Vice President – Board of Harbor Commissioners
Port of Long Beach, California

Mario Cordero, a Long Beach workers' compensation defense attorney, is Vice President of the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners. He was elected to the post in June 2009 by his colleagues on the Port’s five-member governing board.

Mr. Cordero was first appointed to the Commission in 2003 by then-Mayor Beverly O’Neill and confirmed to a six-year term by the Long Beach City Council. During his first term, Mr. Cordero served as Vice-Secretary and President of the Board. He was reappointed by Mayor Bob Foster and confirmed to a second six-year term in 2009.

Mr. Cordero has spearheaded the development of the pioneering Green Port Policy. The policy outlines sustainability guidelines for Port operations, mandating that trade growth must run parallel with environmental stewardship.

The Green Port Policy, which has led to environmental initiatives like the Clean Trucks Program, the Vessel Low-Sulfur Fuel Program, the Technology Advancement Program and others, now serves as a model of environmental stewardship to ports across the country and around the globe.

Mr. Cordero has more than two decades of legal experience as a workers' compensation defense attorney. He is general counsel for Safeco Insurance and has served as an associate attorney in the Long Beach office of Adelson, Testan & Brundo. He is a member of the Federal Bar Association's Central District and the Long Beach Bar Association and is former chairman of the Workers Compensation committees for both the Long Beach Bar and the Mexican-American Bar Association for the County of Los Angeles.

The Mexican-American Bar Association named him Attorney of the Year in 2007, and he received an environmental award the same year from the League of California Cities.

Away from his legal practice, Mr. Cordero has been an instructor of political science at Long Beach City College and has sat on the City of Long Beach Community Development Commission for the past decade. He served as vice-chair of the Long Beach¬–commissioned Ethics Review Task Force that developed a Code of Ethics for city employees and elected and appointed officials.

Mr. Cordero holds a law degree from the University of Santa Clara and a bachelor of science degree in political science from California State University, Long Beach.

Born in Los Angeles and raised in Gardena, Mr. Cordero is an accomplished pianist—he has played since age eight—and expresses himself through poetry. He moved to Long Beach in 1974 and married Long Beach native Gloria (Duron) Cordero. The couple still resides in Long Beach and have two grown children.

Mrs. Cordero is a principal partner with the ABC Advocacy Group, a Long Beach public relations company, and was a member of Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster's staff. She was appointed by Supervisor Don Knabe to the Los Angeles County Consumer Affairs Commission and serves on the board of the Long Beach Nonprofit Partnership.

Their daughter, Celine, is also a lawyer and associate director of Homeland Security and Public Safety for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa; son Mario Andres is a teacher at St. John Bosco High School and head coach of its varsity baseball team.

The Port of Long Beach is one of the world's premier seaports, a trailblazer in goods movement and environmental stewardship. Each year, trade valued at more than $140 billion moves through the Port of Long Beach, supporting more than 316,000 Southern California jobs. And with the Green Port Policy guiding all its efforts, the Port is a catalyst for innovative programs that protect the environment.

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