Former Oakland port chief picked to run Port of Seattle

Six months ago, the Port of Seattle set out to find a "Superman" — someone with the breadth of experience and range of contacts to replace Mic Dinsmore as chief executive of the Port.

Today, the Port commissioners chose a Japanese immigrant with all of those qualities, plus a personal tie to Seattle, to steer the Port in coming years.

Tay Yoshitani, 60, the former executive director of the Port of Oakland, came to the U.S. as a 7-year-old aboard a ship that sailed from Yokohama and docked in Seattle in 1954.

"My first step on American soil was right here at the Port of Seattle," he said at a press conference today after the commission unanimously voted to hire him.

"Every position I've had in my business career has been preparing me for this job."

Yoshitani's career certainly matches the Port's desire. After graduating from West Point and earning an MBA from Harvard, he headed a commercial real-estate company, then served as deputy director of the Port of Los Angeles. He left to head the Port of Baltimore in the mid-1990s and joined the Port of Oakland in 1998 as deputy director. He became executive director in Oakland in 2001, and left in 2004 to become a lobbyist and consultant.

After numerous community meetings and working with a search consultant, the Port put together a 21-page job description that seemed difficult, if not impossible, to fill.

"People said you're trying to get Superman," Commission President Patricia Davis said. "Tay was all of that and more."

In Oakland, he oversaw the nation's fourth largest-seaport, its 17th-largest airport and a large real estate division with extensive holdings in the Bay Area. Real-estate experience is particularly important as the Port, after a string of loss-making development projects it built in the past, moves ahead with several fresh real-estate ventures.

The Oakland port was two-thirds the size of Seattle in terms of revenue, with a slightly larger seaport and an airport about the same size as Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Yoshitani will start work March 1 at a salary of $325,000, including $15,000 in deferred compensation. The salary makes him the highest-paid port director in the country, as was Dinsmore, according to a recent survey by the American Association of Port Authorities.

Other benefits, including $17,000 in annual pension contributions and a $7,500 car allowance, push the total package to $356,009 a year.

The March 1 start will allow Yoshitani to overlap for a month with Dinsmore, who has said he will stay through the end of March to help the transition. Yoshitani said he got to know Dinsmore during his career, and looks forward to his help in taking the reins in Seattle.

Speaking to reporters, Yoshitani suggested there would be no immediate changes in how the Port spends tax money or relates to customers and workers.

"He's not going to come in and throw a grenade in here and blow things up," Davis said.

Indeed, at the news conference Yoshitani sounded like he was quoting Davis' past pronouncements about the Port's role.

"What this Port needs to continue to do is make the wise investments in infrastructure to make sure cargo and flow through easily and efficiently," he said.

Yoshitani said he wants to make sure the Port's investments are good ones, and make a reasonable return. But the Port's return also has to take into account jobs created and business stimulated by the investments it makes, he said.

"In a business like this, you're constantly making course corrections," he said. "We can tweak things to make them more profitable and we're certainly going to do that."

But he said he didn't expect a growth industry like the Port's cruise-line business to be profitable so soon after it was launched in 2000.

He also said all ports receive financial support from their communities, though not all like Seattle, which gets about $63 million a year in King County property taxes.

Davis said the commission hasn't yet discussed what directions it will give the new CEO about such issues as making the Port more profitable and less reliant on taxpayer funds.

Yoshitani may bring a different tone to the Port. Tall and dignified, he displayed a modesty at the commission meeting that contrasted with Dinsmore's more assertive demeanor.

The difference was emphasized at Yoshitani's first opportunity to speak.

"I'm humbled," he said. "I'm very humbled. I'm excited to be here."

Alwyn Scott 206-464-3329 or ascott@seattletimes.com