In a way, Leigh King helped bring Louisiana together after the tumultuous hurricanes of recent years. In 2004, he came aboard Cox in charge of its Baton Rouge-area commercial customers, and in 2006, he managed the merger of Cox’s Acadiana and Capital Region sales forces. This year, he brought in another big piece of the pie, fusing the combined sales force with the company’s metro New Orleans operations. Now, about 20,000 business customers funnel into one 117-employee sales entity.
“New Orleans was about 40% the size of Greater Louisiana, so it was a pretty significant merger,” King says. “That’s always a bit of a challenge because people tend to want to hang on to the way they’ve done things.”
His customers include any nonresidential Cox subscribers, from hospitals and colleges to hotels and a range of small to large companies. Despite the complexity of the task, he says ultimately his staff made the mergers work.
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“Our people are our strongest asset. We’ve got great people,” he says, noting that last year, one of his sales staff in the Acadian region was Cox’s No. 1 sales rep in the nation, earning her—and King—a trip to Puerto Rico. Several other staff members attended the “winners’ circle” event as well.
In 2006, King oversaw the installation of a fiber-optic and coaxial cable network for 28 schools in Ascension Parish, the largest district the sales force dealt with then. West of the river, Cox had to install a 20-mile stretch of fiber to infrastructure-challenged Donaldsonville, he says.
King sits on the board of the Louisiana Business and Technology Center, LSU’s incubator that involves video-game maker Electronic Arts. He also is on the boards of the Better Business Bureau of South Central Louisiana and the A.C. Lewis branch of the YMCA, where he has been co-chairman this year of the Strong Kids Campaign, which provides scholarships for swimming lessons, youth sports camps and more.
King grew up in Ferriday and Vidalia. The LSU graduate sought work in Texas, but says the allure of Louisiana culture led him home. He and his wife, Bridget, have two daughters, Morgan and Sela, and a son, Davin. “I love the community,” he says.
Age: 39
What is your best business advice? “Great people make great organizations. As a leader you need to always do your best to find the best people and do the best that you can to motivate and encourage them to be successful. And always make room for people to grow.”
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