The Steamship Authority revealed its two finalists for the general manager position on Wednesday ahead of interviews scheduled for Friday.

One is a familiar face, Mark Amundsen, the recently promoted chief operating officer at the ferry line, and the other, Alex Kryska, works as the COO at a California-based ferry company.

Public interviews of the two candidates will start at 11 a.m. on Friday in Falmouth, and will culminate more than a year of searching for someone to replace outgoing general manager Robert Davis.

Mr. Davis announced last fall that he would be stepping down from the top role at the Steamship Authority after eight years at the helm. He was previously expected to step into a senior advisor position last month, but the Steamship board of governors recently extended his general manager contract through the end of the year.

Mark Amundsen, chief operating officer of the ferry line, is one of the finalists.

Courtesy SSA

Mark Amundsen, chief operating officer of the ferry line, is one of the finalists.

Courtesy SSA

Since his promotion in February, Mr. Amundsen has been responsible for all aspects of the Steamship’s marine and shoreside operations, as well as the engineering and communications department.

A veteran of international shipping industry, Mr. Amundsen was hired by the ferry line in 2019 for the newly-created position of director of marine operations. In his role, he has overseen the purchase and conversion of the three new freight ferries, as well as the maintenance of the rest of the fleet.

In an interview with the Gazette in February, Mr. Amundsen said he looked forward to tackling the big challenges ahead of the ferry line, and put an emphasis on bringing the boats into the era of electric propulsion.

“That’s what we’re studying, and that’s what we want to do, because we recognize that that is a requirement of how our stakeholders would like to go forward,” Mr. Amundsen said in the interview.

Mr. Kryska is the chief operating officer at Prop SF, a San Francisco-based company that’s primary mission is to develop commuter ferries for underserved communities in the Bay Area, according to the company’s website.

Mr. Kryska has worked with Prop since 2017, and prior to that was in a senior business development and operations management role at other organizations including a security service provider to the Transportation Security Administration.

Mr. Kryska was also a fleet manager for the Military Sealift Command in Washington, D.C., and graduated from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and has an MBA from San Francisco state.

Alex Kryska is chief operating officer at Prop SF.

Courtesy of Alex Kryska

Alex Kryska is chief operating officer at Prop SF.

Courtesy of Alex Kryska

Mr. Kryska declined to comment on his role as a finalist when reached by phone Wednesday, but said it was an honor to have made it this far.

The new general manager at the ferry line, which offers the only vehicle service to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, will be faced with installing a new reservation system, the completion of the new Woods Hole terminal and the incorporation of the new freight ferries.

The Steamship Authority board announced in October that it had narrowed the field of more than 130 candidates to two finalists, though it declined to say who the last men standing were until Wednesday.

A search committee was tasked with selecting the finalists before the board interviews them this week. James Malkin, the Vineyard representative on the board and a member of the search committee, said the committee went through an exhaustive process to get to this point.

Mr. Malkin had hoped to bring more than two finalists to the board, but said that some dropped out at the last minute, partially due to the divisiveness and constant criticism of the ferry line.

“We went through a very detailed screening process, eliminated people and wound up with more than two people,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “Unfortunately, people dropped out of consideration after our due diligence and their due diligence.”

Mr. Malkin said he hoped the candidate picked by the board would be ready to help the Steamship Authority take a step forward with its reservation system and IT systems,

“We have basically an organization that needs to go through change in my opinion,” he said. “I’m looking for a change agent.”