Just days after Port of Long Beach executive director Richard Steinke announced he would retire later this year, the port is now set to lose another top executive.
Cosmo Perrone, the port's director of security, has announced his intention to leave the port within the next several months, according to port sources. Perrone had reportedly been considering the move for some time.
Perrone, a more than 30-year veteran of the industrial security field, joined the port in 2005 and led the transformation of the port's Security Division and Harbor Patrol into a modern and high-tech security force.
As the head of port security, Perrone oversees more than 80 security personnel, including Harbor Patrol officers. He is also responsible for directing the 24-hour patrols, anti-terrorism programs and security coverage for the 3,000-acre port complex.
A former Boeing and McDonnell Douglas security and fire director, Perrone was recently recognized as one of the “Top 25 Most influential People in the Security Industry” and called a “Port Authority Visionary” by the trade publication Security Magazine.
Perrone’s innovations during his major revamp and modernize of security at the port included the implementation of a multi-million dollar port-wide network of hundreds of surveillance cameras, radar and sonar sensors to enhance “domain awareness” below water, at water level and on land.
In addition, Perrone oversaw the creation of the port dive team and the design, development and construction of the port's $21 million state-of-the-art security headquarters that opened in February 2009.
Prior to joining the port, Perrone was the executive director of the Long Beach-based Cosmo Perrone and Associates, a security, fire and investigations consulting firm established in 2003.
Before this he served for 23 years in Long Beach with McDonnell Douglas and Douglas takeover owner Boeing. His tenure with the firm included 19 years as director of security and fire services; responsibility for the development and administration of strategic policy for the company’s global security and fire protection functions; and, service as Boeing’s Southern California executive coordinator for all Homeland Security issues.
Perrone serves on the California Maritime Security Council, and he has been recently appointed to serve on the National Maritime Security Advisory Committee. He has been a member of the Public Safety Advisory Commission for the City of Long Beach and the Overseas Security Advisory Council for the U.S. State Department. His other memberships have included the Aerospace Industries Association, the American Society of Industrial Security and the National Academies: Science and Technology for the Yucca Mountain Physical Security Committee.
