Celena Rousse: Fulfilling her dreams in a man’s world

As a child, Celena Rousse knew she “always wanted to push buttons, carry a briefcase and dress up every day” to go to work.

But even as a COE student in high school, she wouldn’t have envisioned that today at age 50 and with only a high-school education, she would be sitting as the senior vice president of Offshore Towing Inc. “My childhood dream has been met — although I dropped the briefcase for an iPad… It was almost like this was my destiny.”

Rousse began her full-time oilfield career working as executive secretary at Nolty J. Theriot Inc., a company considered a pioneer in the rig moving and ocean towing industry in the North Sea. She excelled at one of her first tasks: leading the company’s United Way campaign. She achieved 98 percent participation from employees the first year and 100 percent the second year by tugging on employees’ heartstrings by making a slideshow which featured children being benefited by local donations.

She grew in the industry by taking on other duties, even pursuing an offshore production clerk job. Each day, Rousse would leave Fourchon at 5:30 a.m. on crewboat, work all day inputting data, handling payroll and conducting training sessions, and leave the platform at 6 p.m.

“It’s a man’s world out there,” she said. “It took a lot to get the confidence of men” on the offshore platform, but Rousse developed a comfortable, yet respectful relationship with her colleagues. It enabled her to continue working offshore while she was pregnant, reaching the 8 ½-month mark n although at 5 ½ months, she had to trade riding a crewboat for flying in on a helicopter.

“I don’t know how many husbands would say, ‘Go work offshore and you’re pregnant? No worries!’” she said; characterizing her husband, Ted, as her “rock.” But training meetings she conducted on the platform did include information on labor and delivery.

Eventually, she decided to stay home a couple of years with her two boys, Arthur and Kristopher, but didn’t sit idle. She took over invoicing and accounting for her husband’s family plumbing business.

Then in 2001, Rousse was offered a job with Offshore Towing and served in several roles before being promoted in 2008 to her current position of senior vice president. She is responsible for the company’s accounting and delivers financial status reports and recommendations to the company’s board of directors.

Rousse also serves as a business consultant in accounting matters and the general etiquette of running a business for Doucet & Adams Inc., and belongs to the Lafourche Chamber of Commerce. She also served on Golden Meadow’s Board of Adjustments and taught fitness classes for five years.

And with her husband, Ted, she now owns the family plumbing business, has purchased two rental homes and has opened a reception hall, Celena’s n A Place of Gatherings. Rousse sees the hall as a vehicle for helping the community. She has started throwing a Christmas party for the Ladies of Lasallette from Prompt Succor Church in Golden Meadow, hosts National Night Out gatherings, and discounts the rental fee for the fire and police departments.

Rousse had a couple more affiliations with community organizations, but shortly after signing on to work with them was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and forced to cut back her involvement. She even hired someone to manage the reception hall.

“I just couldn’t do it… physically, mentally,” she said. “It took this illness to make me sit back and realize I took on too much.” Rousse now makes an effort to seek out and learn from other fibromyalgia patients, and shares information she’s learned with those newly diagnosed.

Rousse admits all the long hours and overlapping responsibilities have not come without sacrifice. She began working offshore when her first child was one and one half years old, so she hired a nanny to work from 4:30 a.m. until about 7 p.m., five days a week. Both boys are still very close to the nanny, who helped rear them and filmed videos so the couple could see their boys’ activities.

But both sons, she said, are successful young men. Arthur is a diesel mechanic and Kristopher is entering a plumbing journeyman’s program. Rousse believes both boys have found their soul mates, both of whom are the products of long marriages (like Rousse and her husband’s 31 years) and are pursuing master’s degrees in psychology.

“Everything I do is because I want my family to be proud of me,” she said. “People who know what I’ve done and where I’ve been have said ‘you deserve to be here.’”

NAME: Celena Rousse

TITLE: Senior Vice President

COMPANY: Offshore Towing Inc.

ESTABLISHED: 1996

ADDRESS: 11812 Hwy. 308 in Larose

TELEPHONE: (985) 798-7831

AGE: 50

EDUCATION: South Lafourche High School graduate

FAMILY: Husband Ted; sons Arthur, 24, and Kristopher, 21

FIRST JOB: Filing clerk

GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT: Being promoted to senior vice president

A WORD TO DESCRIBE SELF: Persistent

ADVICE TO OTHERS: “I tell people who ask me ‘I never go backwards. I will never take a job less than where I am.’”

WOMAN IN BUSINESS YOU ADMIRE: Veronica Gisclair, Rousse’s sister and mentor, with whom she worked for years.