DC Velocity - November 2010

or confrontational. But that calm demeanor doesn’t mean he lacks passion for his subject. His enthusiasm was clearly evident when he spoke with DC VELOCITY about AAPA’s four-part mission—advocacy, professional development and education, information sharing and relationship building among members, and promoting public awareness of the role and economic value of ports.

QYou have a background in international economics and trade development. Does that help you to work more effectively with and on behalf of AAPA’s members?

AIt is relevant, and it has been helpful. In addition to my education, earlier in my career I worked for the U.S. Commerce Department’s international trade branch on global economic issues. I also worked on international trade and related competitive issues while at the National Coal Association.

Certainly, that background has been helpful in recognizing that we’re competing in a global economy and in understanding how that relates to our industry and to our members’ competitiveness. It helps to understand what we have to do in the port industry and in the country as a whole about the issue of infrastructure investment. It is absolutely critical that we invest in infrastructure not only within the ports themselves but also in the connections to ports on the land side and on the water side to enable our country to be competitive.

QYour staff has changed in recent years. What kinds of expertise have you brought on board, and why?

AOur backgrounds and experiences reflect what is most important and relevant to our members and to our industry. First, we’ve added some resources that focus on initiatives like SHARE, which stands for Seaports of the Hemisphere Allied in Relationships for Excellence. One of the key missions of this organization is to help members share lessons learned,

best practices, and information about what works and what doesn’t. … We started SHARE about six years ago to enhance members’ ability to share that kind of information. This also includes processes that facilitate electronic communication, such as our newsletter and webinars for educa-

tion and for committee meetings.

More recently, we have increased resources for our “awareness” initiative, which is geared toward increasing recognition and understanding among policymakers— whether in Washington, in the various national governments throughout the hemisphere, or at the local level—of the critical importance of ports to national, regional, and local economies. We’ve also increased staff relative to U.S. transportation policy. With the surface transportation reauthorization coming up, it’s critical that we work closely with government to develop a transportation policy that will help us as a nation to not only improve efficiency but also reduce congestion and improve air quality.

The third area where we’ve made staff changes is in adding someone who focuses on the Latin American delegation. His job is to ensure that issues that are particularly relevant and important to Latin American members are addressed and to facilitate the exchange of information. We also now have people on staff who have Spanish language and translation capabilities.

QAAPA’s members include port authorities and man- agers from countries throughout the Western Hemisphere. How does the organization meet the needs of such a diverse membership?

AOne way we do that is by ensuring that resources that are contributed by everyone are not being used for something that benefits only some of our members. For example, our U.S. advocacy and government relations efforts are segregated in terms of staff, budget, and funding. Only U.S. members fund those resources.

Another way is that about 20 years ago, we separated our organizational structure into four delegations: Latin America, the Caribbean, Canada, and the United States. The delegations’ leadership is represented on AAPA’s executive committee and on the board of directors. By having all of the delegations represented in the broader policy and leadership positions, we are ensuring that the association provides value and is relevant to ports throughout the hemisphere. Certainly, when ports in different countries are looking at information technology or at developing a terminal, there are a lot of similar issues, questions, and practices. I think that’s what members are looking for from us: to facilitate that exchange of information and lessons learned, and to provide a network and clearinghouse.