Port of New Orleans embarks on search for new chief executive at crucial time

The Port of New Orleans formally began its search for a new chief executive this week, and the incoming leader of Louisiana’s premier shipping gateway is sure to face some big challenges ahead.

Port Nola’s previous chief executive, Brandy Christian, resigned unexpectedly in May to take a job running a private sector rail company in Florida. She led the acquisition of the New Orleans Public Belt railway, a key 26-mile system that connects port and other industrial facilities to six major rail lines. She also pushed to build a new $1.8 billion downriver container terminal, called the Louisiana International Terminal, in St. Bernard Parish.

Christian garnered support for the project from key politicians and lined up hundreds of millions in public and private funding. But the port faced determined opposition from some St. Bernard residents. There are currently three lawsuits trying to block its progress.

“The LIT is definitely going to be the primary focus of the new chief executive,” said Joseph Toomey, the former state legislator who was appointed as chairman of the port’s board last year. “Whoever is in the CEO position definitely will have to navigate all the political aspects. But they will have to understand all the financial and business aspects, too.”

The Port Nola board signed a contract on Tuesday with the Los Angeles-based consulting firm Korn Ferry, which will lead the search. The consultants will spend the next several weeks working out the search criteria and job specifications. Then they will begin to reach out to potential candidates.

Christian was paid $350,000 annually, but the consultants will determine whether that is still an appropriate salary for the job, Toomey said.

Reflecting the importance of the search, the seven-member Port Nola board added four additional members to its CEO search committee. They include Susan Bourgeois, Gov. Jeff Landry’s pick to run Louisiana Economic Development; Greg Rusovich, a leading maritime executive, former board member and current chairman the Board of International Commerce; Ben Bordelon, CEO of Bollinger Shipyards; and Jack Jensen, founder and CEO of TCI Trucking and Port Nola chairman prior to Toomey.

Rusovich said the job will require someone who can lead the downriver container terminal project.

“The job of CEO of the port is big enough, but the LIT is a generational project for the state of Louisiana and for the region,” he said. “Its importance cannot be emphasized enough.”

The New Orleans maritime industry has long recognized the importance of building a downriver container port. Port Nola’s current facility at Napoleon Avenue cannot accommodate the ocean-going container vessels that are too large to make it past the Crescent City Connection. While New Orleans’ container business has been edging up over the last decade, it has lost market share rapidly to much faster growing Gulf rivals like the Port of Mobile, which has grown to surpass Port Nola by total volume.

“It’s a crisis,” said Rusovich, who noted that while many of the pieces of the LIT project are in place, there is still much to be done even before major construction begins.

Currently, the container terminal is scheduled to open in 2028, with up to 280,000 containers in its first year. That would add significantly to volume that was just over 450,000 in 2023. 

Political skills

Acting CEO Ronald Wendel Jr., who served previously as the port’s chief financial officer, plans to apply for the permanent post, according to port spokesperson Kimberly Curth.

Wendel is a New Orleans native and has been an executive vice president and top financial executive at the port since 2015, the same year that Christian joined as chief operating officer. He was previously head of finance at one of Al Copeland’s companies and at Baumer Foods, and had a three-year spell in Los Angeles at a comedy content company owned by entertainment impresario Irving Azoff.

“Ronald is from New Orleans and he has a lot of high-level experience,” said a senior port executive who wasn’t authorized to be quoted. “He has a shot.”

Pressing the flesh

While the port has recovered in its main business areas since the COVID pandemic, its latest audited accounts for 2023 show that costs are eating into gains.

Revenue from container and bulk cargo handling, rail operations, cruise ships and real estate all were up last year, but expenses rose even faster so that net operating income fell 40% to $7.5 million.

“The new CEO is going to have to wear a lot of hats,” said a member of the search committee who said he was not authorized to speak publicly.

“They are going to have to be able to do the basic job of running a port with more than $1 billion in assets,” he added. “But they are going to have be the kind of personality that can go down to St. Bernard Parish and press the flesh; someone who knows where Plaquemines and Baton Rouge are; and someone who can get along with Gov. Landry, who is going to have to approve the money for the roads.”