Posted on December 18, 2017
By Tim Acosta, Corpus Christi Caller-Times
John LaRue, as executive director of the Port of Corpus Christi since 1994, has helped the local area develop a reputation as a leading exporter of crude oil in the United States.
But the port will have a new leader for the first time in more than two decades, after officials announced that LaRue would be retiring in June 2019. LaRue’s deputy executive director, Sean Strawbridge, has been named Chief Executive Officer for the port, effective Jan. 1, 2018.
Charlie Zahn, chairman of the port commission, made the announcement Thursday during his State of the Port keynote address.
LaRue said he would stay on as executive director through next year, and would spend six months in 2019 working on behalf of the port with legislative items during that session of the Texas Legislature.
“This year will be a gradual, not a phase out, but a transition,” he said. “We’ll make sure nothing falls through, and that we’re able to keep things going the way we have.”
“I think it’ll be pretty seamless.”
LaRue was executive director of the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority from 1990 to June 1994, when he was hired to head the Port of Corpus Christi. He replaced Harry Plomarity, a Corpus Christi native who began working for the port in 1953 and became its executive director in 1976.
Under LaRue’s leadership, the port has been involved in various projects, from development of the Congressman Solomon P. Ortiz International Center into an events center, to fostering growth with its industrial customers by accommodating space needs. Over the past five years, LaRue said the port’s capital improvements budget has gone from about $25 million to $100 million.
“It’s pretty exciting, and it looks like it’s just going to continue,” he said.
The port also assisted the city of Corpus Christi with the new Harbor Bridge project by putting up $15 million toward a $100 million match requirement and helping with the subsequent Hillcrest buyout process. LaRue has also watched as the port began seeing more oil exported rather than imported, taking it to its current spot as the nation’s leading crude oil exporter.
“We were able to turn quickly with the (Eagle Ford) shale coming where the logistics all changed — instead of stuff coming in, it was going out,” he said. “That was probably, operationally, the biggest change we went through.”
Strawbridge, the port’s deputy executive director and chief operating officer, was hired in July 2015 from the Oxbow Group, a recycler of refinery and natural gas byproducts. He served as vice president with that company. Prior to his time at Oxbow, Strawbridge was managing director for the Port of Long Beach, the nation’s second-largest container port.
He was hired at the Port of Corpus Christi following a nationwide search, with the understanding that he would be in line to succeed LaRue, who had previously hinted at retirement to port commissioners.
“I’m just extremely fortunate to be selected for that,” Strawbridge said.
Strawbridge said he was looking forward to his new role next year, given the growth that the port has seen under LaRue’s leadership. The Port of Corpus Christi is now the nation’s fourth-largest in terms of tonnage and the top exporter of crude oil.
“Our revenue estimation for 2018 will be in excess of $100 million — we’ve never done over $100 million in revenue before,” Strawbridge said. “Our volume expectations are to yet again hit record volume, so we’re already experiencing that growth.”
A number of crude oil and natural gas pipelines have been announced that will distribute those resources through the port over the next few years, and the port is set to begin a ship channel expansion project that has been in flux for nearly 30 years.
Source: Caller Times
