From Fifty-Dollars and a Cheap Suitcase to the World Stage: What Dr. Noel Hacegaba learned on the way to the top
- Christine Victoria Dela Cruz
- Apr 24
- 1 min read
The CEO of the Port of Long Beach shares leadership principles forged through a blue-collar family, serving his teams, and navigating intense operational challenges
Written By: Ed Mauss
Photography by: Andrew Heiser
Editor-in-Chief: Rick Gibson
Publisher & CEO: Christopher Luna
The day his parents dropped him off at USC, his stepfather reached into his pocket and pressed a $50 bill into his hand. “Mijo,” he said in Spanish. “This is all I got for the whole week.”
Fast forward about three decades: that same college student — an immigrant from Mexico, the son of blue-collar workers, and the first in his family to attend college — was seated on six consecutive panels at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, representing the U.S. ports’ perspective alongside heads of state and the CEOs of Nvidia and Microsoft.
That journey belongs to Dr. Noel Hacegaba, CEO of the Port of Long Beach, which is one of the busiest container ports in North America and a critical artery of global trade. Nearly 3 million jobs across the United States depend on the port’s operations. And the man who now leads it built his philosophy not just in a boardroom, but also by sweeping floors at his stepfather’s small business, leading a sales team that was more experienced than he was, and making connections at every opportunity. Read the full Article
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View the photoshoot: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCS29c
Podcast Interview: https://youtu.be/Jcqp-QF4PMM
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