Ginger Laurent

CEO, LOUISIANA BANKERS ASSOCIATIONGINGER LAURENT GINGER LAURENT BIO

Hometown: Morganza Age: 60 Family: Spouse, Keith Miller Years with company: 22 years MILESTONES

1992: Earns an MBA from University of Louisiana at Lafayette. 1993: Graduates as class president of the Graduate School of Banking at LSU. 1984–’99: Works as a banker in the Acadiana region. 1997: Volunteers for several statewide roles, beginning with president of Louisiana Young Bankers, University of Southwestern Louisiana Alumni board president in 1988, and state director for Louisiana Society for Human Resource Management in 1999. 2000: Joins the Louisiana Bankers Association, becoming COO in 2007 and CEO in 2022.

Q&A

A life-changing experience

Working through several mergers, the process of merging cultures, operations and staff allowed me to see how decisions and the communications of those decisions affect people. Those experiences made me a better communicator.

Inspiration or mentor

I have worked with some incredible people, all of whom shared wisdom, helping me see different perspectives and allowing me to grow from working with them. I really try to learn from every person I meet.

“I have this quote posted in my office: ‘Look for something positive in each day, even if some days you have to look a little harder.’”

It all started with a phone call.

Ginger Laurent’s career in banking began one summer when she was looking for some part-time student work. At just 15, her options were a little limited, but that didn’t stop her from calling the Bank of New Roads, setting an appointment with the bank president and asking for a job.

It worked.

“I think about that now, and how I just called the bank president and asked for a job?” Laurent laughs. “Prior to that, I didn’t think of banking as a career option.”

That kind of plucky resolve has followed Laurent ever since, and today she is CEO of the Louisiana Bankers Association, working on behalf of an industry she has loved quite literally since she was a teenager.

“It really has been just a tremendous opportunity all the way around,” Laurent says. “When I worked at a bank, it was an awesome experience because you got to work with a team of people, and you got to help make a difference in clients’ lives supporting the community.”

For Laurent, a community-driven approach is something that comes naturally thanks to the years she spent growing up in Morganza watching her father operate and manage his welding and farm supply business. Her father had a clear focus on customer service, doing the right thing for customers and serving as a partner to them.

“Customers would knock on the door and no matter what time of day or day of the week, he’d take care of them,” Laurent recalls. “He knew they needed his piece to fulfill the thing they were doing, so if a farmer needs to get crops out of the field, then he needs to do that welding on a piece of equipment.”

In the end, as Laurent explains it, she came to see work as being an integral part of a community, and that’s perhaps why her role at the LBA feels so natural, where the organization advocates on behalf of the industry, providing educational opportunities for its professionals and acting as a resource to create connections between banks and the vendors that can help them work more efficiently.

“If we can provide value to the bankers who have been our partners, that is success,” Laurent says. “If we can help them with legislation, regulation, education, resources and we provide that value to them, then I think that’s why this association was created 122 years ago.”

And in those 122 years, Laurent is the first woman CEO.

“There’s only been about five or six CEOs before (me),” Laurent says, recalling their names on a plaque within the organization’s boardroom.

But to be the first woman?

“I don’t look at it that way,” she says. “I look at it as, I need to keep working hard to keep the mission moving forward and keep partnering with our bankers and making a difference. … This is my responsibility now. I need to treat it with the respect and professionalism and expertise the bankers expect and deserve.”

—Chelsea Brasted

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