Bill Cork to head Hancock County Port and Harbor Commission

March 21, 2016

The Hancock County Port and Harbor Commission has selected Bill Cork as its Chief Executive Officer.

“We are excited to have someone with the experience of Bill Cork to lead the Hancock County Port and Harbor Commission,” said Robert Kane, HCPHC board president. “He has a track record of economic development success working with both the public and private sectors. Bill and his family will be a great addition to our area.”

Cork is the founder of Cork Consulting Group LLC, a consulting firm in Texarkana, Texas. He served previously as president and CEO of the Texarkana Chamber of Commerce, a two-city, two-state business league with 1,000 members.

From 2007 to 2014, Cork was executive director and CEO of TexAmericas Center in New Boston, Texas, where he was responsible for the economic redevelopment of a 12,000-acre industrial park and 3 million square feet of building space that includes parts of the former Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant and Red River Army Depot.

The mixed-use development included residential, golf course, commercial and industrial development and was home to more than two dozen tenants and landowners.

Earlier in his career, Cork co-owned a real estate sales and consulting firm, was vice president of national accounts and regional vice president at Sempra Energy, and was a researcher and post graduate fellow at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Construction Engineering Research Laboratories.

He is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and earned a bachelor’s in philosophy and master’s degree in urban and regional planning from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Cork and his wife, Nina, have four children. She is an art educator and commercial artist.

Cork succeeds HCPHC executive director Ashley Edwards, who is now president of the Gulf Coast Business Council.

For more information about the Hancock County Port and Harbor Commission, visit www.portairspace.com.