BusinessReport.com

Full name: Kenneth E. Naquin

Title: CEO

Company: Louisiana Associated General Contractors

Age: 53

Hometown: born in New Orleans

Why do you do what you do?

In the construction industry, no two days are the same. Every day is a challenge. Never more so than in the Construction Association business.

What is your greatest professional accomplishment?

Becoming CEO of the LAGC.

What was your first job?

Same as most males growing up in the south…cutting grass.

What is the best advice you've ever received?

Professionally, from the first person I worked for at LAGC, Preston Eggers: “Surround yourself with good leaders.” Personally, from my dad, “You can lose your hair, but never lose your teeth.”

Who do you most admire in the local business community and why?

That’s a hard one; Baton Rouge is blessed with so many good business leaders, but if pressed I’d say Mayor/President Kip Holden. He’s done a tremendous job bringing Baton Rouge forward and getting different people to work together.

If you could have any job other than your own, what would it be?

Professional lawn care, I love to do yard work.

What is the greatest personal or professional obstacle you've overcome?

As a child I was told I was tone deaf. I really don’t hear tone(s) in my head. Everyone thinks I have a very acute New Orleans drawl, but sometimes I struggle to enunciate my words.

If you started over, what would you do differently?

Spend more time with my family, take my sons fishing, be more involved in my daughter’s life, be more of a friend to my wife, things we all wish we did more of.

What is your prescription for life?

When you wake every morning, thank the good Lord you have another day on this earth.

What book are you currently reading?

The Baseball Fact Book; it has the starting day line up of every major league team since 1900.

If you could have dinner with any three living people, who would they be? (Authors? Leaders?)

Any World War II veteran (they were very brave to whom we owe so much), The Pope, and Lance Armstrong.

Who would play you in a movie?

Robin Williams. Is there a more fertile mind for nonsense?

What do you do to unwind?

I coach baseball; I help coach the freshman team at Catholic High.

What is the most expensive purchase you've made for yourself?

My neighbor and I purchased a boat and fishing camp at Shell Beach together.

What is your favorite weekend activity?

I enjoy barbecuing with neighbors and sharing a good bottle of red wine.

What's your theme song?

"Live For Today" by the Grass Roots.

What's your favorite spot in Baton Rouge?

The levee south of LSU, I run there at least four days a week.

How do you take your coffee/tea?

Hot tea, straight.

What is your favorite movie? TV show? Band?

Movie…It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. TV show…The Shield. Band…The Allman Brothers.

What is your favorite gadget?

My iPod.

What is something that you can't live without?

Literally my blood pressure medicine, emotionally my wife, physically my running shoes.

If you could change one thing about Baton Rouge, what would it be?

There are three things I would change. Baton Rouge needs a decent oldies rock radio station, Baton Rouge is void of one, hence the iPod. Baton Rouge youth could benefit from an inner city baseball league. Lastly, traffic flow throughout the city needs major improvements. The day is approaching when Baton Rouge will congest itself away from economic development.

What is your greatest hope for Baton Rouge?

That we realize, as a community, what a gem we have in downtown Baton Rouge. Go to Nashville and look at what they’ve done with their downtown. The same could be said for Memphis, Jacksonville, or for Charleston, S.C.

What is your greatest fear for Baton Rouge?

If we do not solve the problems within our public school system, and many of those that start in the home environment, we may loss the next generation of young people as an employable workforce. The one thing that made this country great in post WW II era was our ability to educate the masses. We have lost that edge and it starts in the home.