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Gary Lee Moore has stepped in as the interim executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, replacing Executive Director Geraldine Knatz, who earlier announced she would be retiring at the end of the year.

For the past decade, Moore has been the Los Angeles city engineer and general manager of the city’s Bureau of Engineering. He will be head of the Port of LA until a permanent director is selected.

Currently, he and Knatz are in Japan to meet some of the port’s Japanese customers and port officials, said Port of Los Angeles spokesperson Phillip Sanfield.

The Port of Los Angeles is the busiest port in the United States, having moved 8.1 million 20-foot cargo containers last year, down from its 8.5 million cargo-container peak in 2006. “The port is a critical economic engine for the city and region,” Moore said in a statement that accompanied the Nov. 12 announcement he was heading up the port. “In the face of fierce global competition, my focus will be to keep us on a path of sustained growth that generates jobs and business investment and also assures that we retain our position as the nation’s leading port.”

A search for a new port executive director is being conducted by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s office, Sanfield said. Once a final candidate is selected, the City Council must approve the appointment.

Knatz, who was the first woman to head up the Port of LA and was in that position for nearly eight years, offered her resignation in early October after the newly elected Garcetti asked all department heads to reapply for their jobs.

Knatz, who previously was at the Port of Long Beach for 24 years, where she was the managing director of development and the second in command, will stay on in an advisory role through December and January, Sanfield said.

She also will be teaching at the University of Southern California’s engineering school and working with the American Association of Port Authorities to establish an executive maritime leadership program.