History and Ownership

Southern States Land & Timber LLC is wholly owned by The J. M. Burguières Companies, formed in 1877 by Jules M. Burguières. Mr. Burguières’ son Jules, Jr., an early owner and later board member of Southern States was active in South Florida ’s economic development. In a series of transactions from 1999 to 2002, the Burguières heirs consolidated their interests in Southern States within The J. M. Burguières Companies.

Management

The board of The J. M. Burguières Companies also governs Southern States. Southern States’ Chairman, Philip Burguières, and President, Ron Cambre, serve all the Burguières companies in those capacities. Harry Smith is Executive Vice President and General Manager. Both Burguières and Cambre have substantial executive experience, each having been the CEO of Fortune 500 corporations and continue to serve on several corporate boards. Smith is a former partner with a Big 4 Public Accounting firm and has served family businesses in a financial and general management capacity since 1990.

Philip J. Burguières
Chairman

Philip J. Burguières serves as Chairman of Southern States Land & Timber LLC. He has been active in the management of the J. M. Burguières Companies for over 30 years.

Mr. Burguières also serves as Vice Chairman of the Houston Texans Football Franchise. He serves as Chairman and CEO of EMC Holdings, LLC, an investment management company specializing in oil services and exploration and production industries. Additionally, he serves as Chairman Emeritus of Weatherford International, an international energy company. Until 1996, Burguières was Weatherford International’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

Prior to joining Weatherford in 1990, Burguières was Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Panhandle Eastern Corporation. He worked for 20 years at Cameron Iron Works, Inc., an international oil service company, where he served as Chairman and CEO for ten years.

Burguières is on the board of directors at Newfield Exploration Company, Weatherford International and J.P. Morgan Chase. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of The J.M. Burguières Co., Ltd. (a family-owned limited partnership). He is a member of the National Petroleum Council, the World’s President’s Organization, is past president of the Petroleum Club of Houston, the Petroleum Equipment Suppliers Association and past chairman of the National Ocean Industries Association. In May of 2000, Burguières was awarded the prestigious Ima Hogg Award from the Mental Health Association of Greater Houston and was the 2003 recipient of the National Mental Health Association William Styron Award. He is a Director of Catholic Charities, The Mental Health Association, M.D. Anderson, The Texas Heart Institute and Menninger.

A native of Franklin, La., Burguières graduated with a bachelor’s of science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Louisiana, where a Chair in the engineering department has been named in his honor. He was a recipient of his alma mater’s Outstanding Alumni Award in 1992. He served in the U.S. Navy for four years, reaching the rank of Lieutenant. Burguières received his master’s in business administration from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. He and his late wife Cheryl have two children, Emily and Martial. 

Ronald C. Cambre
President

Ronald C. Cambre has been a director of Southern States Land & Timber LLC since 1990 and President since January 31, 2002. He has served as President and a Director of the J. M. Burguières Company since 1978.

Mr. Cambre was Chairman, President and CEO of Newmont Mining Corporation during the period 1993 to 2001 and previously had been with Freeport McMoRan Inc. for approximately 30 years where he served as President and CEO of Freeport McMoRan Resource Partners.

In addition to his affiliation with the Burguières Companies he currently serves on the boards of Inco Limited, Cleveland-Cliffs, Inc., McDermott International Inc., and W. R. Grace and Company. He has been active in numerous industry organizations and has chaired the National Mining Association and the World Gold Council. He was inducted into the National Mining Hall of Fame in 2002.

A native of New Orleans, Mr. Cambre received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Louisiana State University. He also is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Program for Management Development.

He was inducted into the LSU Engineering Hall of Distinction in 1995 and serves on the Engineering Advisory Council and the LSU Foundation. He also has served on the University of Colorado’s Institute for International Business Global Advisory Board, the Denver University Business School Advisory Board, Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government Advisory Board, the Bretton Woods Committee and the Florida Council of 100. His community activities include serving on the Executive Board of the Denver Area Boy Scouts and the Mile High United Way where he chaired the de Toqueville Society.

Ron is married to the former Gail Burguières and they have three grown daughters. Gail and Ron reside in Covington, Louisiana, but also maintain residences in Denver, Colorado and Seaside, Florida.

Harry J. Smith
Executive Vice President and General Manager

Harry J. Smith is Executive Vice President and General Manager of Southern States Land & Timber LLC and has been actively involved in the management of the J. M. Burguières Companies for seven years. He is president of HarrySmithConsulting providing management and consulting services to family owned businesses for the past 13 years. He holds an MBA from Tulane University and is a CPA, Certified Management Accountant and Certified Fraud Examiner. Mr. Smith is Certified in Succession Assurance ™ and holds a Certificate in Family Business Advising with Fellow Status.

Mr. Smith, a former partner with Ernst & Young, has over 35 years of diverse experience serving the financial management of closely held and family businesses. Mr. Smith also served for two years on the faculty of the Management Department at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and the adjunct faculty at Tulane University and University of New Orleans. He was a course lecturer in “Management of the Family Business” at UNO.

He was named Financial Executive of the Year by the Institute of Management Accountants and accountants on call for IMA's Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and NW Florida region.

Mr. Smith co-authors a series of booklets and conducted a radio call-in show, both entitled Achieving Family Business Success. Mr. Smith is a contributing author to Intermediate Accounting, a widely adopted accounting textbook and to Occupational Fraud and Abuse which develops a unique, uniform fraud classification system. He is co-author of the Strategic Finance article "Family Business Values and Estate Planning" and the Financial Executive article “Family-Owned Business Valuation Is More Art Than Science”. He also authored an instructional and policy guidebook used nationwide by Ernst & Young.

He served on Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer's "Blue Ribbon" transition committee and on Baton Rouge Mayor Tom Ed McHugh's transition team. Mr. Smith is Past Chairman of the 10 parish Capital Area Chapter of the American Red Cross, Past Treasurer of the Downtown Kiwanis Club of Baton Rouge, and served as commissioner on the Downtown Development District. He is a director and past president of Financial Executive International’s New Orleans Chapter.

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Operations

Southern States has secured and preserved its surface access rights in conformity with Florida law. Southern States’ property interests are real and have value, just as the surface right owner’s interests do. Southern States therefore charges a fee in connection with granting the surface right owners of land unrestricted access and use of the surface estate of the land. As warranted, Southern States may retain access rights on small portions of large tracts as future mineral recovery zones.

Southern States’ operations focus on its reserved mineral interests and the associated surface access rights retained in south Florida . Southern States understandably views such rights as a very valuable asset to be preserved in perpetuity. Over time, Southern States would forfeit much of the value of its mineral rights though a policy of granting permanent surface access waivers. Therefore the fee to the surface owner for permanent waivers would have to be very high.

Southern States wishes to facilitate commerce and development. Therefore Southern States offers time sequential surface access waivers to current owners for a nominal fee. Under the sequential approach, Southern States’ fees charged to the current owner can be smaller, thus not overly burdening any single buyer. Further, our waiver provides the assurance that the value of the property will be preserved because it can be sold with our assurance to extend the waiver at a known or determinable, similarly nominal cost to the next owner. Otherwise, buyers are at risk with respect to the position future boards or future owners of Southern States may take with respect to whether and at what fee surface access rights may be waived. Further, this approach does not overly burden the initial purchaser or developer of raw land who pays a very low price per acre in relation to the ultimate value of the land transactions some years or decades in the future.

The advantage of clearing title issues for surface access rights means such issues are avoided when attempting to sell or otherwise transfer title in the future. Our release provides the assurance that the value of the property will be preserved because it can be acquired with the commitment to extend the waiver at a known or determinable cost to the next owner.

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The surface access right waiver process

Those desiring Southern States to waive its surface access rights should complete the form available on this website. It may be printed and faxed to Southern States’ office or completed online and emailed to us. Based on the information provided, Southern States will calculate the waiver fee. We may need to ask for additional information or clarify responses, so please provide full contact information. Upon receipt of the waiver fee, Southern States will forward a notarized surface access waiver agreement suitable for recordation with the county clerk. Normal research and processing by Southern States requires 5 business days. Larger tracks or complex transactions may require more time. Call our office if expedited services are requested.

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