Metro Councilmember Trae Welch, who serves as the council’s representative on the Airport Commission, says a committee will be formed to conduct a national search to replace longtime executive director Anthony Marino.
Marino announced last week he will retire, effective Oct. 14, after 41 years at the airport, during which he spent 21 years at the helm.
Welch says he will encourage assistant airport director Ralph Hennessy to apply for the position. Hennessy is expected to be named interim executive director by the Metro Council at its meeting next month.
“Ralph’s been a big part of Baton Rouge and Baton Rouge’s success and there’s been a lot of good things that have happened around the airport,” Welch says. “I’ve also always had a problem with the mentality of, ‘You’re good enough to be here and you’re part of the community, but we gotta go find somebody from somewhere else to be in charge.’ Local is always going to get a leg up in my book, but at the same time do a national search to see what is out there.”
While the council searches for Marino’s replacement, the outgoing executive director says he plans to enter the private sector, most likely with a company that is either based in Baton Rouge or has a presence here. He declines to elaborate, but says he has several irons in the fire and hopes to make an announcement by his Oct. 14 departure date. He says he will not be working with the airport or the aviation business park.
“That would be a conflict of interest,” he says.
Marino says his decision to retire was a long time in the making and that the timing is right for him to retire. With a new master plan for the airport expected in early 2017, Marino says it makes sense for a new, younger leader to help implement it.
“The Metro Council and the mayor said, ‘Anthony, you don’t have to do this.’ But why prolong the inevitable?” he says. “It was time to go.”
During his tenure, Marino oversaw $410 million in airport improvements, the construction of the new 175,000-square-foot terminal building, the negotiations of 58 lease agreements and the 650-acre Aviation Business Park project, among other work.
At the same time, however, the airport has seen its passenger count continue to decline, as a growing number of business travelers, in particular, opt to use the New Orleans airport instead. Marino concedes it’s a problem.
“That is something we have to work on,” he says. “We’re an airport, first and foremost.”
—Stephanie Riegel
