Semo Port names assistant director after long search

After a monthslong search, the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority, or Semo Port, has selected a new assistant director. Cary Harbison will take on the role Thursday.

Until Friday, Harbison was a project manager at Bowen Engineering and Surveying in Cape Girardeau, where he worked nearly 20 years, beginning as a staff engineer. He worked directly with Semo Port for much of his time with Bowen, providing construction and design services for the port.

“They were my largest client for 12 years,” Harbison said. “My knowledge of the projects that I completed down there as an engineer may have been why they offered the position to me.”

“He’s already been a valuable member of the team,” Dan Overbey, director of Semo Port, said of Harbison’s time with Bowen. “Cary is familiar with the facility and the construction aspects of the port,” he said, knowing there are many aspects of the job on the business end that will require time to master.

But the new position as assistant director will be unlike anything he’s done with Bowen, which was appealing and daunting to Harbison.

“I went to college to be a civil engineer,” Harbison said, and he didn’t necessarily expect to stray from the path he walked for 22 years.

But when the position became open, he saw it as an opportunity to broaden his horizons and take a more administrative role.

His familiarity with Semo Port and a good working relationship with Overbey made the potentially difficult decision less so.

The search for an assistant director was a relatively long one.

The job officially was posted in March, but the Semo Port board had its eye out for a candidate for much longer than that.

“They’ve been looking for years,” Harbison said. “But it’s never truly been posted until recently.”

The job announcement indicated the new assistant director “will need to achieve a high level of competence to replace the current director within three years.”

Overbey has served as director of the Port for more than 23 years, and has expressed interest in retiring, though he is in no rush.

“It’s still a lot of fun and also very challenging,” Overbey said. “I’m continually finding out how much I don’t know.”

But Harbison stressed he is not a director-in-waiting.

“They want someone to be [Overbey’s] right-hand-man,” Harbison said. “I will be working directly under [Overbey], doing whatever he needs me to do, whether it’s handling existing tenant or preliminary legwork on grant projects,” Harbison said.

Eventually becoming the director “could work into it,” Harbison said. “But nothing is set in stone.”

Harbison anticipates facing many challenges as he steps into this new role. It’s a new position, he said, so there’s no set precedent.

“There’s going to be a big learning curve for everyone involved,” Harbison said. “I’m looking forward to it.”

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