Rich Byrnes
Port Houston
Chief Infrastructure Officer
Rich is Port Houston’s Chief Infrastructure Officer focusing on driving regional prosperity, customer service, industry and community engagement, and port success through planning, design, construction, control, grant support and sustainability of all Port Houston facilities and programs. Rich’s career spans engineering, operations, and consulting with up-, mid-, and downstream energy, transportation, ports, shipyards, and government clients across the Americas, Asia, Europe, Africa, and Middle East. Prior to Port Houston, Rich led management and technical consulting business lines at Schlumberger and Halliburton, and consulted on strategy, organization, operations, supply chain and workforce. Earlier he was an oilfield engineer Saudi Arabia and Syria, and managed supply chain while wintering over at the South Pole, Antarctica. Rich holds two Master’s from MIT, in Ocean Systems Management and Technology and Policy; a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from UC Santa Barbara; an Associate’s in Mathematics from Long Beach City College; and leadership certificates from Texas A&M. He has also taught leadership, strategy and organization at Texas A&M, and the University of Maryland. Rich serves on the Boards of the Blue Sky Maritime Coalition, Texas Hydrogen Alliance, and STEM-E Youth Career Development Program, the Advisory Boards of the Houston Energy Transition Initiative and Port of the Future, and is a member of the Greater Houston Partnership’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
