Lapeyre is president of Laitram LLC, a diversified global manufacturer of plastic conveyor belting, high-speed package sorting, shrimp-processing equipment, and space-saving stairs. Today, the Laitram family of companies holds over 1,345 patents around the world, and that number continues to grow year after year.
Lapeyre is also a past board chair of Tulane University and has been heavily involved in a variety of civic and charitable causes, particularly in his hometown of New Orleans. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, he has been actively engaged in efforts to reform and improve local and state government to increase flood safety, expand the use of charter schools, reform the criminal justice system, and advance other aspects of muchneeded government reforms in Louisiana.
Joining the board is Kenneth R. French, a famed pioneer in finance economics. French is currently the Roth Family Distinguished Professor of Finance at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College after previous academic posts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University, and the University of Chicago. He is best known for the Fama-French threefactor model for asset prices, a statistical model he developed with Nobel laureate Eugene Fama.
Cato welcomes another new director in Laura Holmes Jost, senior vice president at Chandler Residential, which owns and operates apartment complexes across the southern United States. In addition, Jost is a long-standing philanthropist known for her support of organizations and causes in the liberty movement.
A third new board member, Eileen Leech, is an attorney, philanthropist, and active community volunteer in Southern California. She was formerly a litigator at Willkie Farr & Gallagher in New York, prior to moving to California where she works with many educational and civic causes.
“Eileen, Laura, and Ken have been dedicated partners to Cato and its work for decades. It’s exciting to welcome them to our board of directors, where we will benefit even more from their engagement, counsel, and stewardship,” said Peter Goettler, Cato president and CEO. “And we are so fortunate to have Jay Lapeyre stepping forward to serve as board chair. Jay never forgets that the most powerful case for liberty is a moral one—and he never fails to make that case. In this respect he’s an important example for all of us.”
The current list of Cato’s board of directors and other senior leadership can be found at www.cato.org/about/leadership.