified, but Uyeda suggested commissioners might want to add a couple to the list of six and go from there. Three more were added, leaving the list of nine semi-finalist to go forward. 

The selected were:

1. Juan Kuryla - Professional Port Manager, Graduate of Harvard and the JFK School of Government. From, the Port of Miami, Assistant Director for Maritime Services.

2. Carlos Buqueras - University of Barcelona, Masters in Economics. Almost 20 years at the Port Everglades Authority as Director of Business Development.

3 . J David Morgan - BS Marine Transportation, US Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Port N.Y. Almost 20 years at Port America, Savanna, Georgia. A manager in multiple areas throughout his career.

4. Steve Tyndal - BS in Journalism, public relations, Univ. of Florida. Professional port manager, 14 years, Manatee County Port Authority. Senior Director Trade Development and Special Projects.

5. James Crandles - Masters in Business Administration, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver CA. Port Metro Vancouver, Planing and Development Director.

6. Michael Perez - Bachelor of Science, National Institute of Science, California Marine Academy. Port Harlingen Authority, Executive Director (briefly) and Port of Corpus Christie, Director of Business.

7. Jonathan Daniels - Bachelor of Arts, Political Science and International Politics. Cert. International Program of Port Planning and Management. Port of Osuego Authority. Executive Director.

8. Clifton Hickok - Bachelor of Business Administration Pace University N.Y. CFH International Consulting, Orlando FL. President and Maersk Line, Orlando, FL. Senior account Executive.

9. Randy Rogers - Masters Degree, National Securities Affairs. US Maritime Administration, US Department of transportation.

All have histories that would offer a variety of experiences to the position of Port Director. Commissioners fishing for content spoke to a variety of suggestions that should be carried over into the next step. Uyeda said she would now look further into their background and do some peer interviews, personally and via Skype. 

The new port director's salary range will be between $150,000 to $190,000 per year. In the next couple of weeks, a date will be set to decide who will be the next director. Most likely, the final two or three will be brought to Manatee for the final decision.

Commissioner Joe McClash made a motion to direct Alliance Resources to further check-out the semi-finalists. Motion Passed Unanimously.