AAPA Elects Armando Duarte of Santa Marta, Colombia, As 2013 Chairman.
The American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA)—representing the interests of seaports throughout the Western Hemisphere—this week during its Centennial Spring Conference board of directors meeting in Washington, D.C.—elected Armando Duarte-Peláez as its next chairman of the board. Mr. Duarte- Peláez’s one-year term will begin the last day of AAPA’s 101st Annual Convention in Mobile, Ala., which runs Oct. 21-25, 2012. He will assume the AAPA chairmanship from Jerry Bridges, executive director of the Virginia Port Authority, who began his one-year term on the last day of AAPA’s 100th Annual Convention in Seattle, which was Sept. 15, 2011.
“Armando Duarte has been an active and well respected leader in AAPA for many years, dedicated to enhancing Latin American ports’ participation in the association and the sharing of experiences and best practices among hemispheric ports. He will be a strong ambassador for the association and an effective voice conveying the vital role seaports play in economic prosperity, jobs and quality of life,” said Kurt Nagle, AAPA’s president and CEO. For more than 15 years, Mr. Duarte-Peláez has been a shareholder and member of the board of directors of the Santa Marta Port Corporation, Sociedad Portuaria de Santa Marta (SPSM), in Santa Marta, Colombia.
A physicist and electrical engineer by training, Mr. Duarte-Peláez also has a long and distinguished business career in cattle breeding, coal producing and transportation. In addition to SPSM, his port business interests have included a coal port known as PROUERTO, the deep-water port in Barranquilla, Colombia, and various ports along the Magdalena River. In addition to Mr. Duarte-Peláez becoming AAPA’s chairman-elect, Mr. Adolph N. Ojard, executive director of the Duluth Seaway Port Authority in Minnesota, will serve as the next chairman of AAPA’s United States delegation and serve the association on U.S. advocacy and government relations issues. Mr. Gaétan Boivin, president & CEO of the Trois-Rivières Port Authority in Québec, will serve as the next chairman of AAPA’s Canadian delegation.