Panamanian marine engineer Ilya Espino de Marotta has taken over as administrator of the Panama Canal for the 2026–2033 term, becoming the first woman to lead the waterway, according to a Panama Canal Authority statement.
Espino de Marotta formally assumed the post on 7 September, succeeding Ricaurte Vásquez Morales after 41 years at the canal. She had served as deputy administrator since January 2020, when she also became the first woman to hold that position.
She joined the canal in 1985 as the only female marine engineer at the shipyard of the then Industrial Division. She later served as vice president for transit business and executive vice president for engineering and program management, where she was involved in the execution and completion of the Panama Canal Expansion Program. In January 2024, she became the canal’s first chief sustainability officer.
“My commitment is to remain focused on efficiency, transparency, and ethics, because every dollar we manage at the Canal belongs to Panama, and that is how we will treat it,” Espino de Marotta said at her inauguration. Her seven-year term puts her in charge of implementing the canal’s 2025–2035 Strategic Vision, including the Río Indio reservoir, new container terminals on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, an energy corridor and a logistics corridor.
The Río Indio project has an estimated budget of 1.6bn Panamanian balboas ($1.6bn).
The proposed fiscal 2027 budget projects revenue of 5.555bn balboas ($5.555bn) and direct contributions of 3.608bn balboas ($3.608bn) to Panama’s national treasury. It is based on an estimated 10,750 deep-draft vessel transits and factors in the possibility of a strong El Niño event.
Espino de Marotta was appointed by the authority’s board on 21 May 2026 following a national and international selection process focused on Panamanian professionals.
The Panama Canal Authority is an autonomous legal entity of the Republic of Panama responsible for the operation, administration, management, preservation, maintenance and modernisation of the Panama Canal and its related services.