Staff Writer
To be competitive in the global economy, the Jacksonville Port Authority will conduct a global search for its next executive director.
The Port Authority’s board of directors voted unanimously Monday to approve the recommendation of both its selection and awards committees. Vice Chair Buck Fowler was not present.
It will contract with Boyden Global Executive Search to find a new executive director. Up to $98,000 is available for the contract and the Port plans to have the search firm deal completed by Friday.
“We want a world-class port director,” said Herschel Vinyard Jr., treasurer of the board and the board representative on the selection committee.
“Boyden has the resume that made me comfortable with their ability to do the job,” he said.
Port Authority Senior Director of Trade Development and Marketing Raul Alfonso and Senior Director of Administration Kenyatta Lee were also members of the selection committee.
The Boyden firm is headquartered in Hawthorne, N.Y., and lists 79 offices in 43 countries, including 12 in the U.S. The only Florida location is in Miami.
Board Secretary Reginald Gaffney asked which firms were from Jacksonville. “One of them, SGS Technologies,” said Lee.
She later corrected that to inform the board that Talagy was also a Jacksonville firm.
The other companies that submitted applications included: SpencerStuart; Shey-Harding Associates; Korn/Ferry International; The Waters Consulting Group; Bob Murray and Associates; and Heidrick & Struggles International Inc.
SpencerStuart presented the most expensive proposal and Boyden was second.
The firm is expected to provide services which include: defining a search strategy; facilitating the development of the position and candidate specifications; research, source contacts and
performing prospective candidate screenings and evaluations; creating and producing candidate reports and coordinating candidate introductory meetings; and facilitating hiring steps, in compliance with JPA employment practices.
“I think we are going to spend the next 90 days on the interview process,” said David Kulik, board chair.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we weren’t down to the final two candidates by January,” he said.
Former Executive Director Rick Ferrin resigned last month.
The next executive director will be charged with implementing a plan to improve the port’s infrastructure, ensuring the proper focus and funding is directed toward the Mile Point Project and preparing the harbor for Post Panamax ships when the Panama Canal expansion project is completed in 2014.
The port is undergoing a study of its infrastructure to learn what needs to be improved and the board expects that report to provide answers about the port’s future.
“When the report comes out, we will be able to identify our priorities and develop a deliberate, systemic plan for improvements,” said Kulik.
Some improvements are needed sooner than later, as COO and Interim Executive Director Chris Kauffmann explained a project to replace sheet pile, a form of driven piling using interlocking sheets of steel to obtain a continuous barrier in the ground, at berths 4 and 5 of the Talleyrand Marine Terminal.
“We are at the point where it is time,” said Kauffmann, describing the structures constructed in the 1960s. “We need a deliberate, comprehensive plan to refurbish the docks.”
The board voted unanimously to award the sheet pile project to HDR Engineering at a cost of $499,570.38.
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