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When Brian Haymon created his own grassroots, from-the-ground-up company at the age of 57, he didn’t want it to be just another 2.0 version of the business he’d just left. He wanted to tap into one of the main advantages afforded to a new entrepreneur: a chance to create a resilient, malleable business model not constrained by corporate bureaucracy——an approach that would later earn Loadstar recognition as Business Report’s 2026 Company of the Year (100 or more employees).
Haymon certainly had experience on his side, as he’d literally grown up in the business. In 1952, his father started the country’s first barge tankerman service—where certified maritime professionals transfer, handle and store oil and chemicals on barges, tankers and ships—as a side gig while working on the docks of Standard Oil Co. in Baton Rouge.
Then called Petroleum Service Corp., the business steadily grew over the years, along with its reputation for dependability in the industrial space. The young Haymon worked summers there while in college, then later while he attended LSU Law School.
Following a several-yearslong stint as an attorney in San Diego, he came back to Louisiana in 1990 to work alongside his father and older brothers. When the family business was acquired in 2004, he then worked for the parent company, SGS Petroleum Service Co. another 13 years—11 of them as CEO—catering to the likes of ExxonMobil, Dow and Shell.
Over time, however, Haymon found himself dissatisfied with the job. He also began noticing a very real local need for another competitor in the market. Ultimately, he set out to create something new: a company focused solely on loading and unloading services, but with a youthful mindset not afraid of trying new things.
Haymon founded Loadstar Product Handling Services LLC—now branded simply as Loadstar—in 2017, but didn’t hire his first employee until August 2019 due to a noncompete agreement with his old employer. And while he’d hoped to begin operations in March 2020, the COVID pandemic precluded that from happening, and the date was pushed back to February 2021.
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