860-577-5174 x100

860-577-5174 x105

860-577-5174 x103

860-577-5174 x101

860-577-5174 x106

860-577-5174 x102

Paul Whitescarver is a retired U.S. Navy Captain with 39 years of maritime experience. His tours of duty include Commanding Officer of U.S. Naval Submarine Base New London, in Groton (Submarine Capital of the World), Commanding Officer of the USS SCRANTON (SSN 756), and Operations Officer for all U.S. Navy submarines operating in the Atlantic.

Whitescarver is the Executive Director of the Southeastern Connecticut Enterprise Region, known as seCTer, the federally designated Economic Development District for Eastern Connecticut. seCTer oversees the development of regional Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy, provides grant funding and low-interest, nontraditional loans to help entrepreneurs and established businesses expand.

Whitescarver is the Chairman of the Connecticut Port Authority, President of the Thames River Heritage Park Board of Directors, member of the Eastern Workforce Investment Board BOD and a member of newly formed Connecticut Wind Collaborative BOD.

Whitescarver was appointed to the Port Authority Board by Gov. Ned Lamont in 2023, but his affiliation with the CPA dates to 2019 when he was asked to serve as senior executive consultant in charge of daily operations and management during a vacancy in CPA leadership. He sits on the Port Authority’s Finance Committee and Human Resources Committee.

Whitescarver earned a master’s degree in national security affairs from the Naval Postgraduate School and a bachelor’s in economics from the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech. He lives with his wife Katie in the Ledyard village of Gales Ferry.

Grant Westerson has been on the Connecticut waterfront and active in the recreational marine industry since his family started a premium yacht dealership in the late 1950s. After the business relocated to Old Saybrook, Westerson began working full time while also serving as a Connecticut National Guard Recruiter. During this period, he earned a Coast Guard Master’s License and his pilot’s license. His company eventually purchased and renovated a local boatyard and café, which he operated until the property was used for a new I-95 bridge. Westerson then returned to and graduated from the University of Connecticut, while continuing to oversee clients’ vessels. He also worked with a marine surveying business, inspecting vessels throughout New England for prepurchase and investigating insurance claims for many leading underwriters.

For more than 33 years, Westerson served on numerous state, regional, and national organizations affiliated with the recreational boating industry, many as Chairman. This includes a long tenure at the Connecticut Marine Trades Association (CMTA), for which he was elected to the Board of Directors in 1983. He served as the board’s Chairman and then President before becoming the CMTA’s Executive Director. Over that 18-year period Westerson managed staff, membership, organization and production the Annual Hartford Boat and Fishing Shows and worked on many legislative issues in Hartford. Under his leadership, the CMTA grew in membership and recognition as a leading marine trade association. He now works part time for himself as an accredited marine surveyor.

Active in Old Saybrook, he has operated the town’s marine patrol vessel for over 40 years, served on the Board of Finance, Harbor Management and as an Election Moderator. He was appointed by three Connecticut Governors as Old Saybrook’s Harbormaster, to the Long Island Sound LPG Terminal Task Force, and as a Commissioner on the Connecticut Maritime Commission. He was appointed to the Connecticut Port Authority Board of Directors by Senate Republican President Pro Tempore, Len Fasano, and sits on the Port Authority’s Human Resources Committee. Westerson is licensed on land, sea, and air.

Gaffney Feskoe is a graduate of the Rye Country Day School and of Boston College, with a degree in economics and finance. He also holds an MBA from Fordham University.

For many years he was engaged in international corporate banking, trade finance, and foreign exchange capital markets in New York, with such banks as Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co., European-American Banking Corp., Citibank, and The Bank of New York. Further, he was an assistant corporate treasurer of United States Filter Corp., then a Fortune 500 corporation, and as such was the assistant treasurer of the Maine Central Railroad.

Feskoe then became a management consultant with Arthur D. Little before forming his own Connecticut-based management consulting and executive search firm, Halifax Associates LLC, which was engaged in the financial services and the maritime industries. With respect to the maritime industry, the company was appointed a representative of Halifax Shipyards of Nova Scotia (a J.D. Irving enterprise), overseeing the international shipping companies located in Fairfield County, Connecticut. Additionally, the company was appointed to be an agent of the Port of St. John, New Brunswick to advise on increasing cargo throughput at that facility.

Apart from his business activities, he was a Trustee of the Yale Library Associates and was a member of the steering committee for The Friends of The Yale Center for British Art. He is a proprietor of the Boston Athenaeum and is a member of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Feskoe resides in Woodbury where he is a Trustee of the Woodbury Public Library and is the founder and president of the Woodbury Library Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) corporation. He was appointed to the Connecticut Port Authority Board of Directors by Governor Ned Lamont. He serves as Co-Chair of the Port Authority’s Human Resources Committee and as a member of the Finance Committee.

John Johnson has spent his lifetime on or near the sea. A native of Mamaroneck, New York, Johnson has lived in Connecticut for more than 50 years. He graduated from Tufts University with a bachelor’s in economics before beginning his professional life in the international banking world. Johnson soon gravitated to his family’s marine hardware business and ultimately became a founding partner in Brewer Yacht Yards, based out of Mamaroneck.

A born entrepreneur, Johnson’s long list of companies has a common underlying theme: the coastal waters. His most recent businesses include the Thames River Properties, the Allen Spool Mill Building in Mystic, JBG Ventures in Stonington, and the Thames River Gallery, a maritime art gallery located in New London. Former businesses include Newport Marine Products based in Guilford, Sono Square based in Norwalk, CT, Woodworker’s Store at South Norwalk, and Machine Works at Essex.

Johnson’s civic responsibilities are also numerous. He has sat on the Planning and Zoning Commissions of both Wilton and Old Lyme for 35 years and served as Chair of OPSAIL CT. He is a founding board member for the National Coast Guard Museum Association, Vice President of the Coast Guard Foundation, and past Vice Chair for the New London Port Authority. He was also the founding Chairman of the CT Maritime Coalition.

Johnson was appointed to the Connecticut Port Authority Board of Directors by Governor Dannel P. Malloy, and serves as Chair of Human Resources Committee. He also sits on the Port Authority’s Finance Committee.

David Kooris has nearly twenty years of experience in urban and regional planning, economic development, sustainability, resilience, and urban design in the public, private and civic sectors. He is currently Executive Director of the Connecticut Municipal Redevelopment Authority. Launched by Governor Lamont in 2024, the Municipal Redevelopment Authority supports towns and cities with technical capacity and financial resources to realize their local vision for increased housing development in their downtowns and near their train and bus rapid transit stations.

Prior to this, Kooris was President of Stamford Downtown, a business improvement district representing the major property owners, companies, and residents of that neighborhood. There he produced concerts, parades, public art exhibits, and a multitude of smaller events. He was also responsible for cleaning and greening downtown’s streetscape. Kooris has also served as Deputy Commissioner for the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD). He was responsible for orchestrating the placed-based components of the state’s economic development strategy, including transit-oriented development, brownfields, capital projects, waterfront, historic preservation, the arts, tourism, and opportunity zones. During his tenure, he focused on coordinating public sector infrastructure investment to best prepare communities for private sector growth while enhancing environmental sustainability and quality of life for all.

Before the DECD, Kooris was Director of Resilience for Connecticut’s Department of Housing. There, he managed two federal grants totaling nearly $65 million for coastal resilience planning across Fairfield and New Haven Counties. Kooris also managed the design and construction of several pilot projects for green infrastructure, raised mobility corridors, distributed energy generation, and  21^st century flood protection in the city of Bridgeport.

Before working at the state level, Kooris served as the Director of the Office of Planning and Economic Development and Executive Director of the Redevelopment Agency for the city of Bridgeport. There, he oversaw ten departments in the creation of the city’s revitalization strategy and its execution in tangible public and private investments. Kooris began his career at the Regional Plan Association where he held several positions, most notably Vice President and Connecticut Director. At Regional Plan Association, Kooris focused on helping individuals, communities, and agencies better understand the link between social, economic, and environmental factors to better position the tri-state region and its neighborhoods for a sustainable future through coordinated land use and transportation planning.

Kooris served as the Connecticut Port Authority’s Chairman of the Board from July, 2019 through August, 2024. During that tenure, he oversaw the updating of the Port Authority’s policies and procedures and hired a full complement of experienced and dedicated staff. Concurrent to those internal operations improvements, the Port Authority entered into a transformative partnership with the private sector to rebuild the State Pier in New London for heavy lift cargo. This partnership has resulted in the pier’s utilization as the premier staging hub on the eastern seaboard for offshore wind. He currently serves as the Co-Chair of the Finance Committee.

Sally Kruse has more than 20 years of history in the port district of New Haven where she worked in partnership with the private terminals and other port businesses as well as the State, New Haven Emergency Operations Department, and the U.S. Coast Guard among others.   For over 10 years, she was the president of a cooperative made up of the New Haven port operators and related businesses which coordinates with public partners.  During that time, the organization grew to include members from Bridgeport and other vicinities and grew in scope to include security planning and response as well as pollution prevention and response.  She continues to serve on the Board of Directors at this time.

The Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard awarded Ms. Kruse their Meritorious Public Service Award in 2019 in recognition of her support of the Coast Guard during the tenures of nine Captains of the Port, specifically in helping to develop a port wide strategic risk management plan through a public/private partnership, particularly after the 9/11 attacks.

In addition, Ms. Kruse was a member of CBIA’s Energy and Environment Steering Committee and now serves on the North Atlantic Ports Association Board of Directors and chairs its Traffic Board.  She is the current Executive Director of the New Haven Port Authority.  Ms. Kruse was appointed to the Connecticut Port Authority by Senate President Pro Tempore Martin M. Looney.

Thomas Patton is an experienced CEO and board member, with a record of applying good governance and professional management practices to private and public companies in the medical technology field.  This experience includes providing board leadership to four public and eleven private companies. He has significant legal and practical expertise in compliance, and as Audit Chair, as Lead Director and as Chairman for boards. Patton currently serves on four Boards and is an advisor to SV Health Investors, a private equity group focused on investing in companies in the healthcare market. He also currently serves as an Adjunct Professor at Holy Cross College, teaching entrepreneurship.

In his operational roles, Patton previously served as the CEO of Ximedica (contract R&D services), CAS Medical Systems (patient monitoring), and Wright Medical Technology (orthopedics.) He also served as the president of Novametrix, (patient monitoring) and the president and co-founder of QDx (diagnostics.)

Patton started his career as a litigation attorney at the renowned law firm of Williams and Connolly in Washington, DC, specializing in white collar criminal defense and general corporate defense.

Patton graduated from The College of the Holy Cross in 1986, with a major in economics and accounting. At Holy Cross he was a captain of the football team and received numerous national recognitions. He graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 1989.

Patton grew up in Meriden and attended Xavier High School in Middletown. He and his family have been residents of Guilford and Branford for the last 25 years.   Patton was appointed to the Connecticut Port Authority Board by Governor Lamont in February 2021.  He has served as the Chair of the Audit Committee and is currently the Chair of the Finance Committee.

David Pohorylo is a Connecticut native, born and raised in Windsor Locks before settling with his family in Monroe in 1985. He began his career in the maritime industry in 1974 when he joined the Swedish Brostrom Group in New York City as a staff accountant. Pohorylo worked with several of the group’s companies in New York and Gothenburg, Sweden before taking the position of Manager, Finance & M.I.S. of Brostrom Shipping Company North America in 1978. This was a new branch office for the Swedish parent, overseeing liner, bulker, tanker, trading and pool operations in the Americas. And when Brostrom’s AB Atlanttrafik headquarters relocated to the U.S. in 1983, Pohorylo assumed the position of Chief Corporate Controller & M.I.S. Director and, later, the position of Chief Financial Officer.

Pohorylo returned to Connecticut in 1986 to assume the position of Vice President of Tagship Inc., a major steamship agency with 14 offices on the U.S. east coast and gulf, where he managed the company’s representation of container and general cargo liner service.

In 1991 Pohorylo founded New England Shipping Company, Inc., a shipping agency and management company, based in New Haven, Connecticut. New England Shipping originally focused on vessels calling at Connecticut’s ports but has expanded over the years into a full-service shipping company. New England Shipping handles all types of vessels and cargo, from bulk carriers and passenger ships to highly specialized vessels such as fiber optic cable-laying vessels and semisubmersibles. The company operates across all ports in the northeast U.S. along with Maryland, Virginia, Georgia and Florida. New England Shipping Company, the only Connecticut-based shipping agency, continues to maintain their headquarters in Milford, Connecticut with satellite offices in New London, Albany, and Port Newark.

Pohorylo is the current Chairman of the Connecticut Maritime Coalition, a Connecticut cluster organization, which has been the voice of the maritime businesses to the state since its inception in 1999. He was appointed to the Connecticut Port Authority Board of Directors by House Minority Leader, Representative Themis Klaride, and sits on the Human Resources Committee. Pohorylo also serves Connecticut as the longest-sitting State Pilot Commissioner.

Kristin Urbach is the award-winning Executive Director of the Connecticut Wind Collaborative (CWC), a leading nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the offshore wind industry, driving innovation, and fostering partnerships that support the growth of clean energy in Connecticut and beyond. Under her leadership, the CWC is focused on creating sustainable economic opportunities for the region through the development of a robust offshore wind workforce, research and development, supply chain and infrastructure.

With over two decades of experience, Urbach has a proven track record in driving strategic growth, fostering stakeholder collaboration, and promoting innovative programs. Prior to her role in Connecticut, she held executive positions in both nonprofit and for-profit sectors in Washington, D.C. She later served as the Executive Director of the North Kingstown Chamber of Commerce in Rhode Island, where she launched WindWinRI, an offshore wind career pathway training system recognized by Fast Company as a “World Changing Idea.”

Urbach is a recognized thought leader in renewable energy and a sought-after speaker at national and international events. She has served as a panelist and keynote speaker at key forums such as Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s Annual Energy Leaders Conference, the Business Network for Offshore Wind’s International Partnering Forum, the Global Transmission Report’s Offshore Wind Transmission U.S. Conference, and other global leadership roundtables. In 2023, she was selected as one of thirty-four nationwide leaders—and the first from Rhode Island—to become a U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation Business Leads Fellow.

Urbach was appointed to the Connecticut Port Authority Board of Directors by Governor Ned Lamont and sits on the Human Resources Committee.