In the suburbs of Boise, Idaho, semiconductor manufacturer Micron Technology has built a $15 billion complex to produce chips that smartphones and computers use to store data.
This is the largest private investment in Idaho history, and Micron has become the Baton Rouge-based MMR group. Baton Rouge-based MMR Group is a private construction services company headquartered on a modest campus on an aviation aviation highway to oversee the complex task of installing electrical wiring for facilities.
This is not the type of project MMR that cuts teeth in the oil and gas sector, and is usually known outside of the construction industry. However, in recent years, 10,000 companies have rapidly expanded from core business building refineries, petrochemical plants and other nodes in the energy industry to the ongoing multi-billion dollar infrastructure boom in the technology sector.
MMR's annual revenues rose 75% in 2024 to over $2.3 billion, according to figures provided to the Baton Rouge Business Report. This is up from revenue of approximately $705 million in 2015.
Founded in 1991 by former LSU linebacker and team captain James “Pepper” Rutland, MMR is one of the largest privately owned electrical and instrumentation contractors in the United States, with over 20 offices in North America. Earlier this month, the company opened a new regional headquarters in Salt Lake City, overseeing western projects, including the expansion of Micron, expanding Utah scaffolding, and expanding the mining hub and where tech companies are looking to build more data centers and other infrastructure.
The expansion of MMR highlights how some Louisiana companies can use skills honed in the oil and gas industry to expand into emerging sectors and diversify their portfolios.
“We're going to stay.”
The rapid growth of MMR has attracted interest from private equity and outside investors. However, Rutland, the company's CEO, said that MMR will be private and will be based in Baton Rouge as long as he is in charge.
“We grew up here, we started here, and we're grateful for this situation,” Rutland said in an interview. “The market is good for us and we're going to stay. You couldn't get us out of here.”
MMR started in the energy sector, installing electrical wiring and instrumentation in refineries and petrochemical plants around the world.
James B. “Pepper” Rutland is founder and CEO of MMR Group
This continues to be a central part of MMR's business and is growing with a surge in investments in liquefied natural gas export terminals. MMR probably did more electrical work at the LNG terminal “more than anyone in the country,” Rutland said it includes venture global Calcasieu Pass and Plaquemines LNG facilities, as well as two mega projects under construction by the Calcasieu Pass 2 Mega-Project.
MMR recently emerged as a major contractor in the race to build AI data centers, building the power plants needed to continue humming them. Rutland said he is working with Meta at Entergy on a $10 billion data center planned for North Louisiana and a proposal to strengthen its facilities.
“There are not many people left in the country that built the power plants,” Rutland said, referring to a lull in the number of new natural gas-fired power plants built over the past decade. “Fortunately, we have it.”
A spokesman for MMR said it recently rejected the names of the companies behind the projects, both in Boydon, Virginia's “major hyperscale data centers” and in large semiconductor facilities in the southwestern United States. MMR also has a foothold in the renewable energy sector.
The Phoenix-based Southwestern Power Group, a subsidiary, was the original developer behind the proposal to build a 3,500 megawatt wind farm and a 550-mile transmission line between New Mexico and Arizona.
The company sold the rights to the Sunzia submission project in 2022 after years of regulatory delays, but retained parallel rights.
Millions of feet of wire
The work that MMR does can be difficult for amateurs to understand.
“We're on the construction side,” Rutland said. “All the electricity, all the instrumentation, we do that.”
It often involves installing millions of feet of wiring and instrumentation to monitor how electricity flows through the system, Rutland said.
At Chevron's Big Foot Deepwater Oil Platform, MMR installed 1.7 million feet of cable, 119,000 feet of tubes and approximately 55,000 field terminations.
“We don't design it. We build it,” he said. “We're commissioning it. We're going to start it for our clients.”
Geaux Tigers
There are deep purple and gold veins that pass through the office. MMR has made large sums of recruitment from LSU, and many of its top executives are graduates.
Rutland was LSU's first class, graduating from the Construction Management Program. His classmates in 1972 included Art Favre, the founder of the performance contractor, and Eddie Rispone, a Republican donor and former governor candidate who started the ISC constructor.
In December, Rutland made a seven-figure donation to LSU's Nil Collective to adopt and maintain the football outlook. MMR also donated $7.5 million to LSU's new standalone construction management building.
According to Rutland, MMR probably “deployed more LSU alumni in different offices than anyone in the state.” However, demand for skilled craftsmen and project managers continues to outperform supply.
To close the gap, the company launched its own workforce development program, MMR University, in 2023. The two-year program teaches university students what we think is important.
“We're not interested in being a part of private equity. We saw it. We know how it ends. We don't like it,” he said.
“We're a kind of family run. It comes with flexibility. You don't need to call New York to see if you can buy tickets for LSU football games.”
