Managing Director of Engineering
Port of Long Beach, California
Douglas A. Thiessen, Managing Director of Engineering for the Port of Long Beach, California, oversees the Port’s design, construction management and program management divisions. Appointed by the Board of Harbor Commissioners in February 2007, he heads all Port engineering and construction projects and oversees an annual project budget of more than $200 million.
Mr. Thiessen joined the Long Beach Harbor Department in January 2000, with extensive experience in public engineering and transportation, as assistant chief harbor engineer, assigned to implement the Mega Terminal improvement program. He then was promoted to the post of chief harbor engineer where he served for more than six years. As head of the engineering division, he had responsibility for engineering design, project and contract management, surveying and mapping, and construction.
Born in Williamsburg, Virginia, he grew up in Hawaii and Micronesia. His father, a former naval officer and transportation director for the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, later ran a shipping business in Hawaii. Thiessen started out working for him as a deck hand and clerk.
He received a bachelor’s degree and did graduate work in civil engineering at the University of Southern California, and then began his engineering career with Caltrans as a junior civil engineer.
He moved to the Port of Los Angeles in 1983 where he worked for 15 years on expansion projects and eventually was named the Port’s manager of special projects, including the APL-Pier 300 container terminal.
Before coming to the Port of Long Beach in 2000, Mr. Thiessen joined the Los Angeles City Department of Public Works’ Bureau of Engineering. He was the acting division engineer of the environmental engineering division responsible for all wastewater treatment facility design and construction in Los Angeles.
Mr. Thiessen is past chairman of the Ports and Harbors Committee for the American Society of Civil Engineers, a board member of the California Marine Affairs and Navigation Conference and a member of the Alameda Corridor Operating Committee.
He and his wife, Pauline, are the parents of four daughters named Marina, Rosalie, Juliana and Isabel.
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.
