Port of Sydney considers hiring headhunter to find a new CEO

The Port of Sydney Development Corporation is considering hiring a headhunter to find a new CEO.

Marlene Usher retired from the position in June. Board chair James Kerr said ads were run and a candidate was offered the job, but negotiations fell through.

However, port operations at the Joan Harris Cruise Pavilion on the downtown waterfront in Sydney, N.S., are continuing as usual, he said.

"By no means should anyone think that we're just waiting for a CEO to come our way," Kerr said. "We are still going to be searching and still working on the projects that we have on our plate now."

Kerr said the board has a couple of options. It might advertise the job again and widen the markets where ads are placed, or it might hire a recruiting firm.

"We haven't done a lot of research on that yet and we're just ... taking a look at costing of that to see if that's something that we would need to do," he said.

In the meantime, the staff are quite capable of keeping the port going, Kerr said.

"The folks at the port, [we have] full confidence in them on how they're running it."

The port has a full schedule of cruise ships visiting this season and it has opened up a number of new businesses inside and outside the cruise pavilion in sea containers on the dock.

It also has plans to open an urban market inside and to build small retail spaces on a new boardwalk planned for the cove next to the big fiddle on Sydney's downtown waterfront.

The port also needs to make some major repairs to part of the dock.

Kerr said those plans are all still in the works, despite not having a CEO in place.

"We're still working towards the south dock, fishermen's cove, urban market, hopefully some other projects, so it doesn't mean the port nor the board are treading water," he said.

"It's just taking us a little bit longer to get our CEO than we anticipated."

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