Port People: Virginia

Joseph P. Ruddy has been appointed chief innovation officer for The Port of Virginia and Shawn Tibbets will take over as chief operations officer, the port’s chief executive announced today.

In his previous role as chief operations officer, Ruddy helped Virginia International Terminals (VIT) earn its reputation as an honest and reliable terminal operations organization, said John F. Reinhart, CEO and executive director of the Virginia Port Authority.

"It is Joe’s strong operational ability and dedication to the port that led me to choose him for this important role," Reinhart said. "Shawn has been the senior vice president of operations for VIT and those colleagues within the organization that have worked with Shawn are well aware of the value he brings to the organization with operations and overall leadership. This move completes our reorganization effort."

In assuming his new duties as chief innovation officer, Ruddy will oversee the strategic planning, engineering, information technology and the sustainability teams. Tibbets will continue to focus on implementation of several initiatives that are designed to increase efficiency, improve cargo velocity and develop consistency in all areas of the operation.