Ports Group Names Chair

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October 30, 2009
By Peter Leach

Leone, the first person to serve twice as AAPA’s board chairman (2003-2004 and 2009-2010), was appointed port director of Massachusetts Port Authority in 1998 after serving as counsel to the port authority’s maritime department.

Prior to that, he served in the U.S. Coast Guard for 22 years in numerous positions, including regional counsel for all Coast Guard commands in the Northeast, and as a military judge. He is a graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and earned a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from George Washington University Law School.

In addition to his role as AAPA board chairman, Leone will serve as chairman of U.S. delegation for 2009-2010.

Other U.S. delegation officers include Chairman-Elect Armand J. (Pete) Reixach, who serves as executive port director for Port Freeport, Texas, and Vice Chairman Jerry Bridges, executive director for the Virginia Port Authority.

Representing AAPA’s Canadian delegation, Halifax Port Authority President and Chief Executive Officer Karen Oldfield will take over as the delegation’s chairman for the 2009-2010 year, while Sean Hanrahan, president and chief executive officer of the St. John’s Port Authority, Newfoundland, was named chairman-elect.

The new Caribbean delegation chairman for the upcoming year is Errol Douglas, general manager and chief executive officer for St. Christopher Air & Sea Ports Authority, in Basseterre, St. Kitts.

V. Victor O’Neal, managing director of the British Virgin Islands Ports Authority, was named chairman-elect.

For AAPA’s Latin American delegation, Agustin Diaz, managing director of the Curaçao Ports Authority in Willemstad, Curaçao, will assume the role of delegation chairman, while Dr. Jorge Otharan, president of the Bahía Blanca Port Authority in Argentina, was named the delegation’s 2009-2010 chairman-elect.

The delegation’s new vice chairman is Licda. Gicela de Kinkead, sub-director of Ancillary Maritime Industries, Maritime Authority of Panama.

Tags: AAPA, American Association of Port Authorities, Port of Galveston