Steamship Authority Names Two Finalists For General Manager Position

The Steamship Authority has named two candidates as finalists for its general manager position being vacated by Bob Davis, who is retiring at the end of the year.

In an agenda posted on Wednesday, the Steamship Authority named Mark H. Amundsen, the SSA's current chief operating officer, and Alex Kryska, the chief operating officer of PROP in San Francisco, CA, as the two finalists for the leadership post.

Both Amundsen and Kryska will be interviewed by the Steamship Authority's Board of Governors during a public meeting this Friday, Nov. 7th, at 11 a.m. in the Iris Hotel Cape Cod's ballroom in Falmouth. The meeting can be viewed remotely at this link.

Amundsen has more than 30 years of experience in operations, strategic planning, technical management, and engineering in the international shipping industry. He joined the Authority in 2019 and has served as the director of marine operations, director of engineering and maintenance, and in February, he was named the SSA's chief operating officer. Amundsen has overseen the SSA's conversion of three vessels – the M/V Barnstable, M/V Aquinnah, and M/V Monomoy – at Alabama Shipyard in Mobile, Alabama, in preparation for bringing the offshore supply vessels into service for the Authority.

According to an online resume, Kryska is a maritime and transportation executive with 20-plus years of leadership in operations, strategic growth, and innovation. At PROP, a private maritime transportation company that operates high-speed ferries in the San Francisco Bay area and Puget Sound, Kryska led expansions and sustainable marina transformations. He is a United States Merchant Marine Academy graduate with an MBA in global operations.

Davis, who has worked at the Steamship Authority since 1986, including the last seven as general manager, announced last year that he will be stepping down as head of the boat line, and will transition into an advisory role in December.

The search for his replacement has been marked with some controversy, as Steamship Authority Board of Governors member James Malkin, who represents Martha's Vineyard, said last month that "agitators" and "slander" had prompted some candidates to withdraw from consideration.