November 5, 2025
8:30 AM – 9:45 AM
Southeastern Alumni Welcome Center
500 W. University Ave.
Hammond, LA 70401
Secretary Richard Nelson has focused on improving Louisiana’s tax competitiveness since his time in the Louisiana House of Representatives. He grew up in Mandeville, where he was an Eagle Scout and valedictorian of Mandeville High. He graduated in the top of his class in both Biological Engineering and Law at LSU. Richard served for seven years in the Foreign Service of the U.S. Department of State, living in Washington, D.C., Germany, and the Former Soviet Republic of Georgia.
As a State Department Officer, engineer, and diplomat, he managed projects and programs protecting American embassies around the world from terrorism and espionage. His time in the Foreign Service was not without adventure. Richard was shot at with rocket propelled grenades in Afghanistan, served in Libya with Ambassador Christopher Stevens shortly before he was killed in Benghazi, and was struck by lightning in Switzerland.
In 2017, he left the Foreign Service to take an executive position in the private sector and moved his family back home to Mandeville. Nelson was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives in 2019. During his four-year term, he championed issues from improving elementary school literacy to a comprehensive restructuring of Louisiana’s tax code. After suspending his own campaign for Governor, Nelson was appointed by newly-elected Governor Jeff Landry as Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Revenue, where he is spearheading efforts to reform Louisiana’s broken tax code.
Secretary Nelson and his wife Ashley live in Mandeville with their three boys, Michael, 10, Arthur, 8, and Jack, 5.
