Personnel: Duluth

Transportation executive Vanta E. Coda II was officially appointed to the position of executive director at the September 19 meeting of the Port Authority Board of Commissioners' meeting in Duluth.  

Duluth Port Authority Names New Executive Director 

The Duluth Seaway Port Authority will be welcoming a new executive director on October 1. Transportation executive Vanta E. Coda II was officially appointed to the position at the September 19 meeting of the Port Authority Board of Commissioners' meeting in Duluth. He succeeds Adolph Ojard, who announced in May his decision to retire and who will be leaving September 30 after more than a decade at the helm of the agency.  

Vanta E. Coda II
Photo/Duluth Seaway Port Authority

Mr. Coda brings to this leadership post more than 20 years of experience in multi-modal transportation and logistics. During his career, he developed expertise in transportation marketing and sales, pricing and financial analysis, working with a wide array of customers and across many commodity lines including coal, aggregate, chemicals, petroleum, steel, wind generation and heavy-lift products. He has had responsibility for moving product via inland waterways and across oceans, as well as by rail and truck across North America. 

Mr. Coda started his career in Chicago in 1993 with the Illinois Central Railroad, eventually becoming director of marketing and sales following its merger with the Canadian National Railway. He was hired by the Westlake Group of Companies in 2000 to manage all logistics for its vinyls subsidiary. Five years later, he was recruited by American Commercial Lines to be director of regional sales in the Gulf, during which time he managed an international account portfolio that included expansion of its project cargo business including the company’s first wind generation movement. Most recently, he served as director of fuel transportation for Dynegy Inc. in Houston, Texas.

"Mr. Coda is exactly the type of person we were looking for in this nationwide search," said Port Authority Board President Steve Raukar. "He possesses strong business acumen, understands transportation pricing and utilization, and has excellent communication and negotiation skills plus a strategic, hands-on approach to management."  

In accepting this position, Mr. Coda becomes port authority’s seventh director in almost 60 years. The others: Adolph N. Ojard – 2003-13; Davis Helberg – 1979-2003; Paul Pella – 1977-79; C. Thomas Burke – 1969-77; David W. Oberlin – 1967-69; and Robert T. Smith – 1957-67.