Seaports Poised for "Change"
When one is asked to name a thriving U.S. East Coast cargo gateway, the Massachusetts Port Authority does not immediately spring to mind. Still, there must be a significant measure of leadership coming from this corner of the world for its current director to be named (for the second time, no less) as the American Association of Port Authorities’ (AAPA) Chairman of the Board for 2009-2010.
Port Director Michael A. Leone was formally installed yesterday as the first person to serve twice as AAPA’s board chairman (2003-2004 and 2009-2010). He was appointed port director of Massachusetts Port Authority in 1998 after serving as counsel to the port authority’s maritime department.
Leone accepted his new chairmanship duties at the association’s annual membership meeting in Galveston, during which the entire slate of 2009-2010 officers was inducted as part of AAPA’s 98th annual convention.
As noted elsewhere in LM recently, all of the nation’s seaports are heartened by the moves the present administration is making to rebuild infrastructure as it comes closer to shaping a national transportation policy. In handing back the reins so a proven veteran, the AAPA is poised to take advantage of the promised “change” when (and if) it happens.