Commission Vice President – Board of Harbor Commissioners
Port of Long Beach, California
Thomas Fields, a Long Beach advertising executive and former city planning commissioner, has been chosen by his colleagues as Vice President of the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners, the five-member governing board for the Port of Long Beach, California. Mr. Fields was appointed in December 2009 to his first six-year term on the Board by Mayor Bob Foster.
A resident of Long Beach since 1976, he began his service to the City on the Economic Development Commission and from there was appointed in 1996 by then-Mayor Beverly O'Neill to the Shipyard Reuse Advisory Committee, which devised the reuse plan that ultimately awarded the former Naval Shipyard property to the Port of Long Beach. Mayor O'Neill went on to name him to the City's Planning Commission in 1997, a position he held until 2003. He was then named to the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency Board, where he served as Chair, completing his term in 2007. He has also been a community activist, lobbying to bring a Trader Joe's store to his neighborhood, and was a member of the city's Ten Year Strategic Plan Committee in 1998-1999.
He is the founder and owner of Thomas Fields Associates, a Long Beach marketing and advertising agency whose clients include 20th Century Fox, Hyundai and the Long Beach Housing Development Company. He launched his career as an advertising agency writer-producer in New York and Los Angeles, writing ads and commercials for Nissan, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Chevrolet, Evian, the California State Lottery, the California Angels, Hanes, Burger King and Prudential.
Mr. Fields and his wife, Susan Bibby, a psychotherapist in private practice, have been married since 1977. They have two children, Tylan, who works as an IT Project Manager in Long Beach, and Tamara, who is a public school teacher in San Francisco.
A resident of the Bixby Knolls neighborhood of the City's Eighth Council District, he seeks to balance his corporate, for-profit work by creating advertising for non-profit, socially responsible organizations. As a result, he has developed marketing and ad campaigns for the Greater Long Beach School-to-Career Consortium, Long Beach Museum of Art, Watts Health Foundation, Andy Street and Fred Jordan Missions. He now serves as vice president on the inaugural board of directors for the Long Beach Ronald McDonald House.
The Port of Long Beach is one of the world's premier seaports, a trail blazer 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 a Green Port Policy guiding all efforts, the Port is a catalyst for innovative programs to protect the environment and new technology to provide maximum operational efficiency.
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