SeaPort Manatee promotes two senior staffers to business development positions

by SeaPort Manatee Aug 07, 2023

SeaPort Manatee has a newly promoted team of senior staff members leading business development initiatives for the Southwest and Central Florida trade hub.

Effective today [Monday, Aug. 7], Troy Layton is SeaPort Manatee’s director of business development, while Malcolm Edwards assumes the role of deputy director of business development.

Layton joined SeaPort Manatee in July 2022 as senior manager of operations, following 28 years with Federal Marine Terminals Inc., the last 24 of those years as the stevedoring firm’s terminal manager for Manatee County’s seaport.

Troy Layton is SeaPort Manatee’s newly appointed director of business development.

Edwards, who has served as the seaport’s senior manager of trade development since 2017, came aboard at the Manatee County port in 2010 and has held multiple positions in security, operations and trade development. He has an extensive background in banking and finance.

“Troy and Malcolm are applying decades of experience to their new function as SeaPort Manatee’s senior business development team,” said Carlos Buqueras, SeaPort Manatee’s executive director. “They are partnering in ensuring continued best-in-industry service to existing customers while attracting new business to further build upon record trade flows through the port.”

SeaPort Manatee’s containerized cargo volume rose nearly 35 percent in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2022, compared with the preceding 12-month period.

Malcolm Edwards now serves SeaPort Manatee as deputy director of business development.

Located “Where Tampa Bay Meets the Gulf of Mexico,” SeaPort Manatee is a dynamic global trade hub, serving as the vibrant ships-to-shelves gateway for burgeoning Southwest and Central Florida markets, with convenient rail and roadway links, including to the distribution-center-filled Tampa/Orlando Interstate 4 corridor. The closest U.S. deepwater seaport to the expanded Panama Canal, SeaPort Manatee offers 10 deep-draft berths, proficiently fulfilling diverse demands of container, liquid and dry bulk, breakbulk, heavylift, project and general cargo customers. The self-sustaining port generates more than $5.1 billion in annual economic impacts while providing for more than 37,000 direct and indirect jobs – all without benefit of local property tax support.

Troy Layton is SeaPort Manatee’s newly appointed director of business development.