The Port of Port Townsend will lose its director of operations next month as Greg Englin was named the new executive director at the Port of Kingston on Tuesday.

Englin will begin work Nov. 26 and have a starting salary of $115,000.

Englin has worked as director of operations and business development at the Port of Port Townsend since 2016. 

“I wish Greg all the best,” said Port of Port Townsend interim executive director Jim Pivarnik, who previously worked as the executive director at the Port of Kingston. “It’s going to be a big hole here at the port. We’ve always planned on restructuring to a certain degree, but this is going to be a big restructuring.” 

Port of Kingston commissioners were in negotiations with Englin on Tuesday morning before they made their decision public, Port Controller Juanita Gomez said.

The announcement came after a monthlong search. Pivarnik resigned from his position at the Port of Kingston in September and took his current rule at the Port of Port Townsend.

Port of Kingston commissioners chose three finalists on Oct. 24 to be considered for the position. They included  Englin; Sam Gibboney, the Port of Port Townsend’s previous executive director; and Josh Peters, district manager of the Aquatic Resources Division for the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. 

“Our goal was to move forward as quickly as possible while being both thorough and transparent," Port Commission President Mary McClure said. "Most important, we wanted to find the best fit for Kingston as we move forward into the community’s next chapter of growth and vitality."

Englin currently oversees the operation of the port's three marinas, 13-acre shipyard, RV Park, airport and other properties and assets. 

“We will have to post a job if that’s what the commission decides,” Pivarnik said. “The commissioners decide on the workflow here at the port. We’ll take this to the commissioners and find out how, or if, they’d like to restructure this.”

Before he joined the Port of Port Townsend, Englin was a vice president for Marel Seattle, Inc., until that firm moved its operations to its headquarters in Iceland. Before that, he was manager of maritime operations in the Seaport Division for the Port of Seattle for 14 years. 

As a volunteer, in 1995 he helped found the not-for-profit SeaShare organization, a seafood industries food bank. He continues to serve on the SeaShare board, and he's also active in the mentoring program at Seattle Pacific University. Englin has a bachelor of science degree in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“I’m foregoing other opportunities so I can work and live locally,” Englin stated in a press release from the Port of Kingston. “Hopefully, we here at the Port can improve the opportunities for others to be able to work and live locally, too.”