William Dietrich was fresh out of college after serving in the U.S. Army when deciding he wanted to be a police officer. 

That ambition brought him to Brownsville. The city’s police department was hiring and Dietrich went to where the job was being offered. Starting as a police officer, he saw the job as a stepping stone that would soon enough take him out of Brownsville. The first scenario may have been true but the latter was not as the Seattle native found a place he wanted to stay in deep South Texas.

“I fell in love with the community,” Dietrich said of Brownsville. “There were so many aspects that I came to enjoy and appreciate.”

He would work for over two decades in the Brownsville Police Department. Dietrich would rise in the ranks to occupy some of the highest levels of command in the department. In 2022, an opportunity arose at the Port of Brownsville. He applied for and would be hired to be the port’s chief of police. The post required oversight of a department that is tasked with the security of 40,000 acres and 62 square miles. There were also overlapping jurisdictions to deal with in working alongside federal and state agencies that have operations within the port’s boundaries.

Serving Others

Those two years as the port’s police chief gave Dietrich the opportunity to get a grasp of working at the harbor and understanding what it takes to keep commerce moving at one of the nation’s top five export ports. In 2024, the port’s chief executive officer position became open with the retirement of its longtime leader, Eduardo Campirano.

“It was never my intention in starting at the port to seek the position,” Dietrich said of the CEO job. “In moving along and understanding the port, I knew it was something I could manage.”

The Brownsville Navigation District’s Board of Commissioners would agree.

After designating Dietrich as the interim CEO, the BND board in August 2024 officially hired Dietrich to be the port’s new director and CEO. The one-time police officer would have never imagined that years later he would manage the operations of a port. Dietrich is a believer in servant leadership where the whole of a team is greater than one single person.

“The port should never be associated with just one person,” he said. “People should think of the 145 people who work here. No matter what job you get, everything gets done through the people on your staff.”

Coming into the port CEO job with a law enforcement background instead of the usual business pedigree brings a different dynamic to the leadership post. Dietrich says it’s something he and the BND board discussed. The ultimate call was to stay with a proven port leader who knew the staff and current management team in providing continuity.

“We have a culture where we support each other,” he said. “We have the same management team in place with deep industry knowledge. It’s fluid with a structure I can lean on. I’m the beneficiary of the team we have in place.”

Adding Value

Dietrich takes the helm of the port at a time of significant growth.

Cargo tonnage is up by over 15 percent since 2023. There were over 2,500 vessel/ship calls in 2023, which at that time represented a 46 percent increase from the previous year. Operating revenues continue to grow year over year and now surpass $40 million. The port’s foreign trade zone is among the nation’s leaders in exports, ranking second in recent years.

The port is one of the Rio Grande Valley’s largest job-generating areas. There are over 5,000 private sector jobs just in the turning basin. The liquefied natural gas plants being built at the port have already added over 1,000 jobs to area payrolls. 

All of those figures are impressive and Dietrich says the port is striving to be more than a go-through harbor. A big picture goal is to make the port a place where value is added to some of the raw materials and products shipped to the Brownsville harbor. The tons of steel exported to Mexico are an example. Dietrich says having industries that can take iron ore and scrap steel and make viable commercial products adds value. It would capture more capital at the port.

“We’ve got the workforce and we’re in a good position globally,” he said of the port’s value-added aspirations. 

Dietrich is working to make that goal more of a reality with a team ready made for the type of leadership he is providing as the port’s new chief executive officer.