W H AT ' S N E W
THE NE X T S TEP BY WILLIAM KALEC
Equipped with a decade of maritime commerce experience in leadership roles, new Port of South Louisiana CEO Paul Matthews looks to build on the Port’s tradition of excellence
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ometimes, Paul Matthews explains, the same person can be in the same scenario at various points in life and view the situation completely differently. It’s simply a matter of perspective. For instance, the newly named Chief Executive Officer of the Port of South Louisiana says when he first started driving in uptown New Orleans as a student at Ben Franklin High School (and later as an undergrad at Tulane University), he absolutely could not stand getting caught at a train crossing. The waiting. The uncertainty of not knowing when it would end. The deep, frustrated exhales as train car after train car slowly crept past. Matthews says he couldn’t bear it, but something changed once he started working in maritime. “Back then, I thought, ‘Wow, this is the worst thing possible,’” Matthews recalls with a laugh. “Not only am I dealing with regular traffic but now I got this train holding me up, too? This is terrible. Well, fast forward to now, I haven’t had those thoughts in the 10 years I’ve been working
in the maritime business. I’ll gladly put the car in park and wait, because I know all the products I’m using on a daily basis are passing right in front of my eyes to their final destination. “You see things differently.” The same could be said of Matthews’ new role at the Port of South Louisiana. From an outside perspective, given the Port’s seemingly cemented status as one of the Largest Tonnage Ports in the Western Hemisphere and its proven ability to stand strong in the face of adversity such as natural disasters, global economic downturns and even a pandemic, it could be assumed that Matthews’ main task in replacing former Executive Director Paul
Aucoin is to simply maintain the status quo. But that’s not how Matthews sees things. As someone who has spent almost his entire professional career entrenched in the Gulf Coast maritime commerce scene, Matthews knows better than anyone that the ultimate goal for the Port of South Louisiana shouldn’t be to match the heights reached in the past but to exceed them. “You can take what’s been built, celebrate it, but not let what’s been done prevent you from maximizing growth and operating at optimal levels,” Matthews says. “You can’t rest on your laurels. You must always strive be better, in all things. Better in all aspects–from a regional level to a global level.
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