Port of Long Beach gets two new directors
The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners has named new directors for the Harbor Department’s Construction Management and Information Management divisions, the company said in its press release.
Suzanne Plezia, who has been Acting Director of Construction Management since January, is now the permanent Director, overseeing construction of Port projects including the Port’s largest, the Middle Harbor Redevelopment Program.
Nyariana Maiko, who since 2010 has been Associate Vice President of the Program Management Office for Molina Healthcare of Long Beach, will be the new Director of Information Management. The division provides the Harbor Department with information technology leadership that enables the Port of Long Beach to be a world-class seaport.
The two women are filling slots vacated by directors who retired this year. The Commission has been steadily appointing executives to fill leadership posts that have opened up due to retirements and reorganization.
Plezia, who joined the Port of Long Beach as an intern in 1996, is a licensed civil engineer who rose through the ranks at the Port, working in the Design, Program Management, and Construction Management divisions, developing a depth and variety of experience. In 2012, she guided the procurement process for the Desmond Bridge Replacement contract. She was also promoted to Deputy Chief Harbor Engineer that year. Her promotion to Director is effective immediately. Plezia earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of California, Irvine.
The Construction Management Division is part of the Program Delivery Group of the Harbor Department’s Engineering Services Bureau.
Before Molina Healthcare, Maiko worked in management of information technology and program management for a number of companies including Toyota Financial Services and Nissan North America. She has approximately 30 years of progressively more complex work experience in information technology and information management, business and strategic technology leadership. Maiko earned a bachelor’s degree in business with a specialization in quantitative methods and computer science from the University of St. Catherine-University of St. Thomas, in St. Paul, Minn., and a master’s in computer and information science from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. She is scheduled to start at the Port on Jan. 5, 2015.