Michael Vanderbeek, formerly with the Port of Long Beach, CA, the nation's second busiest container cargo seaport, is the new Director of Business Development for Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood, FL, announced Port Everglades Chief Executive and Port Director Steven Cernak.
"Michael's demonstrated leadership skills, knowledge of international trade and multi-lingual communication abilities made him the top choice to lead the Business Development Division for Broward County's Port Everglades Department," Cernak said.
The Port Everglades Business Development Division is responsible for developing marketing and sales strategies to draw additional cruise business and containerized, dry and break bulk cargo volumes to Port Everglades. Staff provides customer service to the cruise and cargo shipping communities and markets Foreign-Trade Zone No. 25 and other Port facilities to the maritime community. The Port's Corporate & Community Relations Section is also part of the Business Development Division under Vanderbeek's leadership.
Vanderbeek served as the Manager of Business Development for the Port of Long Beach where he managed business and economic development including identifying new market opportunities where he helped facilitate more than $86 million in new trade. He also worked closely to build and maintain relationships with customers in the cargo shipping field and to promote and administer Foreign-Trade Zone No. 50. Prior to that position, Vanderbeek served as the Manager of Strategic Planning for the Port of Long Beach.
In addition to his work at the Port of Long Beach, Vanderbeek served as a faculty member at the Sol Price School of Policy at the University of Southern California (USC) where he collaborated with partners such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the American Planning Association, and the municipal governments of Ningbo and Zhoushan, China, to develop research and policy agendas related to the economic benefits of trade for major metropolitan regions.
Vanderbeek earned a Master of Planning degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Southern California and graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor's Degree in Spanish from Boise State University. Vanderbeek is a member of the American Association of Port Authorities' Maritime Economic Development Committee and Real Estate Best Practices Group.
As one of South Florida's leading economic powerhouses, Port Everglades is a major gateway for international trade and cruise vacations. Already the second busiest cruise port in the world, Port Everglades is also one of the nation's leading container ports and South Florida's main seaport for receiving petroleum products including gasoline, jet fuel and alternative fuels. The Port Everglades Department is a self-supporting Enterprise Fund of Broward County government with operating revenues of approximately $139 million in Fiscal Year 2011 (October 1, 2010 through September 30, 2011). It does not rely on local tax dollars for operations. The total value of economic activity at Port Everglades is approximately $15.3 billion. More than 160,000 Florida jobs are impacted by the Port, including almost 11,400 people who work for companies that provide direct services to Port Everglades.
