MANATEE -- All six finalists for the Port Manatee executive director post will be interviewed in October, the authority decided Thursday, and each finalist will receive a $200 stipend to use as they see fit.

Four of the finalists are from within the state and are expected to travel to Port Manatee for an in-person interview. Two others -- one from Texas and another from Vancouver, B.C., may choose to interview by Skype or to absorb the cost of traveling to Manatee in person.

The final group of six includes four already “short-listed” last month by the authority, one candidate who was originally on the authority’s “B-list,” and a sixth candidate who applied in late August but was pinpointed by the authority’s search firm as a top candidate. Two other original finalists withdrew their applications.

Clifton Hickock, owner of CFH International Transportation Consulting in Orlando, is one of the new finalists. Hickock, also a former senior account executive with Maersk Line and with P&O Ned Lloyd, has a bachelor of business administration in marketing from Pace University in New York and is also half-finished with a master of business degree from the same institution.

Raul Alfonso, a former senior director at the Jacksonville Port Authority, is also among the two new finalists. Alfonso worked for two years as senior director of trade development and global marketing for Jacksonville, where he was director of container cargo trade development for three years, and director of Latin American cargo trade development for four years. His education includes a bachelor of arts in business administration, and an associate of arts in logistics and marketing from Florida international University.

The other finalists include Carlos Buqueras, director of business development at Port Everglades since 1993; James Crandles, who became director of planning and development at Port Metro Vancouver earlier this year; Michael Perez, executive director of the Port of Harlingen Authority in Texas and a former executive with Port Manatee; and Steve Tyndal, senior director of trade development and special projects at Port Manatee for 18 years.

The finalists will likely be interviewed in late October, and the authority aims to choose its new executive director by November. David McDonald, the port’s current executive director is retiring this year after 20 years in the post.

Christine Hawes, Herald business writer, can be reached at (941) 745-7081.