If you ask Claire Babineaux-Fontenot of Bernhard Capital Partners how many siblings she has, she’ll tell you 107.
As Business Report details in its new cover profile, Babineaux-Fontenot’s response is an underlying key to her success as a global businesswoman.
The former Wal-Mart executive grew up in Opelousas—in the heart of Cajun country, the granddaughter of sharecroppers. Neither of her parents graduated high school. They didn’t have much in the way of material wealth, but there was an abundance of something greater: A family of incredible heart and size—even by south Louisiana standards, where double-digit sibling counts is somewhere closer to the norm than the exception.
In 1963, while Warren and Mary Alice Babineaux were pregnant with Claire, their third biological child, they took in two children who were subjected to neglect. From that day, more than 100 children would come through their doors—through adoption, foster care and childbirth. In 2008, her parents were immortalized in the National Adoption Hall of Fame. The annual Warren and Mary Alice Babineaux Award honors their legacy.
Looking back, Babineaux-Fontenot, 53, is keenly aware of how her upbringing shaped her life. As one of 108, she grew up with an appreciation for all walks of life, for inclusion and for understanding—something few learn so early in lives that are increasingly sheltered. And it would prepare her for opportunities to come—as a tax attorney for the state of Louisiana and then to law firms in Dallas and Baton Rouge—and ultimately to the position of executive vice president of finance and global treasurer of Wal-Mart, the world’s most profitable company.
As great as that job was, the desire to return home was even greater.
Today, Babineaux-Fontenot is back in Louisiana in yet another high-profile role, as an operating partner with Bernhard Capital Partners, the private equity firm launched by Baton Rouge business magnate Jim Bernhard.
The rise from humble beginnings to an accomplished executive isn’t a unique one, but doing it as a woman of color from Louisiana makes the story rather remarkable. Yet if her career proves anything, she says, it’s that no one has meaningful success without help. Babineaux-Fontenot eschews the term “self-made,” saying she’s yet to meet anyone to whom the cliché applies. She credits much of her success to the unique hand she was dealt in life, starting with being born to parents who had the capacity to care for 100-plus children.
“I’ve always known I had it better than I deserved,” she says. “People say, ‘No, you’ve earned everything you’ve got.’ I have worked hard with every opportunity provided, to be sure. But here’s how my calculus worked: Of my 107 siblings, over 95% were subjected to neglect or abuse—did they earn it? Well, if they didn’t earn that, how did I earn being the child of parents I had? I didn’t earn that either.”
Read the full profile of Babineaux-Fontenot. Send your comments to editor@businessreport.com.
