Richard D. Steinke is set to retire as executive director of the Port of Long Beach effective Sept. 30. Photo courtesy of the Port of Long Beach.
UPDATE 9:01pm | Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster released the following statement Tuesday afternoon regarding the announcement Tuesday morning by the Port of Long Beach that the port’s executive director, Richard D. Steinke, plans to retire effective Sept. 30:
Dick led the Port of Long Beach through some dramatic changes, including major environmental initiatives such as the Green Port Policy. He really is the kind of person you want in public service. I want to thank Dick for his leadership and wish him well in retirement and in his future endeavors.
Steinke, who is 55, was as of last August the city’s highest paid employee, earning a salary of $299,000.
11:23am | The Port of Long Beach announced Tuesday morning that Executive Director Richard D. Steinke is retiring after 14 years at the port’s helm.
His retirement will be effective Sept. 30, according to information provided by port spokesman Art Wong.
“I have accomplished most of what I set out to do at the port,” said Steinke in a prepared statement. ”I’m pleased that I can move on knowing that I leave the port a better place than when I came on board.”
The announcement of his retirement comes as the port embarks upon a string of major improvements over the next decade at an estimated combined cost of roughly $4 billion.
Steinke is credited with leading the port, the second-busiest port in the nation located in the sixth-busiest port complex in the world, during the redevelopment of the former Long Beach Naval Complex to create one of the nation’s largest cargo terminals.
In 2010, more than $140 billion in trade moved through the Port of Long Beach, supporting 300,000 jobs throughout Southern California and 1.4 million across the country, Wong said.
It was also during Steinke’s tenure that the port implement its Green Port Policy, which the port touts on its website as “an aggressive, comprehensive and coordinated approach to reduce the negative impacts of port operations” based on five guiding principles and six program elements. Included under the policy is the port’s Clean Truck Program, which it developed with the neighboring Port of Los Angeles.
“Dick has been instrumental in developing the Port of Long Beach into one of the top seaports in the world,” said Nick Sramek, president of the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners, which governs the Port of Long Beach, in a prepared statement. “He led the port out of the recent recession, keeping it strong financially while guiding our major modernization and environmental projects.”
Through partnerships and collaboration, Steinke navigated the port through the complex process of gaining approval for the $1 billion Middle Harbor Redevelopment Project, which is expected to create one of the greenest, most efficient port terminals in the world, as well as the $950 million Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement Project set to begin sometime in 2012.
Sramek said the Board of Harbor Commissioners would begin the search for Steinke’s successor shortly, and Steinke has agreed to assist the board in both the selection process and the smooth transition to a new executive director.
“Dick has helped us develop a great staff, a great team here at the port, and we’re confident that we can maintain Long Beach’s world-class status,” Sramek added.
Steinke is a board member for the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority, the Intermodal Container Transfer Facility Joint Powers Authority, the Harbor Association of Industry and Commerce, Intermodal Transportation Institute and St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, and he is a member of the Red Cross CEO Advisory Committee
In addition to his duties at the port, Steinke has held the non-paid positions of spokesman for the U.S. West Coast Collaboration, a partnership of West Coast ports and the major western railroads, and chairman of the American Association of Port Authorities and the California Association of Port Authorities.
Before he was first hired by the port 20 years ago, Steinke worked in the property management department at Denver International Airport, Wong said.