Georgia Ports announces CCO, CFO roles

Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) announced the appointments of Flavio Batista as Chief Commercial Officer and Rob Dooley as Chief Financial Officer, effective July 1, 2024.

"The appointments reflect a succession plan put in place in 2023 for the June 30, 2024 retirement of Chief Financial Officer Michaela Thompson and for the current Chief Commercial Officer Cliff Pyron to step into a GPA advisor role," says an official release.

“Cliff and Michaela have been tremendous assets to the Georgia Ports Authority, setting a high standard in professionalism and world-class customer care for our organization,” says Griff Lynch, President and CEO, GPA. “Their years of experience, dedication and customer relationships have provided a wealth of insight to our commercial planning, growth and operations, and made finding the right successors a key to our future success.”

Batista joined GPA as vice president of sales and marketing in January 2023, and came to GPA from the ocean carrier Wallenius Wilhelmsen Group that provided logistics solutions for manufacturers of cars, trucks, heavy equipment and specialised cargo, the release added.

“Our goal is to keep our customers and our supply chain partners competitive year-in, year-out with our national gateway ports and make it easy to do business with GPA," says Batista. "We have a long-term view and plan to support our customer growth with the nation’s best port infrastructure, future capacity and $4.5 billion investment planned."

Dooley joined GPA in August 2023 as Senior Director of Finance, bringing extensive experience from the public and private sector working for companies like Northrop Grumman, Integra Connect and Sontiq (formerly called EZShield).

Dooley says: “GPA’s port master plan, decision-making, leadership and Board of Directors – who are all successful business leaders from the private and public sector – have created excellent market momentum and I’m excited to lead the CFO function in this journey."