Stephen Waguespack – 2014 People to Watch

Occupation: President, Louisiana Association of Business and Industry
Hometown: Gonzales
Age: 39

You might call Stephen Waguespack a policy wonk, but he wouldn’t mind. “I always loved the policy side—figuring out where the issues are and how to make policies better,” says the recently appointed president of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI).

His appointment in September was not without controversy. He’s a former chief of staff for Gov. Bobby Jindal, and stepped into the role at LABI not long after the organization campaigned successfully against Jindal’s failed tax reform plan.

But Waguespack has been proactive in reaching out to LABI’s members across the state since then, switching everyone’s focus instead to the state’s expected economic growth and more than $90 billion worth of projects on the horizon. According to LABI, we’re in need of more than 250,000 skilled workers, 70,000 of whom must have strong science, technology, engineering and math education.

LABI’s core goals take a holistic approach to making that happen by helping create training programs for high school students and, as Waguespack foresees, “bringing business and industry into program development” at four-year colleges.

“When we talk about a skilled workforce, the big misperception is that people think of a hard hat,” Waguespack says. “That’s not what this is—we need architects and engineers…We’re looking at a manufacturing renaissance here.”

“You’ve got to make sure you spend enough time with your kids while they are young.” His are 10, 8 and 6—at a point where, he says, “they still enjoy hanging out with Mom and Dad.”

For more on Waguespack, go to labi.org.