Our Waterfront: Best and Highest Uses
February 21, 2009
Sharon Cloward became President of the San Diego Port Tenants Association (SDPTA) in January 2004, following a very competitive and extensive search process. She is the first woman in the history of the organization to hold this position. The Port Tenants Association was founded in 1989 and represents over 300 businesses in the five cities that surround San Diego Bay. Its members are tenants of the San Diego Unified Port District. These include large industrial businesses like General Dynamics – NASSCO and Continental Maritime; Bay front hotels like Manchester Hyatt and San Diego Marriott; maritime shipping companies and retail shopping complexes; museums including the USS Midway and the Maritime Museum; numerous marinas, and hundreds of restaurants from Chula Vista and Harbor Drive to Harbor Island and Pt. Loma.
Though they share the common attribute of operating under leases with the San Diego Unified Port District, the SDPTA also engages in joint marketing efforts, pursues advocacy in public policy and issues concerning tidelands, sponsors programs and large-scale events for the benefit of charities and environmental issues, and encourages ongoing research into best practices and environmental stewardship of tidelands. Needless to say, this is a large and complex endeavor, and Ms. Cloward has proven exceptionally capable at managing the combined interests of Port Tenants throughout the Tidelands.
Through Ms. Cloward’s leadership at the SDPTA, the Association has reached new limits politically and economically. She is a catalyst for developing relationships with Public Officials and Community Leaders. Ms. Cloward has taken a key role in developing Port Real Estate Policy 355, founding the Working Waterfront Group (WWG) coalition, increasing Association membership by 40%, improving communication between the Port and its tenants, and port member cities.
Working through the Working Waterfront Group, Ms. Cloward has demonstrated her unique skills in consensus building. In the Working Waterfront Group, she successfully brought together a variety of competing organizations such as Ship yards, Environmental Groups, and Labor representatives. The resulting working group has impressed political and community leaders for its diversity and productivity.
Ms. Cloward has already made a substantial difference in her profession. Her focus is on achieving a solution rather than “getting even”. She is a problem solver who relies on constructive and creative solutions rather than the more common confrontational methods. Her skills as a communicator focused on win-win solutions has enabled her to set a new standard for cooperation and communication between the Port Tenants and the San Diego Unified Port District. Her efforts have resulted in Landlord and tenants working together constructively to meet the goals of the Tidelands Trust. Ms. Cloward is a true Woman Who Means Business. She was unanimously selected by the San Diego Port Tenants Association Board for her position as President from among 30 highly qualified candidates and was the first woman to hold a Senior Management position at the SDPTA. Ms. Cloward meets quarterly with other Executive Women in San Diego to discuss current issues our region is facing.
During her tenure, Sharon has worked tirelessly to enhance the visibility, effectiveness and influence of the Port Tenants Association as an organization devoted to healthy businesses, best business practices, best and highest use of a major public resource and to the responsible, fair, and effective governance of that resource by the Port District. In addition to the administrative requirements of her position, which are considerable, Sharon has been an effective and articulate advocate for the Port Tenants Association and spokesperson for its positions. Without Sharon’s contribution the PTA would not be the effective organization it is today and without the PTA, the tidelands would not be as effectively governed or administered for public benefit by the Port District. The result has been an obvious increase in effectiveness for the region’s most important economic asset, with benefit to thousands of jobs affecting the entire region.
Despite its volume of maritime activity and diversity of ports, the West Coast does not have many corollaries to the San Diego Port Tenants Association, but its success is becoming noteworthy enough to inspire emulation of nascent versions in places like Los Angeles/Long Beach, San Francisco and Oakland. Increasingly, Sharon will become to be seen as a model for accomplishment among ports on the West Coast. Locally, she is already a model for accomplishment among similar mutual benefit organizations that embrace public policy and business advocacy as part of their missions
Under Sharon’s leadership, the PTA has moved beyond advocacy for the interests of its commercial members to embrace public benefit as a mission. Sharon has been effective in recruiting tidelands arts and culture and community benefit organizations to membership in the PTA and encouraging their participation in the organization’s leadership. She has also been effective in organizing PTA participation in many enriching public events, performances, and exhibitions which take place on tidelands as well as in sponsoring scholarships and activities such as Operation Clean Sweep which promote conscientious stewardship of the Bay.
Sharon Cloward’s many civic endeavors are extensive. Ms. Cloward volunteered numerous hours for Americas Cup 92 and also worked on America’s Cup 95. She was a Committee Member of the Superbowl Relations Committee, Past Chairman of Kona Kai International Yacht Clubs Annual Event (America’s Schooner Cup Races). Past President and current Board member of Fleet Week San Diego
Ms. Cloward is also the Founder of the SDPTA’s annual Bay cleanup effort known as, Operation Clean Sweep, that has grown to include over a thousand volunteers and over $100,000 of in-kind services provided by the many industrial tenants on the water front. Ms. Cloward is also a founder of San Diego Bay’s Working Waterfront Group, a consortium of water front businesses focused on protecting the 25,000 jobs on the San Diego water front. On the personal side, Sharon Cloward is a Breast Cancer Survivor and a single mom who is involved with her daughter’s school activities and sits on several school-related committees.