Beth Ann Branch knows what will define success or failure in her new job leading the Port of New Orleans.
The port’s board made it clear when they lured her away earlier this year from a top post at the Alabama Port Authority in Mobile. Above all else, the Louisiana International Terminal, the $1.8 billion container port planned for St. Bernard Parish, must be built without delay in order to reverse the steady loss of New Orleans’ shipping business to rivals along the Gulf Coast and Eastern Seaboard.
“It is priority one through nine, not just for me but for the state, because it is critical,” Branch said during an interview at the port’s boardroom, a week into her position as president and CEO of the Port of New Orleans and the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad. “It has to be built, it absolutely has to be built.”…