Tudela chosen as CPA executive director

The Commonwealth Ports Authority board of directors has finally agreed to name Leo Tudela, the former U.S. Postal Service director for Asia Pacific, as CPA’s new executive director.

All seven CPA board members unanimously agreed to give Tudela the executive director position, which has been technically vacant since last month but has, in fact, been vacant for many months now.

According to CPA chair Jose “Joe” Ayuyu, since previous nominees have rejected the position offer, the board had to discuss the position anew and agreed to choose Tudela who was one of the five applicants for the position.

“There has been a number of applicants and, as a matter of fact, if I recall, there were others who rejected the offer for personal reasons. I don’t know the background but today we settled with Tudela. We all agreed to offer the position to Tudela,” he said.

Ayuyu said he is confident in Tudela’s management skills and is hopeful that his years of experience in management will translate well in his new role at CPA.

“He’s got solid background. I would hope that his experience translates well…as he has a lot of experience in management and in organization. The key to success is the people in that organization and whether or not you can steer them in the right direction,” he said.

Ayuyu added that he looks forward to Tudela joining CPA and getting to work on addressing infrastructure issues the CNMI ports currently face.

“Now that we’ve settled the issue of executive director by choosing to offer the position to Leo Tudela, he can come in and start working on the issues that our CNMI ports are facing. A lot of things he needs to address are the issues community members and visitors face when traveling through our ports. Those things need to be addressed right away,” he said.

Meanwhile, in an interview with newly nominated CPA vice chair Antonio Cabrera, he said he was able to participate in the nomination of a new executive director as he pulled his own application for the position last Friday.

“Last week, I submitted a letter withdrawing my application so I could participate in the conversation of selecting a new executive director. I rescinded my application for the executive director position. It was not my intention to actually be executive director because I can’t serve as both executive director and a member of the board because of conflict of interest, I know that. I would’ve had to choose. I decided that it’s for the better that I pull out,” he said.

Cabrera said he looks forward to working with Tudela.

“We can coach the executive director on the issues that we are confronting and we hope we can all work together,” he said.

The executive director position was officially vacated by former CPA executive director Chris Tenorio early last month. However, he had already resigned months earlier.

Because of his exodus, the CPA board launched its search for a new executive director back in August and applicants were vetted in September.

The previous board’s first choice was Marianas Visitors Authority managing director Chris Concepcion who, after a few days of his nomination, declined the offer.

Over a week later, the previous CPA board held another meeting, selecting Derek Sasamoto as its new executive director, but Saipan Tribune learned that he, too, declined the offer.

The new CPA board held a special board meeting yesterday where they unanimously decided to offer the position to Tudela.