The Port of Seattle named a veteran of the real estate and port industries as its new leader. There's reason to be cautiously optimistic about the choice.
Initial reports say Tay Yoshitani, a 60-year-old former Army captain and Harvard MBA, will be a big change in personality and management approach for the struggling port. The often-divided Seattle port commission unanimously picked Yoshitani, who had won praise for improving operations as the deputy director at the Port of Oakland.
Already the Seattle P-I's editorialists seem to be popping champagne because of Yoshitani's reputation for openness.
Annual compensation of $356,000 will make Yoshitani the country's best-paid port CEO and he may even earn it as he tries to reverse declines at Sea-Tac airport and at Seattle's harbor, while reducing the port's tax on King County residents.
Surely he will be a sharp contrast with current CEO Mic Dinsmore, who has controlled the port for 14 years. Yoshitani's resume suggests a new approach, said Rich Berkowitz, local head of a maritime trade organization and a former candidate for Port commission.
"Mic came from operations and had a lot of time on the docks, moving cargo. But he became a supernova and that made him an expert in things he shouldn't have been," Berkowitz said. "Just from his resume, Yoshitani is going to have a new approach."