Position 3
Current Term: January 1, 2010 – December 31, 2013.
Current Office: Member-at-large.
Previous Commission Offices: Vice President (2011) and Secretary (2010).
Current Port Commission committee assignments: None.
Previous Port Commission committee assignments: Audit Committee (2011).
Century Agenda Portfolios: Workforce Development/Small Business Growth (lead), Premier International Logistics Hub (secondary).
2012 Outside Board Assignments: enterpriseSeattle, Puget Sound Regional Council Economic Development District Board, Washington Council on International Trade and Workforce Development.
Education: B.A. (Washington State University) and M.PA. (Seattle University).
About Commissioner Holland: Seattle Port Commissioner Robert E. Holland was elected by the citizens of King County in 2009. He is the first African American commissioner elected to the Port Commission and the first openly gay commissioner.
His family has a long history on the waterfronts’ of Puget Sound – migrating from the American South to work in area shipyards. Prior to being elected to the Port Commission, Commissioner Holland held positions in the transportation industry –trucking, shipping and ports.
Holland graduated from Washington State University in Pullman, Washington, and earned a Master of Public Administration degree from Seattle University. In 2010, Holland was selected as a German Marshall Fellow and participated in the World Affairs Council Fellows Program. He was also an instructor at South Seattle Community College in the Transportation and Logistics program.
On the Commission, Holland has shown an interest in workforce development, labor relations and small/minority business development. He has championed exports by vigorously supporting Foreign Trade Zones (FTZs) as a tool to attract manufacturers from high-cost West Coast cities and other Asian markets to relocate to King County. His top priority as a commissioner is adding to the number of jobs the Port of Seattle’s economic activity creates and providing more pathways for a new generation of workers to share in the prosperity. Holland has taken on efforts to provide opportunities to high school students interested in going to sea and becoming the next generation of North Pacific fishermen. And he has worked with airport vendors to provide family-wage and entry level jobs to communities around the facility.
Commissioner Holland serves on the Puget Sound Regional Council’s Economic Development Board and enterpriseSeattle – the leading economic development efforts in the region. He also served on Seattle Metro Chamber of Commerce Trade Development Alliance Board in 2010 and 2011.
Holland has been a leader with the Russian Chamber of Commerce in championing that country’s entrance into WTO. He was very active in local efforts in passing the Korea Free Trade Agreement, and been very active with the African Chamber of Commerce in promoting jobs and trade between the Pacific Northwest and new emerging markets on the continent of Africa.
Combining his interest in clean energy and creating jobs, Commissioner Holland developed efforts under President Barak Obama’s Green Jobs Act, which provided funding for “green” collar job training for veterans, displaced workers, at risk youth, and individuals in families under 200 percent of the federal poverty line. Governor Christine Gregoire highlighted the effort as a “best practice” effort in helping unemployed Washingtonian’s get back to work.
He also previously served as a member of the King County Agricultural Commission where he led efforts to expand high-value exports from King County growers to domestic markets in Hawaii, Alaska and Pacific Island nations.
Commissioner Holland became a Fellow of the prestigious ENO Transportation Foundation in Washington, D.C. and was selected to receive an award named after former President Clinton’s Transportation Secretary, The Rodney Slater award for an African American making a difference in the transportation industry.
Commissioner Holland is a proud member of Public Safety Employees Union Local 519. He lives in Tukwila where he enjoys passing time working on model ships.