As Louisiana lawmakers continue to contentiously struggle to close a $600 million shortfall for the fiscal year that begins in just over seven weeks, count Lamar Advertising Co. CEO Sean Reilly—who served in the state Legislature between 1988 and 1996—among those who doesn’t envy elected leaders at the Capitol.
“I don’t miss being elected,” he says in a new Business Report Executive Spotlight video interview. “I do try to stay engaged. If I’m going to be involved it’s going to be down there fighting for higher education and making sure that higher ed gets not only protected, but enhanced—it’s just so important in this state.”
Gov. John Bel Edwards tapped Reilly to serve on his transition team for higher education shortly after he took office in January. In an expanded print interview with Business Report, Reilly says his passion is to make sure “higher education in general, and in particular LSU as our flagship institution, stays strong and healthy.”
While Reilly thinks the administration at LSU has done a “fantastic job” managing through the budget cuts imposed in recent years, he predicts “another tough year at LSU.”
“I wish the new governor and the Legislature well,” he says, adding: “I wouldn’t want to be in politics right now. I wouldn’t want to have to wrestle with the problems that our new governor and our new Legislature are wrestling with.”
Also in the video and expanded print interview, Reilly discusses Lamar’s corporate culture, philosophy and philanthropic efforts.
“We’ve got great people. We hold them accountable and we let them do their jobs. Now that being said, a lot of people call us a family business,” he says in the video. “We’re a big company with almost 3500 employees, right. But we do maintain this sense of family; a sense that we care about one another, that we look after one another. And if you walk around our office, our corporate headquarters in Baton Rouge, you will definitely get that feel.”
