Houston - By a unanimous vote, Houston City Council has reappointed for the fifth term, Nigerian-born US-based oil tycoon, Dr. Kase Lawal, as Commissioner of America’s largest port in foreign tonnage, and the sixth-largest port in the world.

Lawal, who hails from Ibadan, Oyo State, is the only black man on the Port of Houston Authority, Board of Commissioners, which controls the port.

He had also served as the first vice chairman of the Port Commission, where commissioners serve two-year terms without pay.

Lawal’s reappointment is now for a fifth term since June 1999, when he was initially named to the Port Commission.

In a statement obtained by Empowered Newswire recently, the chairman of the Port Authority, Jim Edmonds, said, “We welcome Commissioner Lawal’s return.”

According to him, Lawal who completed his secondary education in Ibadan at Lagelu Grammar School in 1970, “is a valued member of the commission and a well-respected leader in the business community and a supporter of education and small business development. We look forward to continuing our work with Lawal.”

The statement added that Lawal was chairman of PHA’s Small Business Development Task Force, a member of the PHA Pension Committee and a member of the International Business Development Task Force.

In his comments, Lawal said, “I can think of very few things as necessary to ensuring robust international commerce as a seaport,” adding that “I am grateful for the confidence the City Council has demonstrated in me with this reappointment. I have enjoyed, immensely, the past eight years on the Port Commission and look forward to helping meet the challenges ahead.”

The Mayor of Houston, America’s fourth largest city, Bill White, also remarked that “Kase Lawal understands the importance of the Port as an asset in building business opportunities and he has a proven track record in working hard to promote Houston around the world. We certainly want to keep his energy and talents on the Port Commission.”

Kase is the only person who is a member of both the Seaport and Airport Authority of Houston at the same time.

Edwards also applauded Lawal’s “vast business experience and emphasised the need for his continued involvement on the Port Commission. “

According to the City Council legislator, Lawal “is a good man, a solid leader and I’m pleased he is continuing his work on the Port Commission.”

Lawal is the chairman and chief executive officer of CAMAC International Corporation, a multi-national corporation with about $1.6bn in revenue in 2006. CAMAC and its affiliates are engaged in oil and gas exploration and production, crude oil and natural gas trading for worldwide markets and in the transportation services industry in South Africa.

Two years ago, Forbes Magazine named CAMAC on the list of the 400 largest privately owned corporations and the firm was designated the 2006 Company of the Year by Black Enterprise Magazine.

Lawal is also a significant stakeholder in a US bank, Unity National Bank, the only federally insured and licensed African-American-owned bank in Texas, and also serves as vice chairman of the bank’s board of directors.

The press statement added that Lawal “brings a rich and extensive history of civic service to his port position.”

He was appointed to the United States Trade Advisory Committee on Africa, reporting to President Bill Clinton, and was the US Trade Representative on trade policy in Africa.

“He is a former member of the United States Council on the Business Development Committee of the U.S. — South Africa Bi-National Commission and the Board of Directors of the Corporate Council on Africa in Washington, DC.

He is also a former member of the Board of Directors of the World Trade Council of the Greater Houston Partnership.”

In 2003, Lawal established a $1m endowment at Texas Southern University’s Jesse H. Jones School of Business for the Kase and Eileen Lawal Centre for International Business Development.

In 1992, he established a petroleum engineering endowment at the University of Houston’s Cullen College of Engineering to benefit graduate petroleum engineering students.

He serves as the director of the Cullen Engineering Research Foundation and as a trustee for The Kinkaid School, which is a leading college preparatory school. He also co-chairs Unite for Children, United Against AIDS, a $300-million-dollar UNICEF campaign with his wife, Eileen.

The Port of Houston Authority, where Lawal has, been a commissioner in the last nine years is where most of the crude oil from Nigeria imported into the US is transported.

Each year, more than 7,200 vessels call at the port, which ranks first in the US in foreign waterborne tonnage, second in overall total tonnage, and tenth largest in the world.

The Port Authority plays a vital role in ensuring navigational safety along the Houston Ship Channel, which has been instrumental in Houston’s development as a center of international trade.

Source: The Punch

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