Swift names new head for Massport

By Globe Staff, 6/20/2002

After seven years of rule by a political appointee, the Massachusetts Port Authority board of directors may soon come under the control of a London-born academic with an expertise in international marketing.

Acting Governor Jane Swift's appointment yesterday of a Harvard Business School dean, John Quelch, to chair Massport, which runs Logan International Airport, is seen by many as crucial to the quest to restore public confidence in the facility from which the terror attacks on the World Trade Center were launched.

A registered independent who has lived in Massachusetts for 23 years, Quelch said he was approached for the job three weeks ago, but declined to say by whom.

''The biggest challenge facing Massport is restoration of public confidence in safety and security at the airport,'' he said.

The appointment of Quelch, senior associate dean of international development at the business school, takes effect in 10 days after a public comment period.

Massport endured a firestorm of criticism after Sept. 11. While officials believe the hijackers managed to board the flights without breaching federal security guidelines then in effect, the terror attack exposed Massport as an agency rife with political appointees, including outgoing board director Mark Robinson.

Its executive director at the time, Virginia Buckingham, was also a former top aide to Weld and Cellucci, and its security director, Joseph Lawless, was Weld's former driver.

Swift signaled a possible new era at Massport in April when she appointed Buckingham's successor, Craig Coy, a nonpolitical business executive and retired Coast Guard commander. Coy was promoted recommended for the job by Marshall Carter, the retired chairman and CEO of State Street Bank who headed a special committee appointed by Swift last year to investigate Massport after Sept. ember 11.

Quelch, 50, of Lincoln, was educated at Oxford University, and left the Harvard Business School in the late 1990s to become head of the London Business School.

This story ran on page B2 of the Boston Globe on 6/20/2002.
© Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.
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