About Rowdy

Rowdy Gaudet is an experienced leader in the areas of executive management, community resilience, and committed service, and has focused his career on helping organizations innovate, improve their performance, and achieve their mission.

Professionally, Rowdy works as Director at V. Graham, LLC, a corporate financial consultancy firm. Through this role, Rowdy focuses on spearheading the development and execution of the firm’s strategic growth opportunities, leveraging V. Graham’s strengths of helping businesses and organizations navigate the intersection of finance and strategy.

Prior to joining V. Graham, Rowdy has worked in leadership roles in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, providing strategic leadership to organizations in critical areas such as strategic planning, operational improvement, crisis communications, community and business resilience, and disaster recovery.

From 2017 to 2020 Rowdy served as the Assistant Chief Administrative Officer for East Baton Rouge Parish government, overseeing such critical areas as public works, homeland security, community development, public safety, and as lead on affordable housing and blight elimination efforts. In this capacity he managed strategic operations for several City-Parish departments, developed solutions to tackle the blight issues challenging Baton Rouge, purposed over $170 million in place-based investments, served as the Mayor’s liaison to the Restore Louisiana Flood Recovery Task Force, and led community beautification efforts.

Previously, Rowdy has also served as Chief of Staff for the State of Louisiana’s Disaster Recovery Unit, overseeing a team of people implementing over $14 billion in recovery and resilience investments in Louisiana. He also has previous experience in legislative affairs and emergency management.

He is very active in local organizations, including currently serving as a member of the board of directors for the Capital Area YMCA and Visit Baton Rouge. Gaudet received a Bachelor’s Degree in communications from McNeese State University, a Master of Business Administration from Louisiana State University, and an Executive Certificate in Public Policy from the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government.

He and his wife Wendy have been married for over 16 years, and they have four beautiful children.