A retired US Navy officer was sworn in Jan. 10 as the 2012 chair of the Board of San Diego Port Commissioners.
In his first public address as chair, Retired Admiral Lou Smith said his theme for 2012 is the “Exemplary Port,” – the concept that the port should be an example for other ports to follow. Achieving that goal comes, in part, from being able to measure and quantify job performance, he said.
Smith, an engineer, also recited the words of an organizational management guru to illustrate his approach: “What gets measured gets done. What gets fed back gets done well. What gets rewarded gets repeated.”
Smith began his service on the Board of Port Commissioners in January 2010. Prior to being named to the board, he was a career naval officer, beginning in the Navy’s Civil Engineer Corps.
He completed three tours in Vietnam, supervising construction facilities for the Marine Corps. Later in his naval career, he was stationed in Washington, DC, where he worked with the Department of Defense and Congress. He retired from the Navy in 2000 as a two-star Admiral.
The Port of San Diego, which was created by the state legislature in 1962, oversees two maritime cargo terminals, two cruise ship terminals and the leases of over 600 tenant and sub tenant businesses around the San Diego Bay.
It’s governed by a seven-member Board of Port Commissioners; three are appointed by the San Diego City Council, and one commissioner each is appointed by the city councils of the cities of Chula Vista, Coronado, Imperial Beach and National City. Smith is the board’s Coronado representative.
Friday, January 20, 2012
