Jeff Mulder, airports director for Tulsa, Oklahoma, is Lee County commissioners’ first choice for leading Southwest Florida International Airport and Page Field into the future.
Following their regular meeting in the Old Lee County Courthouse, commissioners convened as the port authority board on Tuesday morning, and filled out scorecards to determine the preferred job candidate.
“This has been a very difficult ranking,” said Commission Chairman Frank Mann. “These are three very capable people.”
Commissioners had done one-on-one interviews of the three finalists on Monday.
Mulder prevailed over two other highly experienced airport directors: Mark VanLoh, former aviation director for Kansas City, Missouri, and Victor White, executive director of airports for Wichita, Kansas.
Mulder declined to comment on his selecion on Tuesday, pending contract negotiations.
If those negotiations are successful, Mulder would succeed Robert M. “Bob” Ball, who’s retiring in mid-January after 20 years as Lee County Port Authority executive director.
The executive director job has an annual salary range of $200,000 to $285,700.
Mulder, a certified flight instructor and licensed commercial pilot, has held executive positions at several airports during his 28-year career.
And, fro 2009-2013, Mulder served as director of transportation and infrastructure for the City of Tulsa with responsibility for more than 1,600 employees, a $250 million annual operating budget, and a five-year $740 million capital improvement program.
He is first past chairman of the American Association of Airport Executives. Airport Revenue News named him director of the year in the small airports category for 2016.
Mulder earned a bachelor's degree in aviation technology and operations from Western Michigan University and an MBA from Cardinal Stritch University.
A successful hire is crucial. Southwest Florida International and Page Field in Fort Myers contribute more than $4.4 billion yearly to the region’s economy, according to a statewide study completed two years ago.
Survey-based research in 2015 underscored local aviation’s importance to the area’s tourism and hospitality industries that account for an estimated one in five jobs in Lee and Collier counties.
That research indicated most visitors using paid lodgings fly here – with the majority of them using Southwest Florida International.
