Noel Hacegaba may be new to his title, but he\u2019s not new to the job.<\/p>\n
For 16 years, Hacegaba has been making his mark at the Port of Long Beach \u2013 starting as executive officer to the Board of Harbor Commissioners. In January, he reached the top of the ladder when he took the wheel as chief executive \u2013 a role in which he expects to pull the trigger on or bring home projects he\u2019s spent years planning.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn some ways, it feels like I can\u2019t believe it\u2019s already been 100 days, because I hit the ground running and haven\u2019t stopped,\u201d he said shortly after passing the milestone. \u201cIn other ways, it feels like I can\u2019t believe it\u2019s only been 100 days, because we have accomplished so much in so little time.\u201d<\/p>\n
On one hand, Hacegaba already runs a well-oiled machine.<\/p>\n
In the years since the worst days of the Covid-19 pandemic \u2013 when a persistent logjam of cargo vessels in the San Pedro Bay made for odious headlines \u2013 ships have flowed in and out of the port\u2019s terminals with relative ease.<\/p>\n
Last year was a record 12 months for cargo volume handled, and so far this year, the Port of Long Beach has been the nation\u2019s busiest. The rate at which containers are hauled out of terminals \u2013 whether by truck or rail \u2013 has remained relatively brisk.<\/p>\n
And yet work is underway to upgrade the port. Work continues on the Pier B on-dock rail facility upgrade. Terminal operator ITS is in the middle of completing a slip to accommodate the largest container ships.<\/p>\n
Planning and fundraising are underway for Pier W, a proposed floating terminal for assembling floating wind turbines. The Clean Air Action Plan, in partnership with the Port of Los Angeles, will continue to reduce particulate matter in the air. And the port\u2019s 2050 plan is to double its annual cargo capacity to 20 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units).<\/p>\n
\u201cPorts are at the intersection of trade, geopolitics, climate and technology. All the forces that are reshaping the world \u2013 not just the global supply chain, but the world \u2013 they all intersect at our port,\u201d Hacegaba said. \u201cWhen we talk about building the port of the future, the port of the future has to be fast, resilient, clean, connected, and so that involves connecting with our region, our state, our partners at the federal level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among those partners is Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson, who has in recent months articulated his plans to bring Long Beach into the future \u2013 a future less dependent on the oil and gas industry while still supporting the blue-collar jobs that have historically employed residents of the second-largest city in Los Angeles County.<\/p>\n
To bring those jobs into the future, Hacegaba has periodically stressed, blue-collar equipment such as loaders, cranes, and drayage trucks also needs to transition away from fossil fuels. This meeting of the minds was evident in November, when the two ports secured a cooperative agreement with the South Coast Air Quality Management District to accelerate the adoption of zero-emissions technology for that very equipment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat cooperative agreement would not have been possible without the leadership and support of our mayor,\u201d Hacegaba said, noting that L.A. Mayor Karen Bass also was involved. \u201cThat\u2019s the kind of leadership that our mayor provides to us. He recognizes the importance and the value of our port, to our city, to our region and to the nation. He\u2019s our biggest champion.\u201d<\/p>\n
With that in mind, Hacegaba turned to a football metaphor to illustrate the leadership change.<\/p>\n
The port\u2019s former chief executive, Mario Cordero, had publicly taken the then-chief operating officer, Hacegaba, under his wing in the last year or so of his tenure. After all, he had previously negotiated the multibillion-dollar sales of both the Long Beach Container Terminal and Total Terminals International. His work to streamline operations during the pandemic logjam also led to the creation of the Supply Chain Information Highway, shared with the Port of L.A.<\/p>\n
So now, the assistant coach, if you will, has been promoted.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things I\u2019ve been telling the team internally is, it\u2019s the same organization, it\u2019s the same team, but it\u2019s a new season and a new coach,\u201d he explained. \u201cThis is my opportunity to leave a mark and to take our team into the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cFootball gives us a common language, and it gives us a way for us to relate to each other and to the work that we do,\u201d Hacegaba added. \u201cWe\u2019re expanding our playbook; we\u2019re updating our game plan, and we have moved to a hurry up offense. All of that is creating what I call a new championship culture.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Noel Hacegaba may be new to his title, but he\u2019s not new to the job. For 16 years,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132,3359],"class_list":["post-309975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-port-of-long-beach"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}