Puget Sound Pilots hires former Port of Seattle Maritime Division head as executive director, and Port of Coos Bay chief executive officer steps down.
Linda Styrk, the managing director of the Port of Seattle’s Maritime Division for the past decade, will become executive director for the Puget Sound Pilots, which works with ship captains to safely direct vessels into and out of the region’s harbors and waterways.
The Port of Seattle and Port of Tacoma are combining management of their seaports under an entity called the Northwest Seaport Alliance. John Wolfe, current Port of Tacoma chief
executive officer, will become CEO of the new alliance.
The Port of Seattle noted the new job provides a great match for Styrk’s interests and experience. Not only did she hold a U.S. Coast Guard Third Mate’s License, she is also married to a pilot who guides ships through the Northwest Passage to Alaska.
Prior to joining the port in 2005, Styrk spent almost 20 years with APL/Eagle
Marine Services in a variety of roles. She is also a graduate of the California Maritime Academy with a bachelor’s degree in
Nautical Industrial Technology.
“I am thrilled to be able to help advance the mission of the Puget Sound Pilots, who work every hour of every day to protect the safety of passengers, mariners, cargo and the environment in Puget Sound,” said Styrk. “I look forward to being an outspoken advocate for the maritime industry in my new role.”
David Koch, the chief executive officer of the Port of Coos Bay in Oregon, plans to step down from the position later this year.
Koch worked for one of the port’s contract attorneys, Stebbins & Coffey when he was asked to join the port as chief operating officer to guide management and operations in October 2010. He became CEO in in June 2012.
Koch said the port has hired a search firm to help find a successor and is looking for someone “within the maritime industry that understands the unique role that ports play in the supply chain and particularly with the growth curve that the Port of Coos Bay is on with the development of new projects – someone that has experience in recruiting cargo opportunities and developing terminal facilties that are necessary to serve those needs.”
“What I’ve done is come in and help, with my background, reorganize this agency and this port authority and get it into a position where we can now grow as an organization and meet the opportunities that are coming our way. It’s time for, we need now, that experienced port manager to come in and take the Port of Coos Bay up to that next level and recruit those cargo opportunities and get those terminal facilities developed.”
In recent years Coos Bay has acquired 1,300 acres from Weyerhauser on the “North Spit” where an LNG export facility, the Jordan Cove project, is now planned.
In two transactions in 2009 and 2010, the port also acquired the 135 Coos Bay Rail Line, which connects with the Union Pacific in Eugene, Ore.
Koch said the plan is to hire a successor by November, but he has agreed to stay on for an additional three months after that as a consultant to help with the transition.
