Appointed in 2020, John Driscoll serves as Director and CEO of the Alabama Port Authority, which oversees the Port of Mobile. The port is on track for a record number of containers this year and keeps expanding.

Before coming to Mobile, Driscoll served as the director of the Port of Oakland and lived in Costa Rica for ten years, working for Maersk Sealand. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park. Here, he discusses the expanding port, the country’s supply chain and why the port is “Alabama’s gateway to the world.”

Tell me a little bit about yourself, what you do with the Port Authority, and how you got to your position.

I’ve worked all over the world – most recently in California – but prior to that, I was in Costa Rica for 10 years working for Maersk Sealand. My wife Linda and I have three boys, and my work taking me all over the world has been an incredible experience for all of us. From Brazil to Baltimore and now Mobile, out of everywhere I’ve been, I can confidently say Alabama is in one of the best positions geographically, politically and economically to be the answer to the country’s supply chain struggles that we have all witnessed over the past couple of years.

Why do you do what you do?