Lead the site location advisory and economic development consulting organization of Jones Walker Law Firm.

Assisted with directing the organization’s strategy in project management, marketing, business retention and fundraising. Responsible for developing a regional attraction and development plan in key targeted industries including a lead generation, qualified sites, and marketing strategy resulting in securing the largest projects in the region’s history including Exxon-Sabic (Gulf Coast Growth Ventures), Steel Dynamics, Tesla (Lithium refining plant) and others leading to the creation of over 1,640 direct new jobs and increased project pipeline activity by over 510% from 2015. -Successfully located such other projects such as Rangeland Energy, Alorica call center, and Permico Energia fractionation plant to the region. -Launched qualified (certified) site program for the region with more than 10 privately and publicly owned sites receiving qualification including two industrial megasites over 1,000 acres-Launched state of the art GIS-based building and site portal for the region and internal ESRI ArcGIS platform for prospects and for qualified sites identification.-Responsible for coordinating national marketing efforts to media on growth in the region to national media in New York City and Atlanta with (Conway Data) including FAM tours generating more than $2m in advertising value.-Developed hurricane recovery forum after Hurricane Harvey in 2017 to assist South Texas communities and their companies taking a direct hit from the storm with recovery resources from the EDA, IEDC, and SBA.

Responsible for leading LEO’s Economic Consulting Services and assist clients with a full suite of services in site selection, economic development, community development and strategic planning — incorporating GIS technology to help companies and communities make intelligent investment decisions.Current and past projects from July 2013 -October 2015 include:Sasol Ltd Regional Impact Study for Southwest Louisiana (under CSRS)Marubeni Ethane Cracker Project (with CK Associates as prime)Strategic Sites Inventory (SSI) Project for Entergy Economic Development Arkansas, Mississippi, and TexasBusiness Park Site Search Project-Wayne County, Ohio ED Corporation  Baton Rouge Metro Airport Business Park Strategic Plan and Marketing Project Strategic Sites Inventory (SSI) Project for Louisiana Economic DevelopmentRegional Sites Evaluation and Strategic Sites Inventory for Greater New Orleans, Inc.  SW LA Economic Development Alliance Regional Housing Study (under CSRS) Greater Bossier Economic Development Foundation Business Park and Strategic Sites ProjectTangipahoa Economic Development Foundation Strategic Site Inventory ProjectAcadiana EDC Strategic Sites and Business Park Project St. Tammany Environmental Corridor Study (with Design Workshop as prime) City of Alexandria- Downtown Central LA Community College Campus AnalysisLEO applies innovative geospatial technology to deliver high-value services for professionals in the commercial real estate, planning, site selection and economic development fields and provides data-driven services to corporations, state and local governments, and private nonprofits in 10 states.

Responsible for the implementation of LED’s new Business Expansion & RetentionGroup as Executive Director which assisted in retaining and growing Louisiana’sexisting business base and coordinated large, medium, and small retention andexpansion projects. Managed staff of six economic development professionalsinteracting with thousands of existing Louisiana companies around Louisianaworking on retention and expansion projects. Worked on numerous projects involving site identification, incentive negotiations, workforce ident-ification and training, and other resources. Led effort to develop and passlegislation for the Retention and Modernization Incentive Program in 2009.Acted as project lead on largest announced manufacturing and foreign directinvestment in Louisiana history and US history (Sasol’s $21B, 1,253 job, Gas to Liquids-GTL, Ethane Cracker Project in November 2012). Other major project wins included Folgers consolidated coffee roasting operations to NewOrleans East, Globalstar’s corporate headquarters relocation from California to Covington; Gardner Denver Thomas’ consolidation project into Monroe, LA; lead project manager of Cheniere Energy LNG export facility in CameronParish; retention of Smoothie King’s corporate headquarters in the metroNew Orleans area, retention and consolidation of The Schumacher Groupheadquarters in Lafayette, and many other small, medium, and large- sized projects including the cancelled Shell Gas to Liquids (GTL) Project.Responsible for coordination over $27.3B in announced new capital investment,attraction of over 7,900 new jobs, and retention of over 17,000 jobs during tenure at LED.

Spearheaded development of a new non-profit economic development organizationfor Ascension Parish, LA as first President/CEO. Successfully created the first“certified megasite” on the Mississippi River, Pointe Sunshine (Pointe Houmas), a1,000 acre tract which was designated by LED as a Louisiana certified site in 2011and first megasite certified along the Mississippi River.  Assisted in the location ofthe 84-Lumber distribution center in Gonzales, the Kellogg’s Distribution Center inGonzales, the Kinder Morgan liquid bulk facility in Geismar, and the DynamicFuels (Tyson-Syntroleum JV) renewable fuels facility in Geismar and expansionsof Bevel Tech, Dupont, and Pearce Foundry which collectively created over 500 new jobs and over $274 million in new capital investment. Managed staff ofthree economic development professionals. Developed entire strategic plan for the launch of the organization including retention, recruiting, marketing, and sites development programs for Ascension Parish.

Led regional economic development activities for the ten-parish organization forGreater New Orleans as SVP of Jobs Development.  Collaborated with national real estate officials, site selection consultants, and existing company officialsconsidering new investment in the ten-parish region. Served as project lead onrelocating and expanding key projects to the New Orleans area including theCharlotte Hornets NBA relocation; CG Railway; developing the State incentivepackage to retain the Northrop Grumman shipyard from 2001-2010; Service Zone (Sitel), a major call center to Bogalusa; Folgers Coffee expansion in 2002, the new WEMCO distribution center, and many others resulting in the creation of over 3,200 jobs, retention of over 10,000 jobs, and $325 million in new capitalinvestment.  Served on team of economic development organization lobbyists during Louisiana legislative sessions from 1999-2005 in advocating new incentiveprograms and tax changes in the State including revisions to the single sourcecorporate income tax structure and the tax equalization program, the Quality JobsProgram, the Digital Media Tax Credit Program, and the Research and Develop-ment Tax Credit Program.  Spearheaded the creation and passage of legislation of the New Orleans Biomedical Economic Development District in 2005 in theLouisiana legislature for the life sciences sector in the downtown medical corridor.

Responsible for Entergy’s economic development division to attract new companies into the State of Louisiana within Entergy’s service territory including constant work with national site selection consultants and company executives. Assisted in the location of Epsilon Products (Pinnacle Polymers) in Garyville, LA creating over 150 new jobs and $220 million in capital investment in 1998. Conducted community development for the Baton Rouge and Northshore areas including assisting with the Entergy Team City Program and helping more than a dozen communities strategically position themselves for economic development opportunities including site and building inventory and community and economic competitiveness assessments for economic development.

Led the Business Retention Program under Mayor Marc Morial’s Department of Economic Development to retain existing businesses in the city and created outreach program to assist existing hundreds of company executives with operational issues and available economic development incentives in the City.

Responsible for the development of the marketing research department for the Louisiana LotteryCorporation during its inception in 1991. Duties included development of customer surveys, market research analysis, test marketing of products, and working with the marketing department in final product development. Promoted from State Sales Coordinator with responsibilities that included supervising eight State sales lottery offices.