FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
PORTLAND, ORE. (Feb. 9,
2012) – Port of Portland Announces Leadership Change
Port of
Portland Executive Director Bill Wyatt has announced changes to his management
team that will serve to restructure the organization around functional lines in
order to improve efficiency and reduce administrative costs.
 |
| Sam Ruda |
Sam Ruda,
the Port’s former director of marine and industrial development now holds the
newly created position of chief commercial officer and is responsible for all
of the Port’s commercial and business development activities at the Port’s
marine and aviation facilities and its commercial real estate holdings.
Vince
Granato, the Port’s current chief financial officer, has stepped into the new
role of chief operating officer and is responsible for all operations
activities at the Port’s marine, aviation facilities and business parks. The
Port has initiated a national search for a new chief financial officer. Granato will continue serving in that role as well until a replacement is
found.
 |
| Vince Granato |
Granato is
a 24 year veteran at the Port with experience in virtually all areas of the
Port including airfield and terminal operations, properties and real estate,
and many years in the Finance area where he’s interacted with all areas of the
Port. Ruda has served more than nine years as the Port’s director of
marine and industrial development and helped to significantly improve the
General Fund business lines both financially and operationally. Prior to
joining the Port, Ruda worked for Nike where he served as director of global logistics,
and before that had a long career in the global shipping industry in sales and
marketing.
“Traditionally
the Port has been organized by key business line—Aviation, which focused on
Portland International Airport and our two general aviation airports—and Marine
and Industrial Development, which focused on the Port’s four marine terminals
and its five business parks. There were similar functions within each, so my
purpose in this reorganization is to eliminate duplicate organizational
structures, take advantage of the obvious synergies from locating like
functional responsibilities within single work groups, place a very
concentrated emphasis on our customers and business development (which accounts
for 96 percent of our revenue) and, over time, reduce the cost of operating the
Port while improving our business,” said Wyatt.
The Port
has been working towards the consolidation of its operations for several years,
combining the marine and aviation finance units and the marine and aviation
security groups as well as relocating all administrative employees to its new
headquarters building. The relocation of staff to the new building is
facilitating these further changes which will increase efficiency and reduce costs
over time.
The changes
become effective today, February 9, 2012.
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