After holding in-depth public interviews Friday with each of the two finalists for Steamship Authority general manager, the boat line board of governors decided it will hold deliberations on the hiring in an online public meeting Nov. 13.

During the face-to-face interviews, held separately in a Falmouth hotel conference room, board members questioned each job hopeful for more than an hour, beginning with in-house candidate Mark Amundsen and continuing after a lunch break with West Coast ferry line executive Alex Kryska.

A potential vote on the hiring decision was listed in Friday’s agenda, but after completing both interviews, board members agreed to deliberate next week.

In his opening remarks to the board, Mr. Amundsen described himself as an agent of change who came to the Steamship Authority in 2019 as a direct result of the previous year’s third-party review of boat line operations by HMS Consulting.

“If the HMS report had not been done, I would not be here,” said Mr. Amundsen, who was hired for the newly-created position of director of marine operations — since renamed director of engineering and maintenance —and became chief operating officer in February of this year following the departure of the Steamship Authority’s first C.O.O., Mark Higgins.

During his time at the SSA, Mr. Amundsen has supervised the purchase and conversion of three identical offshore energy vessels into freight ferries with room for up to 80 passengers. While the first of the sister ships, M/V Barnstable, was being reconfigured at Alabama Shipyard in 2023 and 2024, Mr. Amundsen spent months in Mobile, Ala., overseeing the work.

He also has rebuilt the Steamship Authority’s engineering department, with support from general manager Robert Davis, Mr. Amundsen said.

“We were able to hire all new engineers [and] I’ve got them all thoroughly trained,” he said, noting that one of his early hires, Zach Lawrence, is now director of engineering and maintenance while other port engineers are also ready for advancement.

The changes have sharply reduced the number of ferry trips cancelled for mechanical reasons, Mr. Amundsen said.

“When I started here, [there were] 247 mechanical cancellations for the year 2019,” he said.

As of the end of this September, Mr. Amundsen said, just 70 trips were cancelled for mechanical reasons in 2025.

“We have flipped the script,” he said.

If named general manager, Mr. Amundsen said, his first priority would be to improve the Steamship Authority’s customer service by hiring a director and introducing a formalized training system for all 700 employees, akin to the safety and quality management training he said has boosted the engineering turnaround.

For example, he said, entertainment conglomerate Disney is renowned for its customer service.

“We need to have that type of program,” said Mr. Amundsen, who also called for monthly, in-person community open houses in port towns where residents can speak face to face with Steamship Authority brass and other employees.

“Communication is key,” he said.

Another priority, Mr. Amundsen said, would be to seek additional revenue sources to bolster the boat line’s ticket receipts, which are inadequate to fund the increasing costs of maintenance for ferries and terminals and of building new ferries for the Steamship Authority fleet.

One potential income stream, he said, could come from a New Bedford route to the Vineyard — not just for freight, as has been discussed in recent years, but for automobile and passenger traffic as well.

“I believe that there’s a business plan for this, because it’s more than just the Woods Hole Road [congestion], it’s the bridges coming across Cape Cod [Canal]. The bridges affect everyone right now — every car, every vehicle, is going over the bridges,” Mr. Amundsen said.

The boat line will need to seek state funding and other grants to finance the costs of building a New Bedford terminal, as well as new ferries, he said, outlining his vision of a future Steamship Authority fleet with hybrid engines to offset greenhouse emissions.

All-electric ferries will require a longer timeline, he said, due to the limitations of the existing power grid.

Though he came to the Steamship Authority as an outsider, Mr. Amundsen spoke Friday in the voice of a true believer. If he’s not chosen for general manager, he told the board, he’ll gladly remain in his current position.

“I think this is a great organization,” he said.

“I love the job I’m doing. I love the Steamship Authority, and I think that I can bring it to even a higher level,” Mr. Amundsen said.

Mr. Kryska, whose Thursday flight from the San Francisco Bay Area became an unexpected redeye due to shutdown-related delays, currently is the chief operating officer with a company called Prop SF, which develops commuter ferry routes.

“Budget management, proposals, personnel management, operations management, the full gamut — whatever comes along is in my purview,” he said.

His past management experience ranges from running a home day care center during the last recession to supervising a staff of 1,000 Transportation Security Administration screeners, Mr. Kryska said. 

He also ran commuter ferry services for employees of the Bay Area corporations Facebook and Genentech and was a Washington, D.C.-based fleet manager for Military Sealift Command, which Mr. Kryska described as the “cargo backbone of the Navy.”

The prospect of leading the Steamship Authority is an exciting one for him, Mr. Kryska said.

“It’s an institution. It’s been around a long time. Everybody knows what the authority is and it just feels like it’s kind of the icing on the cake,” he said.

Identifying priorities similar to Mr. Amundsen’s. Mr. Kryska said additional capital funding is critical to the boat line’s future, particularly in light of Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healy’s decarbonization plan for an emissions-free commonwealth by 2050, which will require investing in alternative propulsion methods.

Community relations are also key, he said, recalling how he sought to resolve conflict when recreational boaters objected to the wake from a commuter ferry he managed in Redwood City. 

To see the boaters’ side, Mr. Kryska said, he went kayaking with one of them.

“Realizing that you’re not able to please everybody, but at least showing that you’re out there, willing to talk, willing to listen, willing to try to understand them,” he said.

He also would listen to employees, Mr. Kryska said, noting that no crew member spoke up about recent damage to the Barnstable that could not have gone unnoticed.

“If you hit something that’s going to cause that much damage, you feel it in the boat. And so there’s a question: Why would the crew not feel comfortable bringing that forward?” he said.

“I think that’s the thing: It’s making sure you have a relationship with the crew, between the crew and management staff that’s open and honest,” Mr. Kryska said.

While he would be entering the Steamship Authority as a newcomer, Mr. Kryska said, he is open and willing to learn from current general manager Robert Davis — who is shifting to an advisory position in 2026 — and Mr. Amundsen, along with treasurer and comptroller Mark Rozum.

“It’s a great organization that has does some amazing things, and I’d be tickled, honored to be able to lead it,” he said.