Leo Manuel Graduates from Gulf Coast Business Council’s 2025 Masters Leadership Class, Presents Regional Defense Initiative

Leo Manuel, partner in the firm’s Energy Practice and Office Managing Partner of the firm’s Gulfport, Miss. office, graduated from the Gulf Coast Business Council’s (GCBC) 2025 Masters Leadership Class. This year’s class focused on strengthening and growing South Mississippi’s military installations, a vital economic driver for the region. 

The GCBC Masters Leadership Class engages business and community leaders across the Coast in a seven-month program designed to address regional issues through collaboration and innovation. The 2025 class studied national models, met with base commanders, and developed a detailed set of recommendations centered on one idea: collaboration. 

Leo was also selected by his classmates to present the class’s final work product to the full membership of the GCBC, a comprehensive proposal calling for the creation of a unified, regional organization to support military installations, advocate for missions, and connect communities, governments, and industries across the Coast. 

After that presentation, Governor Tate Reeves officially announced the launch of Mission 3: Military • Defense • Community — Mississippi’s first regional defense and military community support organization, inspired by the GCBC’s proposal. 

“The military can be a massive talent pipeline to our industry here,” The Sun Herald quoted Leo as saying. “…We’re behind. We can catch up. It’s not insurmountable. But there are regions that are highly organized and have been for decades.” 

At Balch, Leo has a diverse legal practice in the areas of commercial litigation and transactions, renewable energy development, public utility regulation, economic development and general corporate governance. Leo possesses twenty years of experience in very large and complex commercial and energy legal matters ranging from asset merger and acquisition to multi-billion dollar project permitting and rate cases. Leo's experience and diverse knowledge base has been leveraged to create favorable outcomes in the courtroom, at the negotiation table, and in the regulatory hearing room.