Captain Eric Carrero is the president of the Greater Houston Port Bureau, a nonprofit trade organization comprised of 250+ members in the Houston Ship Channel community. The Port Bureau’s mission is to promote cooperation and efficiency within the maritime community through vessel movement information, port information, networking, and advocacy. The Houston Ship Channel complex, with more than 200 private and public terminals, is the largest port by tonnage and the largest petrochemical facility in the U.S.

Captain Carrero served 26 years in the U.S. Coast Guard and before retiring in May 2023, led the Waterways Management Division for the Coast Guard’s Eighth District as the Director of Western Rivers and Waterways. During his time at the District, he facilitated waterborne commerce through aids to navigation and vessel traffic center oversight as well as maintaining federal partnership and coordination in 27 states. His last operational assignment was Commanding Officer at Marine Safety Unit Texas, where he carried out the Coast Guard’s homeland security, marine safety, and marine environmental protection missions in the ports of Galveston, Texas City, and Freeport, in over 120 miles of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway – a 4,000 square-mile region of the Outer Continental Shelf – and the entrance to the Houston Ship Channel

Prior to this assignment, he served at U. S. Coast Guard Sector Houston-Galveston, first as the Chief of the Inspections Division and later as the Chief of the Prevention Department. During this time, he oversaw marine safety and security operations in the nation’s busiest port complex with 144 regulated facilities, more than 1,300 vessel fleet, over 9,000 foreign vessel arrivals, and 500+ marine casualty responses and investigations annually.

He is also a certified marine safety professional, with numerous qualifications in marine pollution response, marine casualty investigations, and commercial vessel and waterfront facility inspections. In this capacity, Captain Carrero was deployed to the historic responses to Hurricane Katrina and Haiti Earthquake. He served as Operations Section Chief during Hurricane Harvey, where he was responsible for all maritime transportation issues related to the successful Coast Guard response in Houston-Galveston.
His other previous operational assignments include: Marine Safety Office/Group Philadelphia; Marine Safety Office San Juan, Puerto Rico, where he served as a Marine Casualty Investigator, Port State Control Inspector and Assistant Senior Investigating Officer; and Marine Safety Detachment Fort Smith, Ark, where he served as the supervisor responsible for all marine safety related issues, including domestic inspections in the expansive western area of Arkansas and Oklahoma. He also served at the Coast Guard Atlantic Area as a Port Security Liaison Officer where he conducted port security assessments in over 20 countries, evaluating the effectiveness of anti-terrorism measures, and enforced international port security regulations in South America, Africa and the Caribbean.

Captain Carrero holds a bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Puerto Rico and a master’s degree in Environmental Management and Policy from the American Public University System. He currently serves in the Houston International Seafarers Center Corporate Board of directors and is a member of the Marine Information Services of North America.