Hi

everyone, I'm Sean Horish, and welcome to Pulse of the Port.

In this episode, we'll take a look at three projects here at the Port of Long Beach that have reached key milestones.

From super trains to virtual security, you'll see how the port of the future is being built right now.

But first, let's meet John Slangerup, the man who's charged with leading this port in the years to come.

July 1st, 2014

marked the beginning of a new era.

He's a leader and a teacher, and I want to introduce you.

Please welcome John Slangerup.

John W.

Slangerup was introduced as the chief executive of the Port of Long Beach.

It's been such a welcoming experience and such a natural transition here for me.

It appealed to me immediately.

This was about building something even greater.

It turned out to be an excellent fit.

And here I am.

He's an extremely capable leader.

He has an extremely impressive resume with more than 30 years of corporate leadership.

SlangerUp has spent the last 20 years leading both public and private companies.

A former CEO and architect of FedEx Canada, he has helped guide and build technology firms focused in fields ranging from industrial software to clean energy and ballast water treatment.

Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, I spent most of my youth uh there.

Early in my career, I was uh involved with airplanes and mostly military aircraft.

So I worked for the Navy for a total of about six years.

And in that I was trained as an avionics mechanic or technician.

Then I transferred into the commercial aviation world, and that gave me some experience that was necessary for me to get into what was FedEx or Federal Express at the time.

It was a tiny little business.

And uh there was less than a thousand employees when I joined, and when I left, I think it was a couple hundred thousand, and I think it's over three hundred thousand today, so it was just an unbelievable experience.

And most recently I I was wooed and asked to join a uh private equity firm where we uh did this buying and selling of companies for a living.

And so that's where I was when I got the call for this.

It was so compelling, I had to listen.

The Port of Long Beach has such an incredible reputation that how could you possibly ignore this opportunity.

The history is based on great leadership that preceded you.

And that's what the case is here.

This is a hundred years of great leadership.

Extraordinary vision and leadership.

This is incredibly important work.

I

mean, it doesn't get more important than this.

The impact that the port of Long Beach has on the overall economy of the region and the national economy is not to be minimized.

I mean, it's a massive, massive responsibility.

We

are an enormous organization.

And we have billions of construction underway at the same time.

More than

4.5 billion dollars to be precise.

Nearing its midway point, the Middle Harbor Modernization Project will create the world's greenest and most technologically advanced terminal, which will process more than three million TEUs annually.

And the Gerald Desmond Bridge replacement project will create a new Long Beach icon that will allow the world's largest ships to pass below.

Adding fuel to this already impressive economic engine.

What I see is outstanding work.

What I've seen is meticulous planning, tremendous care and focus about the schedule.

We need to accelerate where we can.

We need to reprioritize where we can.

We need to not overspend the uh the capital that we're working with.

I love people who are believers.

I love people who uh love to innovate and come up with new ideas.

All of that defines this port, in my view.

So this is really the mandate here is to bring economic development to the region and build uh an enormous next chapter of this whole story.

Just a few days after John Slangerup started working at the port, the new mayor of Long Beach, Robert Garcia, came over to meet John and say hello to all the port employees who are a part of the City of Long Beach staff.

Mayor Garcia's message was

clear.