The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners has named new
directors for the port’s Construction Management and Information Management
divisions, the port said Dec. 2.
Nyariana Maiko, who since 2010 has been an Associate Vice
President with Molina Healthcare, will be the new Director of the Information
Management division. Suzanne Plezia, who has been Acting Director of
Construction Management since January 2014, is now the permanent director and
is in charge of overseeing construction of port projects.
The two women are filling slots vacated by directors who
retired this year. Before Molina Healthcare, Maiko worked in management of
information technology and program management for a number of companies
including Toyota Financial Services and Nissan North America. According to the
port, she has about 30 years of work experience in information technology and
information management, business and strategic technology leadership.
She is scheduled to start at the port on Jan. 5, 2015.
Plezia, who joined the Port of Long Beach as an intern in
1996, is a licensed civil engineer who rose through the ranks at the port. In
2012, she was also promoted to Deputy Chief Harbor Engineer before becoming
Acting Director of Construction Management 11 months ago. Her promotion is
effective immediately.
The hirings are the ninth and 10th executive-level positions
filled over about two-month period at the port. In October, Chief Executive Jon
Slangerup filled four vacant executive posts with staff veterans. And in
November, the Port of Long Beach named four other people to upper management
roles in newly-created and previously vacant jobs.
The new appointments have filled a leadership void that
emerged after the resignations and retirements of more than half a dozen upper
managers from mid-2013 to mid-2014.
