Center for Logistics, Trade and Transportation Receives Endowment

The University of Southern Mississippi's Center for Logistics, Trade and Transportation (CLTT) recently established the Gary LaGrange Endowment that will be used to support the Center's activities and mission.

LaGrange has served as president and chief executive officer of the Port of New Orleans since 2001. Under LaGrange's direction the Port made great expansions in spite of tremendous adversity. During his tenure, the Port opened new, state-of-the art container, cruise and refrigerated terminals. LaGrange's leadership brought the Port of New Orleans back into operation two weeks after Hurricane Katrina, the most extensive natural disaster in U.S. history.

The LaGrange Endowment will make a significant difference and will support the Center's mission: to respond to the Gulf-region government and industry stakeholders' need for the creation and dissemination of practical, cutting-edge, interdisciplinary knowledge and technologies to advance logistics, trade and transportation; foster economic development; and promote an integrated freight system within the Americas.

LaGrange serves on the boards and executive committees of the Waterways Council, Inc. and National Waterways Council. He also serves on the boards of the Gulf Ports Association of the Americas and is past chairman and past president of the Gulf Intracoastal Canal Association.

He serves on the executive committee member of the Transportation Research Board and has served as chairman of the American Association of Port Authorities. He is a member of the Committee of 100 Louisiana.

LaGrange was named the Maritime Person of the Year by the Propeller Club of New Orleans in 2003, and Maritime Person of the Year by the Propeller Club of the Port of Gulfport in 2001. He was named the “Man of Steel” by the American Institute for International Steel (AIIS), and received the Leadership Award and named to the Hall of Fame by the International Maritime Association at the United Nations in New York.  He was also named to the National Rivers Hall of Fame in Dubuque, Iowa.

He serves on the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's Advisory Council on Trade and Transportation and the U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration's Port subcommittee. 

Before taking leadership at the Port of New Orleans, LaGrange served as the Executive Director of the Mississippi State Port Authority in Gulfport, Miss., the Port of South Louisiana and the Port of West St. Mary.

For more information about the Southern Miss Center for Logistics, Trade and Transportation, visit www.usm.edu/logistics-trade-transportation.