SALTS OF THE EARTH

FOR THE PREGEANT FAMILY, OWNERS OF GRAND ISLE SHIPYARD, CONNECTION IS THE KEY TO A 75-YEAR TRADITION OF EXCELLENCE

What's the best way to build a legacy? There are as many answers to that as there are business leaders, but for the dynasty behind Grand Isle Shipyard (GIS), it all comes back to devotion. An unflagging dedication to family over fortune, powered by the drive to always do the right thing, has inspired four generations of Pregeants to serve the energy industry with the kind of insight, foresight, and wholehearted enthusiasm that's the envy of family-run firms everywhere. (If it's not, it should be.)

Founded in 1948 by Clyde Pregeant Sr. in Grand Isle, La., GIS has grown into a formidable one-stop-shop service provider for the energy and infrastructure sectors. They play in the upstream, midstream, and downstream oil and gas, renewables, power, and critical infrastructure niches.

Today's GIS is composed of three entities: GIS, providing field execution expertise for greenfield and brownfield projects, operations and maintenance services, and demo services for end of life assets in the upstream oil and gas, power, and renewable sectors; Blanchard Industrial, providing field execution expertise for greenfield and brownfield projects, operations and maintenance services, and demo services for end of life assets in the downstream and midstream oil and gas sectors; and GIS Engineering, which provides technical engineering and surveying in all the sectors they serve.

At the three-quarter-century mark, GIS boasts nearly 3,000 team members working across 18 different states and four countries in 21 strategic locations, operating 20 distinct service lines. "We pride ourselves in putting our people first," said current CEO and fourth-generation leader of the family business, Mark Pregeant II. "I personally believe that is the primary reason we have been so successful for the past 75 years. Although we are a sizeable company, we maintain a small, intimate, family atmosphere."