Rex Announces 2015 Carnival Royalty

New Orleans businessman and civic leader Christian T. Brown will reign as King of Carnival on Tuesday, February 17. The Queen of Carnival is Vanderbilt University student Charlotte Lane Langenstein, known as "Laney." On Tuesday Miss Langenstein will greet Rex and watch the Rex procession from the reviewing stand at the Hotel Intercontinental, and Mardi Gras evening Carnival's Monarchs will greet their subjects at the Rex ball.

Mr. Brown is the Managing Director of NOLA Holdings, LLC, a private equity investment firm owning interests in numerous specialty, niche businesses. His focus is the buy-out of small to medium size family-owned businesses, and he has successfully completed transactions both where family-management desired to remain in the business and where it desired to exit. Further, he provides expansion capital to successful companies showing strong growth opportunities.

He is currently the Chairman of the Board of Directors of McIlhenny Company, the 147-year-old maker of Tabasco® Brand Pepper Sauce. Mr. Brown is the Vice President/Treasurer and a member of the Board of Directors of Avery Island, Inc., a family-owned land management company. Mr. Brown is a member of the Iberia Bank's Advisory Board for the Greater New Orleans Area.

Mr. Brown graduated from Tulane University with a B.A., Magna Cum Laude and Honors in History and Phi Beta Kappa in 1982. In 1985, he received a Juris Doctorate from the Tulane University School of Law.

Mr. Brown has been involved civically as a volunteer for most of his life. Currently, he is the inaugural chairman of the Audubon Society Louisiana's board; the chairman of the Selley Foundation, a fund that supports quality education, arts, and the environment in the Greater New Orleans Area; a trustee of the James Beard Foundation, whose mission is to educate, inspire, entertain, and foster a deeper understanding of the American culinary culture; and a trustee, Investment Committee Chairman, and a member of the Executive Committee of the Greater New Orleans Foundation, the community foundation for southeastern Louisiana.

He is a founder and the past Chairman of the Pro Bono Publico Foundation, which provides private grants to organizations, especially charter schools and support entities that have been involved in the post-Katrina rebuilding of New Orleans; today he serves as an advisor to the Board of Trustees. Mr. Brown also is an Executive Committee member of the Mayor's Mardi Gras Advisory Committee and a member of the Cultural and Historical Committee for the New Orleans 2018 Commission.

In 2006, he served on the Times-Picayune's Loving Cup Selection Committee. From 2003 until 2005, Mr. Brown was the President of the Louisiana Museum Foundation and a co-chairman of the Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial Celebration in 2003. He served as a Board Member (2004-2008) and Treasurer (2006-2008) of the Louisiana State Museum Board and Chairman of the Irby Trust, which supports the Louisiana State Museum.

He was an original member of the steering committee of Women of the Storm, a non-political, non-partisan group dedicated to the recovery of post-Katrina New Orleans (2005-2008). He has served as Chairman (1995-1997) of the Greater New Orleans Educational Television Foundation (WYES-TV12), as well as numerous other positions, including Vice Chairman (1994-1995), Chairman of the Finance Committee (1993-1994, 1998), Chairman of the Board Governance Committee (1997-1998), and the Past Board Chairman's Committee (1997-1999). He also chaired the station's first major gifts campaign in 1992.

He served as a Board Member of the Bureau of Government Research, the chairman of its development committee, and a former member of its Executive Committee (2006-2012). He was a board member and Vice President (2004-2009) of the NOCCA Institute (a foundation that supports the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, a public high school for students gifted in the arts).

With Tulane University, he has served as the Chairman of the Liberal Arts & Sciences Capital Campaign (2004) and past-Chairman of the Dean's Council for the Liberal Arts and Sciences School (2001-2003), a member of the Board of Alumni Association and the Provost's Council (1995), and the advisory council of the Associates Program. Mr. Brown has been a board member (1998-2004) and past Treasurer (2001-2003) of Longue Vue House and Garden. He has been a board member of the Louisiana Children's Museum, a member of the Corporate Advisory Board of the Easter Seals Society of Louisiana, and he has also served as a board member and chairman of the finance committee of each the Crosby Arboretum and Save Our Cemeteries. He served as a board member of Louisiana Organ Procurement Association from 1996 until 2000.

Mr. Brown is married to Kia Brown, formerly of Charlottesville, Virginia. He has two children, Amelie Brown, who is an artist in Nashville, and Christian Brown II, who is a banker at IberiaBank in New Orleans. Numerous other cousins have reigned as the King and Queen of Carnivals of years past.

He enjoys the outdoors and is an avid hunter, fisherman, skier, and hiker.

Miss Langenstein, who has recently studied abroad at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, is a graduate of Isidore Newman School, where she won numerous awards, including the 2012 Rose Freeman Keller Award for Community Service, the 2012 Frances T. Dyer Biology Award, the 2011 Tulane University Book Award, the 2011 Warren G. Moses World War II Scholar Essay Award, and the 2011 Robert J. Pfister Gold Pen Award.

A passionate volunteer, Miss Langenstein was recognized in 2011 by the Association of Professional Fundraisers as the Outstanding Youth in Philanthropy. The same year, St. Charles Avenue honored her as the 2011 Student Activist. She was a volunteer leader with Heart of Passion, Relay for Life, Breakthrough New Orleans, Isidore Newman Wonder Week, Students Against Destructive Decisions, and the Magnolia School. In addition to her community service Miss Langenstein was a cheerleader and competed on Newman's varsity soccer team.

At Vanderbilt University–Peabody College she is a candidate for a Bachelor of Science Degree in Cognitive Studies and a Bachelor in Commerce Degree in Corporate Strategy, with a minor in Creative Writing. She is a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta Sorority and has continued her volunteer service with The Afterschool Program (TAP), the Blood-Water Mission, Kenya Dig It, Habitat for Humanity, and Relay for Life.

She has worked as a Marketing Intern with Marathon Music Works in Nashville, and as a Researcher in the Genetics Department of the L.S.U. Health and Science Center. She also worked as a Camp Counselor at Camp Bow Wow, helping with the training of dogs used in discipline and guidance.

She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Henry Langenstein, III.

Among many Rex connections Miss Langenstein is the granddaughter of Dolly Ann Souchon Johnsen, who reigned as Queen of Carnival in 1949. Her mother was a Maid in the 1973 Rex Court, and her step-grandfather, Erik Frithjof Johnsen, was Rex in 1991. Many other aunts, uncles and cousins have served in the Rex Court, including her Uncle, John Edward Koerner, III who was Rex 2010.