Port authority chair is re-elected, COO is hired and promotions are announced.
Melissa Hendricks has been re-elected for a second term as chair of the board of directors of the Little Rock Port Authority.
The board also elected Greg Joslin as vice chair and Joe Bailey as treasurer.
Hendricks was first appointed to the port authority in September 2011. During her time on the board, she has served as treasurer, vice chairman and chair of the external affairs committee.
She currently is the foundation director of the Center for Youth and Families. Hendricks also has worked in development positions for the St. Vincent Foundation, Pulaski Technical College and Vera Lloyd Presbyterian Family Services.
“The past year has been a wonderful experience,” Hendricks said. “We have had the announcement of new projects to the expansion of the Arkansas River Resource Center to the completion of Phase 1 of the TIGER project, and I am trilled to help continue this momentum into the next decade.”
On July 1, Markus Doerr (pictured above) will take on the newly created position of chief operating officer at StreetScooter GmbH, a Deutsche Post subsidiary and manufacturer of electric commercial vehicles.
As a member of the senior management team, Doerr will be responsible for all areas of production, procurement and quality at the Aachen, Germany-based company.
Most recently, Doerr was the managing director of the automotive engineering division at Ricardo plc, a global engineering and strategic, technical and environmental company, for which he was responsible for Europe, India, Japan and Korea. He previously worked on the automotive teams for consulting firms A.T. Kearney and Roland Berger and started his career in the automobile industry at Ford Motor Co. in Cologne, Germany.
Seabury Maritime LLC, a global maritime and transportation investment bank and industry advisory firm, has promoted Jonathan R. Montbach to executive director of investment banking and Nikos Petrakakos to director and head of environmental innovation.
Seabury also appointed Gary W. Pedersen as director of operations and Gerardo E. Ayzanoa as director of advisory.
Seabury Maritime is a subsidiary of Seabury Corporate Finance, a division of Seabury Capital Group LLC.
Montbach has been with Seabury Capital since 2009. He previously was the senior vice president of specialty ship finance at Seabury Maritime. Prior to Seabury Capital, Montbach worked as a vice president at KPMG. Earlier, he was with UBS Investment Bank, AIG and GB Merchant Partners.
Petrakakos joined Seabury Maritime in October to head the environmental initiatives unit. Previously, he co-founded and served as chief executive officer of Ursus Maritime Capital. He began his career as an operations and projects manager at Oldendorff Carriers and later worked for PPG Industries, Chugoku Marine and HART Shipping.
During his career, Pedersen has led the operational management and building of international freight forwarding business ventures for such companies as Kuehne + Nagel and Century Distribution Systems. He has taught supply chain management and worked as an adjunct professor at New Jersey-based Fairleigh Dickinson University and Union County College. Pedersen started his career as a U.S. Coast Guard licensed third officer.
Prior to joining Seabury Maritime, Ayzanoa worked in Washington, D.C., for consulting firms Nathan Associates and The Louis Berger Group as project manager, port planner, maritime systems/shipping specialist and trade analyst. He began his career at the National Institute for Ports and Waterways. Ayzanoa has managed specialized multidisciplinary teams conducting global trade analysis, transport master planning and economic impact analysis to support the development of transport infrastructure projects in the U.S., Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and Europe.
