
Port of Portland Narrows Executive Director Candidates
An advisory group to the Port of Portland Commission has recommended three final candidates in the running to succeed the port’s current Executive Director Bill Wyatt, who will retire on June 30, 2017. The three finalists are Jonathan Daniels, Executive Director and CEO, Mississippi State Port Authority; Stephanie Dawson, Chief Operation Officer, Port Authority of New York & New Jersey; and Curtis Robinhold, Deputy Executive Director, Port of Portland. The port will now hold an online public comment period that ends on Monday, April 24. The Port Commission will

O’Hollaren Named Port of Portland Marine Marketing Director
The Port of Portland has hired Ken O’Hollaren to lead the Port of Portland’s marine marketing efforts, starting March 20, 2017. O’Hollaren previously served as the executive director of the Port of Longview and the Port of Port Angeles, and brings more than 25 years of experience in the maritime industry to the role. Additionally, O’Hollaren served as the chair of the Interstate Columbia River Improvement Project, responsible for the project to deepen the Columbia River shipping channel, and is a past chairman of the American Association of Port Authorities.  
Leonard Returns to Port of Portland
Kristen Leonard will return to the Port of Portland (Oregon) on February 27, 2017 as chief public affairs officer, after leaving the port in November 2015 to serve as Governor Kate Brown’s chief of staff. During Leonard’s absence, Bobbi Stedman, the port’s chief human resources officer, also served as chief public affairs officer. Leonard joined the port to lead public affairs in July 2014. Previously, she advised clients on communications and public affairs. Leonard was the co-founder of C&E Systems, a Portland-based company specializing in government relations

Port of Portland Director Announces Retirement
Port of Portland Executive Director Bill Wyatt formally announced to the Port Commissioners that he will retire from the Port on June 30, 2017. He has led the Oregon port since 2001. Wyatt’s 16-year tenure with the U.S. West Coast port has included major milestones in the organization’s history. At the marine terminals specifically, his legacy includes several hundred million dollars of infrastructure investment made by port marine terminal tenants following the $199 million Columbia River navigation channel deepening project leading to the growth and retention of key waterfront

NLRB Holds ILWU Guilty of Labor Law Violations
Relations Board (NLRB) has affirmed the decision of an administrative law judge that the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU International) and ILWU Local 8 (Local 8) violated federal labor law by engaging in coercive activity directed against ICTSI Oregon, Inc. at Terminal 6 at the Port of Portland. The NLRB concluded that, between September 2012 and June 2013, ILWU members worked in a deliberately slow manner and otherwise interfered with productivity at Terminal 6 and that the ILWU International and Local 8 were responsible for this illegal conduct. According to Elvis Ganda

Port Automation Puts Labor on Notice
, who minced no words while speaking at the World Trade Week Luncheon in May. The loss of trust has already dealt a devastating blow in the Pacific Northwest. First Hanjin Shipping Co., frustrated over productivity issues, and then Hapag-Lloyd, citing “schedule integrity,” abandoned the Port of Portland, together taking away 99 percent of that port’s container business. Analysts are predicting that LA and Long Beach will also permanently lose some of the clients they lost during the slowdown. Ports Look to Automation The union got the contract it wanted, but the dispute may have

ICTSI Efforts to Labor Slowdowns
The Preventing Labor Union Slowdowns Act of 2015 (PLUS Act) was introduced last Thursday in the United States Senate to help prevent the type of maritime labor slowdowns at the Port of Portland and 28 other West Coast ports that disrupted domestic and international trade and nearly brought the U.S. economy to a standstill earlier this year. The PLUS Act, which was introduced by Idaho Senator James Risch, was the result of efforts by ICTSI Oregon, Inc., the terminal operating company for the Port of Portland’s Terminal 6, to focus congressional attention on the ongoing problem of maritime