President, CEO of TransOceanic Shipping Co. puts emphasis on family

New Orleans CityBusiness, Oct 27, 2003 by Ellen Boyer

If it weren't for David Duke, Gregory Rusovich might not be running one of New Orleans' most successful companies.

The two are definitely not political allies. Quite the contrary.

Before Duke ran for Louisiana governor in 1991, he joined the state representative race in Rusovich's Old Metairie district.

I was disgusted by Duke. I wanted to knock him out of the race, Rusovich said.

So, Rusovich ran for state representative in an effort to block the former Ku Klux Klansman. When Duke dropped out of the race to pursue the gubernatorial crown, Rusovich dropped his state representative race, too.

A self-proclaimed political junkie, Rusovich's considerable competitive energy is now split between the tennis court and his company.

The 43-year-old president and chief executive officer of TransOceanic Shipping Company Inc. lives his life by the words of tennis star Jimmy Connors, which are framed in his Kenner office: I hate to lose more than I love to win. I hate to see the happiness on their faces when they beat me.

Rusovich and his late father, Basil John Rusovich Jr., expanded a company built on a mere $350 in seed money into a $150 million powerhouse.

From a three-person office in the Central Business District, TransOceanic has grown into 16 international offices with 388 employees.

TransOceanic is a master of project cargo forwarding. That means shoveling, piece by piece, complete highways, refineries and power plants - along with the heavy equipment needed to build them - and shipping the materials to the country doing the construction. Notable clients include McDermott International Inc., which was the company's first major account, Fluor Corp., Bechtel Corp. and Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.

To understand Gregory Rusovich, you must first understand his dedication to family and community.

Lifetime preparation

Rusovich's 12-hour day of phone calls, conference calls and nearly 200 e-mails connecting him with 10 countries begins on an exercise bike.

His daily routine starts at 7 a.m. with the first of what will be several pots of coffee. In his Old Metairie home, he bikes to CNN's headlines, has conferences with all 16 international TransOceanic offices and reads The Financial Times over kashi and fruit juice he makes with his juicer. Then it's off to his modest office building in Kenner, which has the look and feel of a wooden boat on the inside.

It's a job that adds up to about 60 hours a week.

In a competitive global market, how can you only do 40 or 50 hours a week? he asks.

Still, he manages to return home in time most every night to tuck his boys, Colin, 9, and Nicholas, 5, in bed.

For someone who manages one of the companies responsible for the fast-paced project cargo forwarding industry, Rusovich is exceptionally calm and in control. But then, he's had a lifetime to grow used to it.

Rusovich's father opened TransOceanic in 1947 with the $350 he received from selling his 1939 Pontiac. The Whitney National Bank building on Camp and Poydras streets housed TransOceanic's entire staff - the elder Rusovich, a secretary and a receptionist.

Basil Rusovich was a pioneer in project cargo. He set his service apart from other providers by assuming total responsibility for the cargo while in transport and staying in constant communication with handlers as cargo moved from origin to destination.

He landed the company's first major account in 1952 with McDermott International, assisting in an offshore platform project in Venezuela.

Other key jobs through the years have included assisting in rebuilding destroyed U.S. State Department embassies. After the 1983 bombing in Beirut, Lebanon, President Reagan allocated $1 billion to rebuild ruined U.S. embassies. This became one of TransOceanic's largest ongoing projects.

TransOceanic was also the first logistics company to move dredging equipment to rebuild Iraq's port at Umm Qasr after the U.S. invasion earlier this year.

We've carved a niche focusing on heavy petroleum project cargo, Rusovich said. By specializing, the company now dominates its domestic competition and competes globally against Switzerland, Germany and France for jobs rebuilding energy-producing nations, he said.

In a cyclical business, TransOceanic posted solid years from 1991 to 1996, banner years by opening international offices during 1997 to 1999, and had down years from 2000 to 2002.

Now, it's coming off its best financial quarter in two and a half years. Gross revenue for the quarter surged 12% over last year and profits rose 18%.

Several jobs account for the growth but one stands out. TransOceanic landed a contract with BASF-YPC Co. Ltd. in Nanjing China to transport 1 million tons of cargo to build the world's largest petrochemical plant, which is the largest project in company history. The total project is worth $3 billion.

TransOceanic has been moving more cargo and landing bigger deals. It's bringing airfreight to Afghanistan and mobilizing cargo for U.S. armed forces. The company recently landed a job in Algeria to move more than 250,000 tons of freight cargo for a major gas gathering system through its London office for MW Kellogg.