News Release
FOR RELEASE - January 12, 2007
Contact: Aaron Ellis, aellis@aapa-ports.org
703-706-4714

American Association of Port Authorities
Phone: (202) 792-4033
www.aapa-ports.org

AAPA to Host Latin America/Caribbean Port Management Seminar in Miami, Feb. 12-14

The top issues relevant to Caribbean and Latin American port professionals, including navigation dredging, seaport security, port privatization, Panama Canal expansion and port operating strategies, will be featured at the American Association of Port Authorities’ (AAPA) Executive Management Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean, Feb. 12-14.  The conference will be held in Miami’s Marriott Biscayne Bay Hotel and Marina.

“Latin American and Caribbean port executives are faced with many of the same challenges as their North American counterparts, such as increasing their security and dealing with larger ships and growing trade volumes.  However, they often have to face those challenges with fewer funding resources and less developed road and rail systems to move freight,” said Kurt Nagle, AAPA’s president and CEO.  “This seminar will help Latin American and Caribbean port executives get the tools they need to better lead and manage their ports in the competitive business environment in which they must operate.”

The seminar’s keynote address on the opening day will focus on how industry trends will likely impact Latin American and Caribbean ports in the years ahead.  M. John Vickerman, Jr., a principal with TranSystems Corporation in Norfolk, Va., and Richard Wainio, port director and CEO of the Tampa Port Authority, will share the spotlight to lay the groundwork for what ports will need to do to sustain themselves, while effectively serving their communities and customers, as globalization continues to evolve.

Following on that theme, the executive director of Puerto Rico’s Port of the Americas, Ramón Torres Morales, together with other speakers, later in the day will discuss how Latin American and Caribbean countries can successfully address the competitive aspects of globalization, primarily through improving their transportation system infrastructure.

On the second day of the program, noted business management coach Kevin Nourse, principal of Leap Advocates in Washington, D.C., together with Port of New Orleans President/CEO Gary LaGrange, who is credited with reinvigorating the New Orleans port shortly after the Hurricane Katrina disaster, will tackle the topic, “Effective Leadership in the Port Environment.”  Drawing on their own rich experiences, as well as the successes of others, the two speakers will explain how port executives can build personal effectiveness and influence to carry out their organizational missions.

In the afternoon, an international duo—Port Society of Santa Marta’s (Colombia) financial director and corporate administrator, Raúl Arenas Consuegra, together with William Reid, a partner with Victoria, Canada’s Elevate Consulting—will share their predictions on port finance trends and provide forecasting and planning tools they call “Value-Added Economy” and “Balanced Scorecard” for making wise financial decisions.

The conference will conclude on Wednesday, Feb. 14, with a morning-long strategic planning workshop, led by Raymond Byl, regional director of  Trainmar Americas, a Guadeloupe-based association comprising 12 training centers in the Caribbean, Central and South America that help participants respond to regional market dynamics.

More information about AAPA’s Executive Management Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean is available at www.aapa-ports.org (click on the “Programs & Events” tab) or call AAPA’s Ed O’Connell at 703-684-5700.