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Back in 1923, a guy in Norfolk Virginia called T. Parker Host founded a company. He called it, T. Parker Host.

100 years later, in 2023, the company relocated the bulk of their operations to Jefferson Parish to what used to be known as The Avondale Shipyards and re-named it, Avondale Global Gateway.

The new name is no exaggeration. It is now, in fact, a global gateway. The facility is set up kind of like a food court, with individual vendors operating independent dock and shipping-related businesses.

Host employs around 450 people. Most of them here in Louisiana.

What do all these folks do? Well, when a ship ties up at Avondale - or any one of 93 ports in the US - Host takes care of everything - from the legal paperwork and logistics of getting cargo off the ship, to repairs and maintenance, restocking groceries, crew changes, and the hundred-and-one other things an international business and floating community needs.

The Chief Financial Officer at T. Parker Host is Matthew Mancheski.

You can find a similar food-court style arrangement of businesses at the other side of New Orleans, out in the east, at Michoud. That’s the home of the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility where NASA is building rockets that will take astronauts to the moon and mars.

It’s also home to a bunch of other space-related businesses, among them, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and a company called Vivace.

Vivace is an aerospace company that designs and manufactures cryogenic propellant tanks. They make two kinds of tanks – small ones and big ones. The small ones are used on space vehicles, satellites, rockets, and some missiles. The big ones are the structures used to build space stations.

The General Manager of Vivace is Vaughan Hart.

All local business stories are not created equal. There are the high-flying tech stories, about someone who dreams up a new app that changes everything. Like Hampr, the Uber of laundry. There are the more prosaic but nonetheless fascinating success stories like Fat Boys’ Pizza who make the world’s biggest pizza, created right here in Metairie. And then there are truly stupendous stories of local companies that most of us have probably never heard of but who are doing extraordinary and impressive things.

Companies like 100-year-old T. Parker Host that plays a vital role in international shipping, and Vivace, a relatively new company that is playing an integral part in mankind’s future in space.

Matthew Mancheski and Vaughan Hart and their comapnies are helping define New Orleans’ and Louisiana’s 21st Century economy. 

Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at NOLA Pizza in the NOLA Brewing Taproom. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.

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