NEW YORK: For the last 10 years, Linda Styrk has been working her way up at the Port of Seattle, managing container terminals, heading the modernization of Terminal 5 and the channel deepening project.
Since the announcement of a seaport alliance in October, Styrk has been working with the Port of Tacoma to help create a business out of two historically rival ports.
Tuesday she announced her resignation to become executive director of the Puget Sound Pilots organization.
The Northwest Seaport Alliance is expected to be approved Aug. 4, and Styrk’s last day will be Aug. 7.
She said the timing is a coincidence, but with the formation of the Seaport Alliance almost complete and some of the major pieces of the seaport division transferring to the alliance, “It is a good time to have this shift occur.”
Styrk is a graduate of the California Maritime Academy with a bachelor’s in nautical industrial technology. She worked almost 20 years with APL/Eagle Marine Services and 10 years at the Port. As the managing director for the seaport division for the last five years, Styrk was responsible for the cruise business and commercial moorage, in addition to the container industry.
With the formation of the Seaport Alliance, the container business is merging with the Port of Tacoma and becoming a separate entity that is going to be led by Tacoma CEO John Wolfe. The changes left Styrk with overseeing the cruise industry, commercial moorage, the grain and Fisherman’s terminals and marine maintenance.
It was Styrk’s knowledge of big ships and big ship navigation that lead Puget Sound Pilots to recruit her in the first place, said Walter Tabler the current executive director, who is stepping down in early October.
“The main thing was her breadth of experience with the Port and maritime-related issues,” he said. “Probably few people understand the business better than she.”
The Puget Sound Pilots describe themselves as “the first American presence onboard tankers and foreign vessels entering Puget Sound waters” and direct vessels into and out of harbors, straights, rivers and bays around the sound.
