Baltimore’s port director is leaving for Miami

Just as the Port of Baltimore is climbing back after the Key Bridge collapse, its top leader is heading south.

Jonathan Daniels, who has been the Maryland Port Administration’s executive director since early 2024, will leave his post in mid-August and become the CEO of PortMiami in Florida.

The bulk of his tenure has been spent restoring shipping commerce following the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, which happened seven weeks after he started the job. Shipping lanes were closed for months following the March 2024 tragedy.

During a National Maritime Day celebration last month aboard the NS Savannah, Daniels noted that Baltimore set records last year for the number of containers and ships it handled. The port has largely bounced back from the collapse but has not quite returned to its standing as one of the nation’s top 10 ports.

“The recovery, though we’re not there yet, we’re getting back there,” he said in a speech.

Maryland Transportation Secretary Katie Thomson in a statement Tuesday called Daniels “critical to our ability to steer the Port of Baltimore through the challenges that followed the collapse of the Key Bridge.”

Daniels will take over PortMiami, the No. 1 port in the nation for cruise passengers. He previously led another busy cruising terminal in Port Everglades, Florida, from 2020 to 2023.

Baltimore remains more of a shipping port, though it is one of the busiest East Coast cruise ports outside of Florida.

Samantha Biddle, who recently served as acting secretary of transportation, will act as the interim port director.

Baltimore’s next director will take over at a crucial time for the port. With the addition of Tradepoint Atlantic’s new container terminal at Sparrows Point, Baltimore is expected to have the third-most container capacity on the East Coast in 2028.

Gov. Wes Moore and other officials also celebrated on Monday the completion of the Howard Street Tunnel. The taller tunnel will enable rail cars to carry two containers — stacked atop each other — from Baltimore to the Midwest, greatly increasing the flow of goods in and out of the port.

William Doyle, a former port director who leads the Dredging Contractors of America, said in a statement to The Banner that the “next decade presents tremendous opportunities for Baltimore.”

“But capturing them will require strong leadership, strategic investment and full support from Annapolis,” he said.