Port of Long Beach CEO suddenly calls it quits

With just a little more than two years on the job as CEO, Jon Slangerup today announced his resignation from the Port of Long Beach.

The news came as a surprise to many in the industry, and the timing may also be problematic for the port. With shipping's peak season now underway, the massive San Pedro Bay gateway faces several other new challenges. Slangerup, by his own admission, recently produced a video warning shippers not to expect the robust throughput figures posted in 2015.

Hanjin's bankruptcy, which will have an impact on alliances and deployments serving the port should be one main concern, as well as the fragile nature of early dockside labor negotiations between the International Longshore Union and the Pacific Maritime Association.

While the Board of Harbor Commissioners starts an executive search immediately, Slangerup walks away from it all on October 28 to take a position as Chairman and CEO of an undisclosed “aviation technology company.”

As a veteran corporate executive with extensive experience in global logistics and environmental technologies, Slangerup spent a decade prior to joining Long Beach with FedEx Canada. He is widely credited for transforming the company from a small regional domestic courier into Canada's leading international express logistics players.

Tellingly, Slangerup stated that he regards “driving forward our vision for the Green Port of the Future,” as one of chief achievements.

His brief tenure as CEO also allowed the port to regroup in the wake of a catastrophic labor shutdown in 2014, notes Jock O’Connell, Beacon Economics’ International Trade Advisor and one of California’s foremost authorities on global economic trends.

“In addition to the labor situation, the port was confronting a shortage of container chassis and trucking disruptions,” O'Connell observes. “The expanded Panama Canal and advent of new mega-vessels was also a big concern at that time. He worked with a broad range of diverse constituencies to solve those problems.”

Indeed, Slangerup's leadership was instrumental in addressing the historic congestion challenge that affected the San Pedro Bay port complex and the national goods movement network. He worked with all stakeholders – local, regional and federal – to restore operations in less than half the time expected. Months later, in July 2015, the port set the strongest cargo record in more than a century of operations and the strongest performance since the Great Recession.

But having opted once for a short-term “fixer” with no heretofore experience in ocean cargo logistics and port operations, will Long Beach Commissioners look again for a similar candidate?

O'Connell is among those who think changing times suggest that they will:

“Today it's not as important for port directors to have previous experience on the carrier and/or terminal side,” he says. “What is really needed, is a person who is politically gifted, and has a good grip on technological innovation and new systems.”

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