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

New Orleans CityBusiness, Oct 27, 2003 by Ellen Boyer

Where Basil Rusovich focused on outcome, his son focuses on issues. Rusovich's youthful outlook brought new ideas and concepts, which Headrick said maturity sometimes overlooks.

Rusovich took the company international, a move some observers credit with helping it survive cyclical booms and busts. In 1991, he spearheaded the project to open the company's first international office in Baku, Azerbaijan, and has opened 15 more international offices since then.

Gregory has had the foresight to stay focused in the realization of his vision, Headrick said.

Rusovich also brought the company from the typewriter-and-word- processing age to the technology age, said Perez.

The 16-office network is laced together with up-to-date technology although Rusovich admits he hates computers. He doesn't even have one on his desk. Perez fields his e-mails. She's my computer, Rusovich said of Perez.

Like his father, Rusovich brings a human element to every aspect of his work. They go to the country and they see the Minister of Commerce or the Minister of Energy, Schreiber says. That started with Basil. He was a super salesman. He left no stone unturned.

When visiting dignitaries, diplomats and business executives came to town, Basil Rusovich would offer to introduce them to New Orleans. He would make sure international visitors ate at Commander's Palace or took a spin on his yacht, Schreiber said.

A family affair

Gregory Rusovich was born July 2, 1960, and grew up in a house on Audubon Boulevard in Uptown New Orleans, where his father recently passed away and his mother still lives. Basil Rusovich insisted on family dinners together at the table, not in front of the television. And the family took regular, long summer vacations each year.

Basil and Marilyn, despite their flamboyance and energy, had a very cohesive family, Schreiber said.

When Gregory was a child, he and his brothers put together a band and wrote a song called I'm going back to New York City and Rusovich would hammer it out on the bass.

At the time he'd never even been to New York City, said Jay Rusovich.

That was Rusovich's one foray into the arts, Jay Rusovich said. He kept his nose clean, he got married, he had kids ... and just lived his life the way he was supposed to live it, said Jay Rusovich, who has dabbled in the business and is a shareholder, but found his true calling in photography.

He was always very serious but there was a fun side to him if you could get through to that armor there, Mark Rusovich said.

Greg Rusovich was nuts about basketball, especially the New Orleans Jazz, who played here from 1974 to 1979 before the team left the Superdome for Utah. His roots landed him some VIP time with National Basketball Association legend and Jazz star, Pistol Pete Maravich, a fellow Slav. I was devastated when they left, he said.

Rusovich first displayed his take-charge attitude at Ecole Classique, where he was a star forward on the basketball team, and student body president. Leadership was in his blood, said lifelong friend Larry DeBuys, a partner with Terriberry Carroll & Yancey LLP, TransOceanic's corporate counsel. When the gang would get together for football in the street, we always amassed at the Rusoviches, DeBuys said.