Ray Nagin - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Nagin was born on June 11, 1956, in New Orleans' Charity Hospital, to a modest-income family. His childhood was typical to that of urban youth within the city, and his father held two jobs: a janitor at New Orleans City Hall by night and a fabric cutter at a clothing factory by day. After the factory shut down his father became a fleet mechanic at a local dairy, to earn sufficient pay to support his family. His mother was employed as manager of a Kmart in-store restaurant. The family lived on Allen Street in the 7th Ward, followed by a stay near St. Peter Claver Catholic Church in the Tremé, and then moved to the Cutoff section of Algiers. Nagin attended St. Augustine and O. Perry Walker High Schools where he played basketball and baseball. He enrolled at Tuskegee University on a baseball scholarship, played on championship teams and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting in 1978.

After graduating from college he went to work in the purchasing department at General Motors in Detroit. He moved to Los Angeles, and then to Dallas in 1981 to take Internal Audit Manager and Division Controller jobs with Associates Corp. In 1982, Nagin married Seletha Smith, a New Orleans native. Together, they have three children: Jeremy, Jarin, and Tianna. In 1985, Nagin returned to New Orleans, becoming the controller of Cox New Orleans, the city's cable television franchise, run by media conglomerate Cox. The franchise had a history of customer complaints, low profits, stagnant growth and was one of the poorest-performing components within Cox. Nagin was quickly promoted to general manager and implemented an upgrade of the system to 750 MHz, spent over $500 million on developing its fiber-optic cable, and introduced new services, including digital cable television, high speed internet and telephony. In 1989, he was appointed to oversee all of Cox properties in south Louisiana as vice-president and general manager of Cox Louisiana. Between 1985 and 2002, 800 jobs were added. By the end of his tenure, 85% of customers reported satisfaction with Cox services, compared to less than half in 1989. Cox Louisiana became one of Cox's best-performing units.

In 1993, Nagin enrolled in the executive MBA program at Tulane University, a national ranked curriculum. Mark Miester, Editor of Freeman Magazine for the A. B. Freeman School of Business, reported that in his role as vice-president and general manager, Nagin gained valuable experience in politics whilst balancing customer and regulator concerns. Nagin also lobbied at the local, state and federal levels as many of the businesses he managed were regulated and required formal franchise renewals. His public profile was high because he hosted a twice-weekly television call-in show for customers.

In 1995, Nagin received the Young Leadership Council Diversity and Role Model Award, and later sat on the boards of the United Way, Covenant House, Greater New Orleans Education Foundation. He also was one of the founders and president of 100 Black Men of metro New Orleans, an affiliate of the national organization of African-American businessmen. In 1998 he led a group of diverse investors to bring professional ice hockey to New Orleans, the New Orleans Brass. Nagin became the team's president and investors' spokesman as they secured this historic hockey franchise. The initial popularity of the team allowed the group to secure the 18,000 seat New Orleans Arena as its home venue. That year, the local alternative newspaper Gambit Weekly named Nagin as its New Orleanian of the Year.