Walt Leger III

Walt Leger is the President and CEO of New Orleans & Company, the official destination marketing and sales organization for the tourism industry of New Orleans. Representing more than 1100 member businesses, New Orleans & Company’s goal is inspire, promote, and encourage travel to New Orleans for the economic, social and community benefit of the city and its people.

Walt Leger has been widely recnognized across the state of Louisiana as a strategic thinker and fierce advocate. First as an Assistant District Attorney in New Orleans and later as an attorney with the law firm of Leger & Shaw, Walt has been a zealous advocate for his clients and victims of violent crime for over 20 years.

Walt was elected in the fall of 2007 to the Louisiana House of Representatives for District 91, representing neighborhoods across the City of New Orleans. He was re-elected twice without opposition in 2011 and 2015. In 2012, he was elected by acclamation to serve as the Speaker Pro Tempore of the Louisiana House of Representatives, the youngest member to ever serve in this 2nd highest ranking position in the Louisiana House, a role in which he served again from 2016-2020. Walt left the Legislature in 2020 due to term limits. Leger remains actively involved in community and civic activities including serving on numerous boards and focused on a variety of policy initiatives designed to move the City, Region and State forward, including but not limited to Early Childhood Education, Workforce Development, Economic Development, Higher Education, Coastal Restoration, Resilience and Environmental Sustainability, Public Safety, and Public transportation and connectivity.

Walt currently services on the Executive Board of the U.S. Travel Association where he advocates on behalf of the travel industry at the national level and supports initiatives to increase travel domestically and internationally within and into the United States.

Walt is a proud graduate of Louisiana State University, Tulane University School of Law, and is an adjunct professor of Law at Loyola University of New Orleans Law School.

Leger resides in New Orleans with his wife, Danielle and daughters Cate and Caroline.