John Okamoto, credited with starting efforts to improve I-405 and Washington state highways 520 and 509, will leave his post at the state's Department of Transportation in January, M.R. Dinsmore, CEO of the Port of Seattle, said in a statement recently.

Okamoto had served as assistant secretary of the state Department of Transportation since April 2001. He resigned that job to take the position at the port.

At the DOT, he was credited with a number of highway improvements, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Dec. 11. In 1996, he was appointed as the Northwest region administrator at the DOT; he was named assistant secretary last year.

Okamoto will take over as chief administrative officer at the port, serving in the new Economic Development Division.

"John is known throughout the region as an effective, collaborative administrator. His breadth of experience stems from a wide variety of leadership roles at the state- and local-government level," Dinsmore said.