Joseph M. Rault

A native New Orleanian, entered the U.S. Navy upon graduating from Jesuit in 1943, becoming a Lt. (jg). As commander of the USS LCI-549, he participated in the atomic bomb test at the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. Upon completion of his service in 1946, he entered MIT and graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Marine Transportation in 1948 with the Compton Award. He then attended Tulane Law School and graduated with an LLB in 1950, Order of the Coif. He practiced Admiralty in Maritime Law until 1960 with the Terriberry Firm and then opened his own company building offshore vessels and semi-submersible drilling rigs. He merged one of these companies with John Laborde to create Tidewater Marine. He then contracted with PeMex to drill a number of wells in Mexico and import oil from Venezuela.

On the real estate side, he developed the original Rault Center, the first multi-use 16 story structure in Downtown New Orleans. His real estate developments include apartment complexes and land use in Louisiana and Mississippi and then in Jefferson Parish and Lafayette owning and managing major commercial office buildings.

He has served on the Board of Regents for Loyola University, U.S. Selective Service Appeals Board, a delegate to the International Oil Symposium in Vienna, Austria, member of the Board of Directors of the Jefferson Chamber, a member of Jefferson Business Council, a member of the Sugar Bowl Committee, a Director of Jefferson Parish Pump-to-the-River Task force in which capacity he has testified before Congress on flood control, a member of the MIT Energy Institute and is now a member of the Board of Directors of Ochsner Health Foundation and received the Ochsner Philanthropy “Man of the Year” Award in 2012-2013.