The Port of New Orleans is looking for a new leader after its long-serving chief executive resigned unexpectedly last week, reports NOLA.com.
Brandy Christian, who joined the port as chief operating officer in 2015 before she was promoted to the CEO job two years later, will step down next month from her position to take a new job in the private sector, the port said in a news release.
Chief Financial Officer Ronald Wendel, Jr., will serve as the port’s interim leader. The port couldn’t immediately say what plans they had to conduct a formal search to replace Christian, who didn’t say where the new job would take her.
Christian has been in charge during a period of big change for the port. A year into the job, she led the acquisition of the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad, which gave the port control of the city’s switching rail infrastructure and direct access to all six Class I national rail operators.
But the most consequential and thorny issue she has faced is garnering support for the $1.8 billion container cargo terminal, which had been talked about in many forms for at least a decade before she took over. Read more.
