At a time when most people are putting the finishing touches on the legacy of their professional careers, the Shaw Group’s Richard Gill is taking on more responsibilities. Already the executive vice president and chairman of Shaw’s Executive Committee, Gill has recently accepted the position of president of the company’s Power Group.
“Well, I was serving as the interim president while we were searching for someone for the position,” Gill said. “We didn’t find anyone we were completely comfortable with, so I agreed to accept the role.”
Gill will turn 64 in July. The majority of his new position’s duties will be conducted in Shaw’s Charlotte, N.C. office, which serves as the headquarters for the senior management within the Fossil and Nuclear Divisions of the Power Group. Considering Gill is a Baton Rouge native, attended University Lab High School, LSU, and has called the capital city home for most of his adult life, relocating at this stage of his career might raise some eyebrows.
“I have a lot of roots here,” Gill said. “LSU has been a large part of my love for this area. I’ve had lots of opportunities to leave, but I haven’t. I kid with people about my new position that I am leaving for Charlotte, but I will be back for supper.”
Splitting time between Baton Rouge and the rest of the world isn’t something new for Gill. The majority of his duties with Shaw have seen him handling client relations at high levels. There really aren’t any “typical days.” Instead, Gill assesses what is going on, where it is going on, and decides where he can make a difference. That has meant extensive travel over the years, including to the Far East for a deal that was closed just this past May.
“Along with Westinghouse, we acquired four nuclear power plants in China,” Gill said. “I headed up our negotiation team and made 10-12 trips to China in the last two years. Their delegation came here for the signing and then we traveled there at the end of May.”
After receiving his B.A. from LSU in 1966 and earning his M.B.A. in 1969, Gill ultimately established what he calls a “relatively small construction company along the Gulf Coast” in 1982. The Merit Companies, which included Merit Environmental Services Inc., G&G Maintenance Services Inc., and Merit Industrial Constructors Inc., called upon another LSU alum founded company, the Shaw Group, for fabrication work from time to time.
“Jim Bernhard came to me one day and said he would like to go public,” Gill said of Shaw’s founder, chairman, and CEO. “It took him about three years to win me over, but once Shaw went public and had access to capital I eventually sold and came in to run the construction part. After a year, he asked me to be COO.”
Merit had been in operation for 15 years when Shaw acquired it, more than enough time for Gill to hone his abilities as an effective leader in business. The transition to community leader was a natural for him.
Gill has been involved with the Boy Scouts of America, the United Way, and the Chamber of Commerce of Greater Baton Rouge. He has served on the boards and/or chaired committees for the Red Cross, Jaycees, Boys Club, YMCA, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Special Olympics, Baton Rouge General Hospital, Baton Rouge Center for World Affairs, and Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center. Closer to campus, Gill has served as chairman of various committees at his high school alma mater and was named to University High’s Hall of Distinction in 2000. In 1995, he served as the president of the LSU Tiger Athletic Foundation, an appointment that reflected his dedication to the LSU Foundation. He has served on the Advisory Board for the School of Construction Management and the E. J. Ourso College of Business. Gill currently serves on the Financial Committee of the Dean’s Advisory Council.
“I think my experiences and certainly my education at LSU have impacted my life more than anything else,” Gill said. “What you want out of your education is what you get out of your education. I wasn’t the greatest student, I was a ‘longtermer,’ and I enjoyed every minute of it.
“The key thing for me was getting into graduate school. Then I got a little more serious, and I was exposed to more practical concepts. There aren’t any specific instructors or courses that stand out for me, but overall the fundamentals of what I was taught gave me confidence. I understood the concepts and took it from there.”
According to Gill, the concept alumni need to comprehend is that they are responsible for pushing the State and the University to accomplish the goals of the Flagship Agenda.
“We have all the resources to do it,” Gill said. “We have the resources to do everything right here.
“When I first got involved with Shaw, we traveled to New York, and we were dealing with corporate-types there. Jim (Bernhard) and I just shook our heads after meeting with them. We realized we can do what we wanted to do here. That’s why we are here. We’ve shown you can have a Fortune 500 company based in Baton Rouge. We can do what we want here, and we think that the University can do the same.”
As president of the Tiger Athletic Foundation in 1995, Gill helped show that there are more options for getting jobs done than had previously been explored. He did so by getting TAF involved in the building of structures and improving of facilities.
“It was very beneficial to the University and the State,” Gill said. “It does not affect their bonding capacity. I think it has been a real plus. Many schools have copied this model.”
Gill assisted in putting the model in place for a variety of reasons, but among them was the knowledge that it would benefit all of LSU, not just the athletic program.
“Nothing helps the fundraising of this University like a positive athletic program,” Gill said. “You have to do it with class and of course have wins. There will be professors that will argue with me, but it’s the front porch of the University. That’s just a fact of life. Whether or not its right, that’s how it is. Fundraising has increased for the entire University because of the image of positive athletics. People want to be associated with winners.”
Gill and his wife, Jean, have been married for over 40 years. They have four children – Cindy, Catherine, Cristin, and Ricky.
