NEW ORLEANS – Brandy D. Christian, president and CEO of the Port of New Orleans and CEO of the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad, has announced she is leaving her post in June to take a job at a private company in Jacksonville, Fla.
Ronald Wendel Jr., Port NOLA executive vice president and chief financial officer, will assume acting leadership of the port and railroad.
The move ends Christian’s seven-year stint at the helm of a public agency that reports roughly $100 million in annual revenue annually through its four lines of business: cargo, rail, industrial real estate and cruises. The port credits her with increasing operating revenues by 70%, and NOPB said it grew its operating income by 300% during her tenure.
“We cannot overstate the exemplary leadership that Brandy Christian has provided throughout her tenure,” said Walter Leger Jr., chairman of the Port NOLA Board of Commissioners and the NOPB Commission, in a statement.
Christian will be the new CEO of Patriot Rail Company, which owns and operates more than 30 short line freight railroads across the U.S. and three scenic excursion trains.
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