New SSA Manager Makes Relationships a Priority

Less than four months after starting his job as Steamship Authority general manager, Alex Kryska has already lost count of how many times he has visited Martha’s Vineyard.

Co-hosting information sessions on the new reservations system, gathering regularly for coffee with Island advisors and introducing himself to every Steamship Authority employee he meets, Mr. Kryska is establishing an open-door policy that leaves the door — and the office — behind.

“I like to get out and actually talk to people and hear what they say,” he told the Gazette last week, during a late-afternoon interview at the Vineyard Haven terminal before he attended a chamber of commerce function in town.

Later that night, Mr. Kryska sat in the Tisbury School bleachers to listen to some of the annual town meeting, before heading back to Woods Hole on the last ferry. 

He’s made several trips to Nantucket as well, most notably for the commissioning of the new M/V Monomoy freighter a few weeks ago, but the Vineyard’s proximity to his Woods Hole residence has made it easy for trips here to become routine.

Mr. Kryska also has welcomed criticism, from Steamship Authority riders and employees alike.

“I have made it very clear that I will talk to anybody,” he said. “We’re not perfect, and sometimes they have great ideas.”

Mr. Kryska is the first external candidate to become general manager in more than 20 years. While his predecessor Robert Davis came up through the Steamship Authority’s finance department, rising to treasurer/comptroller before he took the top job in 2017, Mr. Kryska worked in a variety of fields after graduating from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in New York. For the past five years he was chief operating officer for a private ferry company in the San Francisco Bay Area — “business development, operations, all that stuff,” Mr. Kryska said.

His past jobs have included running security screening at San Francisco Airport, working for the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command, brokering seaborne freight for private companies and even working with a concert promoter in Perth, Australia.

“It’s an eclectic background, to say the least,” Mr. Kryska said.

The divorced father of two college-age children — he recently flew back to California for his son’s high school graduation — Mr. Kryska called the Steamship Authority position his “dream job” during his public interview last November.

Even state inspector general Jeffrey Shapiro’s sharply critical report on the Steamship Authority, released in December, hasn’t tarnished Mr. Kryska’s enthusiasm. Meeting in public with Mr. Shapiro last month, Mr. Kryska said he welcomed the inspector general’s report as a road map for improvement.

“It makes it very clear what I need to do going forward, so it was actually pretty helpful,” he told the Gazette last week.

A main focus for Mr. Kryska these days is overseeing the final development and deployment of the authority’s second reservations system. He told the Gazette that David Cox, who owns the original program and previously announced he would retire this month, has agreed to continue consulting as needed while the Steamship Authority completes the new, $6 million reservations system now being developed with Italian ferry-ticketing specialists E-dea.

After a series of public forums on changes from current reservation program, the launch of the new system has been pushed off to March, 2027.

“[It’s] just to give us more time to make sure we get it right,” Mr. Kryska said.

Mr. Kryska’s other current priorities include what’s known as a “hot wash” review of recently completed projects, including the $87 million acquisition and conversion of three oil industry vessels, now the Steamship Authority freighters M/V Barnstable, M/V Aquinnah and M/V Monomoy.

In a hot wash, all aspects of a project are reviewed to see what went right, what went wrong and what could have been improved, Mr. Kryska said.

The $36 million Woods Hole terminal building project, scheduled for completion this year, is next in line for the hot wash process, he said.

Both reviews will be critical to future decision-making, Mr. Kryska said, noting that the 53-year-old M/V Nantucket will need to be replaced before long.

“Before we go out and build another boat, let’s make sure we know how the build process should go, and make sure we have that down right,” he said. 

The Nantucket terminal also is getting old, Mr. Kryska said.

“It’s not going to happen next week, but we want to make sure that… on the land side, we know how to do it better the next time,” he said.

Mr. Kryska’s tenure has garnered rave reviews from Steamship officials. Oak Bluffs port council member Joe Sollitto said this week that he was impressed with the new hire’s ability to relate with staff and customers. 

He runs a tight meeting, calls back in a timely manner and has been a quick study on the inner workings on the ferry line, Mr. Sollitto said.

During the port council’s discussion about the potential of selling the M/V Governor in recent weeks, Mr. Kryska knew the background and understood the situation.

“Everything he had to say was exactly right. I may not like it because I like the Governor, but I have to vote with my head, not my heart,” Mr. Sollitto said.

Though it’s still the honeymoon phase, bringing in Mr. Kryska has been a breath of fresh air and critical for the SSA moving forward, the port council member said.

“I’m very impressed with him,” Mr. Sollitto said. “He’s very good with the public and he knows his stuff.” 

Editor's note: A previous version of this article incorretly stated the cost of acquiring and converting the three freight vessels. It has been corrected. 

This article appears in May 8, 2026.