Mario Cordero, an international maritime industry leader, Long Beach resident and attorney, is Chief Executive Officer of the Port of Long Beach, California, named to the post by the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners in May 2017.
Beginning in 2003, Mr. Cordero served as a member, vice president and president of the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners for eight years, before resigning to accept President Barack Obama’s appointment to the Federal Maritime Commission in 2011. He served on the FMC until May 2017 and was FMC Chairman from April 2013 to January 2017.
As Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Cordero reports to the Board and leads the Port’s Harbor Department staff of more than 500 with a budget of $634.5 million for the 2023 fiscal year.
He is the Port’s representative to the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority Governing Board and the Governing Board of the Intermodal Container Transfer Facility-Joint Powers Authority. Mr. Cordero was elected to a two-year term as Chairman of the Board for the American Association of Port Authorities in 2020 following a term as Vice Chairman, and previously served as an Executive Board member on AAPA’s Latin American delegation. He sits on the L.A. County Economic Resiliency Task Force – charged with helping guide the County’s approach to reopening as the region emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic – as chair of the Commodities and Goods Movement sector working group.
In 2021, Mr. Cordero was appointed by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco to serve on the bank’s Los Angeles branch seven-member board of directors and, in 2023, for the third consecutive year he was named to the Los Angeles Business Journal’s “LA500” list of the city’s most influential civic leaders.
Mr. Cordero has practiced law for more than 30 years, specializing in workers’ compensation cases. He holds a law degree from the University of Santa Clara and a Bachelor