L.A. Port May Get Its First Female Executive Director
After a national search, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has nominated Geraldine Knatz to become the executive director of the Port of Los Angeles.
The position has been vacant since Executive Director Larry Keller stepped down in September 2004 amid investigations into contracting practices and criticisms from cleanair advocates. Meanwhile, Chief Operating Officer Bruce Seaton has been acting as interim executive director of the country’s largest maritime shipping port.
If approved by the Harbor Commission and the Los Angeles City Council, Knatz will become the port’s first female executive director in an industry dominated by male executives. Since 1999, she has been the managing director at the nearby Port of Long Beach, where she has been in charge of a $2.3-billion capital-improvement project. She helped usher in the port’s green policy.
Villaraigosa is hoping Knatz will make the Port of Los Angeles more environmentally sound. The mayor and his recent appointees to the Harbor Commission have plans to convert trucks, trains and other vehicles to clean fuels, require all new shipping contracts to have vessels turn off their diesel-fuel engines and use electric power when in port, and require the port to have a runoff-control program to reduce pollutants in surrounding waters.
Prior to being managing director, Knatz was the planning director at the Port of Long Beach for 11 years.
Knatz received a bachelor’s degree in zoology in 1973 from Rutgers University in New Jersey. She has a master’s in environmental engineering and earned a Ph.D. in biological sciences at USC. —Deborah Belgum
