Local Realtor named Business Leader of the Year

James D. “Jimmy” Gosslee didn’t have the luxury of easing into adulthood.

“My dad dying really made me grow up quickly,” Gosslee said. “I was 15 and in the ninth grade at Broadmoor Junior High. I knew my mother didn’t have the financial wherewithal to take care of us like we would have been taken care of if my dad (a doctor and World War II veteran who was 45 when he died) had continued to practice more than 10 years in orthopedic surgery. My older brother was at LSU, so he was gone. I was kind of the man of the family, even at 15. I felt like I really needed to buckle down and work hard.”

The result of that hard work? A successful, 60-year business career and the prestige of being named 2025 Greater Shreveport Chamber Business Leader of the Year. Gosslee, who turned 76 this month, will be recognized Jan. 28 at the Chamber’s 115th annual banquet at Sam’s Town Hotel & Casino.

“I’m very honored to have been nominated and chosen. I didn’t expect to receive this award, ever, but I’m pleased I am being honored as the recipient.”

There was no shortage of people the selection committee could have chosen. But one member believes Gosslee checked all the boxes.

“He’s just an all-around great person who loves Shreveport,” Patrick Harrison said. “Although there are quite a few people who love Shreveport, I put Jimmy in that category as one of the most-admired business leaders I know. He is very deserving of this award.”

As a teenager, Gosslee — chairman emeritus of Coldwell Banker Gosslee real estate brokerage — worked hard. He and a C.E. Byrd High School football teammate began a lawn service. While at LSU, Gosslee started a company that took party pictures — a company he owned for 30 years.

“I was very entrepreneurial at a young age.”

Gosslee graduated with a degree in business administration and, in the process, got a taste of the real estate business.

“I took nine hours of real estate at LSU, which is all they offered,” Gosslee said. “You couldn’t get a degree in real estate. I liked it, and I liked business law. That made me think, ‘I might want to do that.’” But not right after graduation. “I went to work for Xerox. They hired one guy out of the business school, and I was that guy. I learned professional selling, so that helped me a lot.”

Gosslee learned well. In 1973, he was named Xerox’s top sales representative for the New Orleans/Baton Rouge region. Eventually, he combined his sales abilities with his real estate interest. Those two traits — among others — helped build Coldwell Banker Gosslee into one of the franchise’s most successful operations.

“We ended up being in the top four percent of Coldwell Bankers in the whole world for 35 years.”

As in most businesses, success is dependent on relationships. That may be why Gosslee was so good at what he did.

“I have been rush chairman for the Kappa Sigma fraternity, and president of the Kappa Sigma fraternity, and you didn’t get to be that — you weren’t elected that — unless you had people skills. I was born with people skills. I certainly developed them over time, but it wasn’t a false bravado. It was something which just always came naturally to me.”

Individually, Gosslee was named 2011 Realtor of the Year by the Northwest Louisiana Association of Realtors. Through the years, he brokered or was involved in the development of large projects such as the Shreveport Auto Mall, Target Shopping Center, the first Sam’s Club in our area and Chevyland.

Outside of real estate, the father of three children and grandfather of nine children has been chairman of Southern Trace Country Club, vice-chairman of the LSU Alumni Association Board, and was a founding member of the Independence Bowl.

While Gosslee, who has been married (Dianne) for 53 years, no longer runs in the dayto-day business circle, he has a good view of where Shreveport is headed from a business standpoint.

“I see it as being good. I think we’ve got some things we have to work at.

That’s primarily in economic development. We’ve got good-paying jobs to keep the young people around Shreveport-Bossier. We’ve done a pretty good job of that, but we always need to do a better job of that. If we can attract some companies, or help grow the ones we already have — which we try to do — there’s no reason why Shreveport-Bossier can’t grow a lot more than it already has. I feel good about what’s happening.”