A high-ranking Port of Mobile executive was chosen as the next CEO of the Port of New Orleans and Public Belt Railroad, putting a former Gulf Coast rival at the helm in New Orleans as it tries to win a greater share of the container shipping business in the region.
Beth Ann Branch, a veteran shipping official who most recently served as the chief commercial officer at the Port of Mobile, will take over the job vacated by Brandy Christian earlier this year.
The port’s seven-member board of commissioners appointed her during a meeting Thursday.
The Port of New Orleans photographed from the Mississippi River in New Orleans, Friday, June 14, 2024. (Photo by Sophia Germer, The Times-Picayune)
A far smaller competitor decades ago, Mobile has outpaced New Orleans in the containerized shipping that now represents more than two-thirds of the value of global maritime trade. More than 580,000 standard-sized containers passed through Mobile last year, while container volume at the New Orleans port was around 481,000 units last year, down by around 15% over the past decade.
Branch will undoubtedly be tasked with trying to reverse that trend while she oversees construction of the $1.8 billion Louisiana International Terminal in St. Bernard Parish, which is designed to handle the ever larger container ships that cannot make it past the Crescent City Connection to Port NOLA’s Napoleon Avenue terminal.
In a prepared statement, Gov. Jeff Landry said Branch has a “deep understanding of the commercial landscape” and comes with a track record of fostering growth.
“After a comprehensive national search, it became clear that Beth Ann Branch is the visionary leader needed to help move Port NOLA and Louisiana forward,” Landry said.
The port, a state-sponsored entity with a board appointed by the governor, employs about 200 and generates roughly $100 million a year in direct revenue from cargo, cruise ships, rail and real estate businesses. The economic activity generated through domestic and international trade coming through the Port of New Orleans jurisdiction is far greater, however. A 2019 economic impact report estimated that one-in-five jobs in Louisiana are port-related and account for about $600 million in wages each year.
Lagging behind
However, it has underperformed for decades and lost ground to Houston as well as Mobile and other competitors. A powerful new state body, the Louisiana Ports and Waterways Investment Commission, headed by Landry pick Marc Hebert, was created this year and has been tasked with coming up with a comprehensive state port strategy that would put an end to parochial infighting for limited resources.
The port began its CEO search in July, two months after Christian’s unexpected resignation. The port’s chief financial officer, Ronald Wendel, was acting CEO in the interim.
Port NOLA Acting President & CEO Ronald Wendel Jr. talks about the Port of New Orleans while on the Mississippi River in New Orleans, Friday, June 14, 2024. (Photo by Sophia Germer, The Times-Picayune)
Mike Thomas, who was appointed as port chairman by Landry last month, said Branch is exactly the kind of leader needed to guide the port’s next phase of growth.
The Port of New Orleans is making a big bet to reverse that trend by building the LIT container port, and the project is seen as the heaviest lift facing a new chief executive.
Its success depends on marshalling funds from various government and private sector sources, as well as navigating politics that includes persistent opposition from parish political leaders and a group of residents that are strongly against a new container port. They’ve argued it would cause traffic havoc and pollute their local environment.
There are still several pending lawsuits that seek to block progress developing the terminal.
Greg Rusovich, CEO of Transocean Development and who was on the port’s search committee, said Branch attended a Landry event on Wednesday evening to rub elbows with the governor and other local politicians and industry players.
“She was very well received by the community and I think it gives us a special weapon and asset to get that St. Bernard project done,” Rusovich said. “She’s also a real pro, we discovered, when it comes to negotiations with ocean carriers, truckers and rail operators.”
Branch has been chief commercial officer in Mobile since 2021. She joined six months after John Driscoll took over as chief executive at Mobile, following him from the port of Oakland, California, where they had both worked.
“Beth brings the smarts, experience and interpersonal skills that this job calls for at this critical moment,” said Michael Hecht, CEO of GNO Inc., the regional economic development agency. “Coming from Mobile, she personally understands the competition within which we find ourselves.”
Branch, who graduated from Duke University in 1986 and later earned an MBA at University of North Carolina, spent more than 18 years working for the Danish company A.P. Moller Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company, in various roles in New York, Copenhagen and Norfolk, Virginia.
She starts in the new job officially on Dec. 1.