11/21/2025
Congratulations to Captain John Betz, '76, recipient of the Cal Maritime Alumni Association's 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Lifetime Achievement award is given to an alumnus who has reached the pinnacle of their career and has brought credit to themselves and to Cal Maritime through distinguished lifetime accomplishments in professional achievements, community affairs, and in support of the advancement of continued excellence of Cal Poly Maritime.
Betz sailed for 17 years with Chevron Shipping Company, has been a Port of Los Angeles pilot since 2002, and has been Chief Port Pilot since 2023; he holds pilot licenses for the Los Angeles/Long Beach harbors, San Francisco Bay, Prince William Sound, Cook Inlet, and other ports in Alaska. Betz built an independent consulting firm specializing in risk-based ship management and operational systems, is a maritime litigation expert consulting for the U.S. Department of Justice and various admiralty law firms, and, in his spare time, invented a patented apparatus that prevented fatal lifeboat accidents.
Betz chairs the Los Angeles/Long Beach Harbor Safety Committee and its Navigation Safety Subcommittee, manages the only U.S. pilot organization staffed with government employees, built an operational management system that led to a major culture change at Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, and managed the State of Oregon's NEW CARISSA shipwreck removal.
Betz served in both the U.S. Marine Corps and. U.S. Navy Reserve, has served as the President of the Alumni Association and is the chair of the Cal Poly Maritime Foundation, has nearly fifty years of service to the maritime industry, founded HAVEN along with his wife, Heide, a collaborative housing initiative for homeless and disabled persons, and has been featured in the Los Angeles Times and Dateline NBC for innovative work addressing homelessness.
Please join us in congratulating Lifetime Achievement Award Winner, Captain John Betz.
