INTERVIEW:Karin Zaugg Black

And now you are creating strong international ties at the Port.

At the Port of Seattle, I am the international business protocol liaison. I operate out of our External Relations Department. I support all the different lines of business. The Port of Seattle owns and operates SeaTac International Airport; we also have our cargo terminal seaport business shipping cargo, which is jointly operated with the Port of Tacoma. Three years ago, we created a new alliance to be able to operate our seaport business jointly. The Port of Seattle and Port of Tacoma together as the Northwest Seaport Alliance operate our cargo shipping business. We are the fourth largest gateway in North America. Our airport is the eighth busiest. We also have a very large cruise business. We have three cruise terminals and are looking right now to add a fourth. We just wrapped up our 20th season. We service over a million passengers each year. The fourth main line of business is Fishermen’s Terminal. Fishermen’s Terminal houses the North Pacific Fishing Fleet that goes up to Alaska. A huge amount of the seafood that is caught by the vessels here contribute greatly to seafood consumption of the whole nation. The Port also owns and operates a number of marinas for small pleasure boats.

We are a government entity that acts like a business. We are always looking to put revenues back into benefitting the community.

In my role, I support all of those different lines – any time we have an international delegation coming in or an inquiry… It really runs the gamut.  I also help any time our commissioners or executives  are taking international trips.

I liaison into all of the international trade association groups locally. That includes the JASSW, where I am currently the chair, but also the Washington State China Relations Council, Washington Council on International Trade, Greater Seattle Partners–all the entities that are dealing with international trade and international business. I am the vice chair for the City of Seattle’s International Affairs Advisory Board.

Your work for the port sounds multifaceted. How do you keep everything straight?

I love people, and I love building connections with people, especially internationally, for mutual benefit.  It’s my dream job to promote Seattle and increase our international connections.

The state of Washington is pretty much the No. 1 trade-dependent state in the U.S. I’m sure you’ve heard that 40% of all jobs in Washington state are directly tied to international trade. That’s the corporate businesses on the west side of the mountains, and it’s the agricultural businesses on the east side. All those products are going through either our seaport or our airport. We are very engaged with our international partners, and it has been challenging in the recent federal climate. But I’ve heard our leadership in Washington State, King County, and Seattle all be on the same page in terms of how critical international trade is. We continue to reach out and have direct diplomacy with our partners.

With the Port, you get a chance to exchange best practices and best ideas around common challenges you might be facing. Seattle and Kobe and Tacoma and their sister port, Kita Kyushu we all went to an environmental conference in Baltimore together last year and presented on a panel with Rotterdam, which is another one of our sister ports.

Tell us about your role at JASSW

The Japan-America Society was founded in 1923. In four years, we will have our 100th anniversary. The society is statewide. It’s a forum for exchanging ideas. There is so much going on in policy, business, cultural exchange, education. I was recruited to be chair-elect, and then had to start being chair last year. In April, I was officially named chair.

My leadership style is collaborative. I am looking for diversity at the table. There has only been a handful of women chairs, and I am honored to be one. I am building the pipeline to bring in people to the society, so I’m looking to see if we have Japanese folks, more women, more bilingual speakers, more young people, who else can we tap? The sign of a good leader is to be able to leave wherever you have been working in a better place and set up for success. I tapped Toshi Kawachi of Mitsubishi to be my chair-elect. Working with him has been great because we have been trying to do more with the Japan Business Association. I facilitated a joint meeting with the Japan Business Association leadership and our leadership team, followed by karaoke (laughs), which is my favorite tool for network building and relationship building. I love to sing. That has borne fruit in some joint programming that we will be doing together.

There is so much overlap and connection between the Japanese and Japanese American communities. A big success from last year that illustrates this is the Grassroots Summit, which was 150 Japanese people coming here and going to 14 different hubs across Washington State. We hosted this, working with the city of Olympia, Ellensburg, statewide partners. And that allowed us to work with other Japanese American groups. And we want to continue to work with those partners.