Beatriz Calzada Ojeda has not arrived at the presidency of the Port Authority of Las Palmas to be a transitional manager. A graduate in Law from ULPGC and an expert in urban planning and land management, her trajectory, which includes time at the public company Gesplan and the Parliament of the Canary Islands, reveals a strategist used to navigating the complex waters of administration and technical planning. She is also the first woman in history to hold this position, breaking a glass ceiling in a sector traditionally resistant to change. During her speech at the inaugural day of FILCA 2026 in Agüimes, Beatriz Calzada emphasized a vision that transcends concrete and docks, defining the port network as the true beating heart of the island economy. ‘Our ports are not mere transport infrastructures; they are comprehensive service platforms, innovation, and employment that support the economic activity of the Archipelago and ensure its connection with the outside,’ she asserted emphatically. For the president, the presence of the Port Authority in this forum is not merely institutional, but a declaration of intent about the structural role that the port system plays as a guarantor of supply and a motor of competitiveness in a fragmented territory, positioning Las Palmas as the indispensable strategic node of the Central Atlantic in the face of global logistics challenges. Her mandate is defined by a pragmatic duality: the defense of current traffic records (with spectacular growth in the cruise sector nearing 2 million passengers) and preparation for a 2026 marked by uncertainty. Calzada manages with realism the projections suggesting a decline in transshipment traffic with the potential reopening of the Suez Canal, but rather than adopting a defensive stance, she has doubled down on diversification: the supply of next-generation fuels (bunkering), digitalization, and dual vocational training linked to the blue economy. On the political front, her Coalition Canaria DNA manifests in a constant demand for autonomy and financial sufficiency. She has not hesitated to call for greater state and European support for the electrification of the docks, understanding that decarbonization is not an aesthetic luxury, but a competitive survival requirement under EU regulations. Calzada knows that, in the 21st century, the power of a port is not measured solely in tons, but in its capacity to integrate sustainably into the urban and global fabric.
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