Port of Baltimore leader leaves for top PortMiami job

Jonathan Daniels will leave the Port of Baltimore in mid-August for a new post as Port Director and CEO of PortMiami, setting off a nationwide search for the next executive director at a time when the port supports about 20,000 direct jobs and roughly 273,000 jobs statewide. Deputy Secretary Samantha J. Biddle will serve as interim executive director while the state looks for a permanent replacement.

Daniels has led the Maryland Port Administration for less than 2.5 years. He was named executive director on December 20, 2023, and started in February 2024, weeks before the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed on March 26, 2024 and blocked the port’s main channel. The National Transportation Safety Board identified the cargo vessel Dali’s loss of electrical power, propulsion and steering before it struck the bridge, and a loose signal wire connection tied to improper installation of wire-label banding as the probable cause. Biddle, who has decades of transportation experience, helped keep operations steady during the transition.

Maryland’s 2025 foreign commerce report puts the Port of Baltimore’s state-owned public and private marine terminals at 50 million tons of cargo last year, the second-best year in port history, with cargo valued at $65.6 billion, the third-highest total ever. Baltimore ranked 11th nationally in foreign cargo tonnage and 10th in foreign cargo value. The port moved 1.1 million TEUs, 728,225 auto units and 848,628 tons of roll-on, roll-off farm and construction machinery, the most of any U.S. port.

The port set a record with 2,223 cargo vessel visits in 2025, and Seagirt Marine Terminal moved 1,113,309 TEUs as weekly container services rose from 12 in 2024 to 15 in 2025. Maryland puts the port’s annual personal income at more than $5 billion and annual taxes and business revenues at about $4 billion.

The state is advancing a $518 million CSX Howard Street Tunnel Project expected to allow double-stacked container trains, add about 160,000 containers a year and generate nearly 14,000 jobs.