New London ― The Connecticut Port Authority has paused its search for a new executive director but is adding a new position to help market its deep-water ports and manage its small harbors.

The port authority plans to hire a maritime business development manager that will in part handle the duties performed by Andrew Lavigne, the former manager of business development and special projects. Lavigne left the port authority in April to work as the clean energy program manager with the state Department of Economic and Community Development.

Ulysses Hammond, the port authority’s interim executive director, said Tuesday he had created a committee to look over applicants for the position, which will pay between $75,000 and $100,000 a year. The deadline for applications was Monday.

He called the new position, “a critical piece of administrative infrastructure for the Connecticut Port Authority.”

The focus of the new job would be, among other tasks, to coordinate port development, manage grants and administer the CPA’s Harbor Improvement Projects Program. The individual would also serve as the CPA’s chief marketing, communications, business and economic development officer.

As the port authority transitions from the construction project at State Pier, Hammond said much of the organization’s attention will turn to marketing the state’s three deep-water ports in New London, Bridgeport and New Haven as well as assisting municipalities with management and infrastructure at 35 smaller ports and harbors across the state.

The port authority was created in 2014 “to market and coordinate development of the state’s ports and maritime economy.”

The CPA is seeking someone with at least nine years of professional experience in maritime-related business development and program management.

Board Chairman David Kooris said the CPA is likely to advertise for the permanent executive director position closer to the end of the year when the $309 million construction project at State Pier is closer to wrapping up. That position is more enticing, he said, with a completed project and staff to help out. In addition to the new maritime development manager position, the CPA now has a full-time finance director/ethics compliance liaison, an office manager and a part-time fiscal analyst.

“I think operationally we’re in a good place,” Kooris said.

Throughout the construction of State Pier, the CPA has also had project management assistance from personnel at the state Department of Transportation. That assistance disappears once the project is completed.

Hammond, the former vice president for administration and legal affairs at Connecticut College, was hired by the CPA in April 2022 and has a background in public administration and law. He said he does not have plans to seek the permanent executive director position.

“My commitment has been to finish the job. I’m going to finish the job and I’m going to prepare the port authority to be in a position to be sustainable. That’s my goal. I figured I could do that as a short timer.”

g.smith@theday.com

Editor’s note: This version corrects Ulysses Hammond’s title while at Connecticut College.