By Mark Edward Nero
Earlier this week, the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners named two Port of Long Beach engineering leaders as the new Chief Harbor Engineer and the new Director of Program Management.
Suzanne Plezia, the port’s Director of Construction Management, has been promoted to Senior Director of the Engineering Bureau’s Program Delivery Group. The position is also referred to as Chief Harbor Engineer. Plezia is the first woman to hold this position in the port’s history. In that capacity, she will oversee the execution of all the port’s capital projects.
She will lead the Program Delivery Group, which consists of four divisions – Program Management, Construction Management, Survey and Project Controls. The group is responsible for the port’s capital program, including the new Middle Harbor Container Terminal Redevelopment and replacement of the aging Gerald Desmond Bridge.
Tom Baldwin, who has been Assistant Director of Program Management, will oversee the port’s capital improvement program, which includes dredging, wharf, terminal, building, railroad, bridge, safety, roadway and utility projects.
Plezia joined the Port of Long Beach in 1996 as an intern. She was named Director of Construction Management in December 2014, and has also worked in the Design, Program Management and Construction Management divisions. In 2012, she guided the procurement process for the Gerald Desmond Bridge replacement contract, and managed construction for the recently completed Pier G Container Terminal Redevelopment project.
Baldwin began working for the port in 2002 and was named Assistant Director of Program Management in January 2015. He specializes in leading large harbor development projects, including renovations of terminals in use by tenants, such as the Middle Harbor Terminal Redevelopment program, under which two outdated terminals are being combined into a 305-acre state-of-the-art facility designed to improve capacity while reducing pollutants.
Both appointments are effective April 29.