An interview with the winners of the first Antoine Rufenacht Prize, presenting their projects and discussing their contributions to port city development.A de bate featuring the finalists of the first edition of the Antoine Rufenacht Prize alongside representatives from the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYC EDC), discussing key themes in port city development.
TBC Sandra Kilroy serves as Senior Director Environment and Sustainability for both the maritime and airport operations of the Port of Seattle. Within this role, she leads the Port’s initiative to decarbonize the maritime and aviation industries, advancing sustainable transportation fuels, and planning for a just transition to a clean fuel economy. Sandra also champions the Port role in habitat restoration, land stewardship, and resiliency. Prior to the Port, Sandra served as the Assistant Director of a large wastewater utility supporting operations, policy, strategic business planning, and capital delivery. During her 30-year career she has directed natural resource programs in holistic watershed restoration, threatened species recovery, river and flood management, and water quality. Sandra demonstrates how global and national environmental priorities are implemented on-the-ground at the local level. She currently serves as President of the Board for the Center for Sustainable Infrastructure, with past Board roles for the National Association of Clean Water Agencies and the Coalition for Clean Water. She has a Masters of Marine Affairs and Bachelor of Science in Environmental and Forest Biology.
Chief engineer of Bridges, Waters and Forests, graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique, Florian Weyer is delegated CEO in charge of HAROPA PORT territorial direction of Le Havre and of the Digital transition project.
Florian Weyer began his career at the SNCF before joining the Ministry of Ecology as head of the Policies and Techniques department at the North-Western Interdepartmental Road Directorate. In 2014, he was appointed director of Transport at the Regional Council of Alsace. His position evolved to become Deputy CEO in charge of Mobilities at the Grand Est Regional Council. During these five years, he was responsible for organising passenger rail transport, monitoring infrastructure projects financed by the Region and planning and coordinating mobility on a regional scale. He led major projects for the modernisation of regional transport, such as the opening up to rail competition.
In the summer of 2019, Florian Weyer joined the cabinet of Elisabeth Borne, Minister of Ecological Transition and Solidarity, as Land Transport Advisor, before joining Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, Secretary of State to the Minister, in charge of Transport. Appointed Minister Delegate in July 2020, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari promoted Florian Weyer to the position of Deputy Director of his cabinet. In addition to his portfolio on all land transport, he was responsible for coordinating the France Recovery Plan for transport, coordinating industrial sectors and contributing to the Climate and Decentralisation law projects.
On 31 January 2022, Florian Weyer took up his post at the territorial direction of Le Havre, within the new "Seine axis major river/seaport" which brings together the ports of Le Havre, Rouen and Paris into a single establishment. In this capacity, he is appointed member of the HAROPA PORT management board.
Geraldine Knatz is Professor of the Practice of Policy and Engineering, a joint appointment between the University of Southern California’s Price School of Public Policy and the Viterbi School of Engineering.
She served as the Executive Director of the Port of Los Angeles from 2006 to January 2014. She was the first woman to serve in this role and made a significant impact through the creation and implementation of the San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan, an aggressive plan that reduced air emissions by combined port operations of over 70 percent over five years which is recognized around the world for its innovation and success. She was also the Managing Director of the Port of Long Beach where she also led a number of environmental initiatives, including the Green Port Policy and Truck Trip Reduction Program and pioneered the first habitat and wetland restorations. She is widely recognized as an authority on U.S. trading patterns, port sustainability, navigation projects and the global shipping industry. She is past president of the American Association of Port Authorities and past president of the International Association of Ports and Harbors, and currently serves as the Chairman of the World Port Climate Initiative. She serves as Gov. Brown’s appointee on the Ocean Protection Council. In 2014, she was named a member of the National Academy of Engineering in recognition of her international leadership in the engineering and development of environmentally clean urban seaports.
