René L. Latiolais, MFH

Joint Master of the Foxhounds

The Bear Creek Hounds

René Latiolais embarked on his new avocation as a foxhunter in 1995.  After completing a 36-year career with the Freeport-McMoRan family of companies in 2001, René retired from active employment having risen from an entry level Chemical Engineer in 1965 to the President  & CEO and Vice Chairman of the Board of this multinational Natural Resource Corporation.  He found an equally daunting challenge “in riding to the hounds,” and developed with his wife Joan Hope Elysian Fields Farm in 1997 in Newnan, GA.

He started dabbling in foxhunting in 1995 while still working as a full-time executive with Freeport-McMoRan.  His initial interest in foxhunting started through his friendship with Thomas B. Coleman, MFH, of the Hardaway Whitworth and Mason H. Lampton, MFH, Midland Fox Hounds.  In 1997, René met and started hunting with Harold (Hal) Barry, MFH, Bear Creek Hounds, when both were members of Midland before the founding of the Bear Creek Hounds.

René and Joan Latiolais, together with Phillip and Ann Beegle and Warner and Tish Ray, were founding members of the Hunt when Hal and Linda Barry created the Bear Creek Hounds.  Rene and Joan are members of the Bear Creek Hounds and the Midland Fox Hounds.  René was invited to join Hal Barry, MFH, as Joint Master in December 2007, and elected an MFH by the Masters of Fox Hounds Association of America (MFHA) in January 2008.     

René earned a BS in Chemical Engineering in 1965 from Louisiana State University; and completed the Program for Management Development, PMD in 1977 at the Harvard Graduate School of Business.  Rene served as Chairman of the MFHA Centennial Program in 2007, and now serves as Vice-Chairman of the MFHA Strategic Plan Committee.