If indeed history repeats itself, and the next three quarters of a century is as good to Georgia ports and their customers as the Georgia Ports Authority’s first 75 years, GPA leaders have plenty about which to be enthused.
Griff Lynch, the GPA’s executive director, tells AJOT that plans – including soon-to-be-completed channel deepening and multiple new container terminals – are continuing to advance to ensure Georgia ports evolve and innovate to stay ahead of the proverbial pack for generations to come.
Lynch is midway through his fourth year as executive director of the GPA, building upon the foundation established by predecessors most recently including Curtis Foltz and Doug Marchand. Prior to taking the GPA helm, Lynch served five years as the GPA’s chief operating officer after holding sales, marketing and operational positions with Global Container Terminals, Sea-Land and APM Terminals, in the latter capacity spearheading development of the technologically advanced Virginia International Gateway in Portsmouth.
Citing ocean carrier decisions as far back as the early 1970s to call Savannah due to the port’s presence of big-box retailer distribution facilities, Lynch commented, “History repeats itself. We’re still kind of building off the same formula that started back in 1973.
“Of course, big-box retailers exploded in the late ’90s and early 2000s, but the model really started many, many, many years ago, and that’s what kicked it off for Savannah,” he said. “And a beautiful thing was these imports brought in the containers to service exports.
“That’s what got us on the map initially,” Lynch continued. “When we look forward for the next 75 years, we want to make sure we continue to grow off this incredible story that we’ve built over the past several decades.
“The ‘Savannah model’ has been a team effort over those 75 years,” he said. “It’s been the Georgia Ports Authority, the ILA [International Longshoremen’s Association], all the retailers and exporters, all of our customers, the trucking community and now, more than ever, the developers developing the facilities outside our gates to ensure we have the capacity to grow. “We recognize that, and we are so appreciative of everybody stepping up to the plate over the years,” he continued, “and we are going to continue to need that support to move forward. We cannot do it without them.”
