Influencers 2022: Matt Rookard

As the CEO at Terrebonne Economic Development Authority, Matt works tirelessly to understand and assist businesses in Terrebonne Parish. He frequently meets with executives one on one to discuss their challenges, their growth plans, and any policy or market issues they need help with. Recently tasked with finding ways to support businesses and employees who have experienced setbacks due to Hurricane Ida has been a huge priority. Despite the challenge, Matt identifies the best part of his job as the impact TEDA  is able to have on the community.

What led you to the role you currently hold in your company? Did you see yourself in this position when you started out in the workforce? 

Honestly, no. I really had not heard of economic development prior to my first job. I had been looking for an opportunity to use my interest in business to do some small bit of good professionally. It has been a really rewarding career so far.  

What’s the one thing you can’t leave your house without each morning? 

Easy one, coffee.  It is now a running joke with a lot of folks, but if you want to schedule a meeting, no matter the topic, just schedule a coffee.  

What piece of advice do you share with your team regularly?

Control the “controllables.”There is so much outside of our influence; from global economic factors, public health issues, and others; we could spend our time focusing on those issues without making much of a difference. By focusing our efforts on things we can help control, we can be a lot more efficient.  

What skill do you feel all successful leaders must possess?

Honestly, I have read a lot of the business books, listened to most of the podcasts, and watched my fair share of TED speeches and my big takeaway is this; all of them are wrong. There are lessons you can learn about being a better leader, but anyone can be a leader if they have people who will follow them. There is something ethereal about leadership, but you will never know whether you have it or not until you try to lead and see what happens.  

What has been your greatest accomplishment? 

This is always a tough question. I have been incredibly fortunate to have had opportunities to work on a lot of fun and interesting projects.  But certainly, the most impactful has been our recent housing initiative. Being able to raise funding and purchase trailers for families in the area is just incredibly rewarding. All in, we had around 20 partners in the project including funders, funding partners, and community partners. Being able to have that support and buy-in makes it even more rewarding.  

Who are your greatest influencers?

I’ve been fortunate to have some great bosses through the years. I don’t think there is anything more influential than having good people around you and experiencing first-hand how you can be successful without compromising what is important to you personally.  At the end of the day, if you compromise part of who you are, what is the point?

How do you feel knowing that others list you as theirs?

Completely humbled. I have always set out to serve others. In fact, as an executive one of the consistent areas of feedback has been my passiveness taking credit for our role in various initiatives.  My theory is that people that need to know about your work will always find out. To have people recognize your work is very humbling. But, I also know how important these things can have on long-term credibility and will open up even more opportunity in the future.  

How are you going to impact the Bayou Region in 2022? 

We are currently digging in a bit more on our 2022 plans. Obviously, we have to keep promoting Terrebonne Parish as a place for business relocations. We have always spent the majority of our time helping businesses that are here already and we will continue to push on that given how important it will be to recovery our economy.  

But we have seen how individual recovery also impacts our community as a whole. We will be rolling out a Phase II recovery process in the coming months and think we have a major role to play partnering with other entities to ensure our recovery is equitable and resources are deployed efficiently.  

What does your morning routine look like?

With three boys (7, 4, and 1.5 years old), I can assure you that no one is looking to copy my morning routine.  It is basically getting breakfast in the kiddos, coffee in me, and the chaos of the boys realizing that they indeed have to get dressed before going to school EVERY day.  

What is the biggest challenge you have faced over the years and how did you meet it? 

I know people generally opt to professional challenges on questions like this, but for me, it has been balancing what is important to me as a person and carving out a space for me to be able to do impactful work professionally.  It seems straightforward, but being able to serve others as a living is just an ideal situation for me.