TOLEDO, Ohio, February 6, 2009 – The Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority has released the names of the top candidates for the position of President:

• Sean T. Connaughton - Sean Connaughton most recently was the U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administrator in Washington, D.C. (September 2006 – January 16, 2009). As Administrator, he functioned as the executive leader of the federal agency responsible for promotion of the marine transportation industry, including port development, shipyards, seafarers, national security, and maritime education programs. He was responsible for an agency with approximately 1,000 employees and a budget of $1 billion. He has managerial, legal and executive experience in the transportation and public sector. He has been on active and reserve duty in the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy and has been a lawyer and lobbyist on behalf of transportation companies and organizations. Prior to his position with the U.S. Department of Transportation, he was the Chairman of the Board of County Supervisors for Prince Williams County, Virginia and oversaw a county government with 4,000 employees and a budget of $2 billion. He has extensive experience in land use, economic development, transportation, and tourism matters. He also had oversight of commuter bus and rail services and two regional airports.

 

• Ricci L. Gardner – Ricci Gardner most recently was Global Vice President, Logistics at Dana Corporation (2002 – 2008). His responsibilities included building and negotiating plants in Mexico and spearheading international, transportation/logistics, warehousing and customs functions. He also oversaw trucking, small parcel, rail, air/ocean, and property/facilities management. Prior to his role at Dana, he worked for Burlington Northern and Santé Fe (BNSF) Railroad and had increasing responsibility from trainmaster through vice presidential and general management responsibilities. He has experience in intermodal operations having managed the interface of rail with various trucking operations and intermodal facilities. He has experience dealing with regulatory and governmental issues both from the human resources side at as well as in his roles of negotiating rail leases and development. At various times he had responsibility for the physical properties and facilities at BNSF in excess of 150 major facilities where he negotiated leases and sold right-of-way. He designed some of the intermodal facilities and had operational responsibility for them as well. Within the intermodal structure at BNSF he had relationships with ports as well as having had responsibility for managing their aircraft fleet.

 

• Michael J. Stolarczyk - Michael Stolarczyk is currently the Senior Director, Business Development – Americas for Exel Inc., (www.exel.com) a contract logistics provider in the Americas with over 500 sites throughout the U.S., Canada, and Latin America. Exel is part of the Supply Chain/Corporate Information Solutions corporate division of Deutsche Post World Net (DPWN), the world's leading logistics group, with more than 500,000 employees in more than 220 countries and territories around the world and annual revenues exceeding $93 billion. He is located in Westerville, Ohio where he helps create client alliance solutions from warehousing through distribution. The bulk of his career was spent with the A.P. Moller Group (Maersk Shipping Lines) where he served in various positions in the U.S. and spent five years managing their operations in Prague, Czech Republic. While in the Czech Republic he focused on public/private partnership projects in Eastern Europe and created an inland multimodal terminal that handles 150,000 loads per year. He has experience in building strong organizations and driving growth and business development. He has a background in transportation, shipping and ocean transport, port operations and has experience with international and multimodal operations.

 

“Our search firm, Waverly Partners, has done a thorough job of identifying exemplary candidates for the position of President and we will move swiftly into conducting the final interviews,” says William J. Carroll, Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority Chairman. “This will be the final stage of the selection process and we plan to have the new president in office by the second quarter of 2009.”

Within the next 30 days, the candidates will have final interviews with the selection committee and will also meet with key staff members of the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority. The selection committee will recommend a final candidate to the Board of Directors for approval and a formal vote will be taken prior to extending an employment offer.

The Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority has been led by Interim President, Paul L. Toth, since August 2008 when the Board of Directors dismissed then President James H. Hartung. In conjunction with the position of Interim President, Mr. Toth also serves as Vice President of Technical and Financing Services for the Port Authority. As Vice President, Mr. Toth is responsible for overseeing all planning, engineering, development, and construction activities and managing the Innovative Financing Programs which include the Northwest Ohio Bond Fund as well as regional loan programs for the State of Ohio and Small Business Administration.

“Paul will be instrumental in the transition process once a new president is identified. His 20 plus years of experience here and knowledge of the Port Authority provided the strong foundation necessary these past few months,” says William J. Carroll. “I commend Paul for his leadership and dedication to our organization during this challenging time and look forward to his continued involvement.”

The Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority’s business is transportation. That business is shaped by our mission to move people and cargo through the region while employing innovative finance programs to stimulate economic development. For more information, please visit www.toledoportauthority.org.