Kwamena Aidoo
Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Corridor Ventures
Kwamena is a co-founder and managing partner at Corridor Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund headquartered here in New Orleans.
Kwamena was previously a director and co-founder at Cannon Capital, a $100MM private equity firm where he led the firm’s research and thesis development practice, and was instrumental in
implementing operations strategies that enabled early-stage portfolio companies to scale successfully.
Prior to Cannon, Kwamena was a Vice President in the Operations Group at American Capital, a publicly traded private equity firm that was acquired by Ares Management in 2017. While at Cannon and American Capital, Kwamena also held VP Finance, CFO and Board Director roles at portfolio companies across a wide range of sectors. Kwamena began his career in finance at the Clinton Group, a multi-strategy hedge fund, and was an Associate Director at UBS Investment Bank prior to joining American Capital.
Kwamena earned his BA from Columbia University, and MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Kwamena was born and raised in New Orleans.
Tom is a Partner at Black Bay, where he serves on the firm’s Investment Committee and oversees Black Bay’s efforts in sourcing investments, executing transactions, monitoring active portfolio companies, and strategy.
Prior to co-founding Black Bay, Tom was a Vice President at NGP ETP, where he was responsible for sourcing investments, transaction analysis and execution, and monitoring portfolio companies in the oilfield service and technology sector. Prior to joining NGP ETP in 2011, Tom served as the Senior Analyst for Halliburton Company’s in-house M&A and Corporate Development group. While at Halliburton, Tom worked on a number of strategic acquisitions and transactions across the range of Halliburton’s product and service offerings, as well as corporate strategy projects sponsored by the executive team.
Tom holds a B.S.M. in finance and economics from Tulane University, where he graduated magna cum laude and was a Distinguished Scholars recipient, along with an Energy Specialization from the Tulane Energy Institute.
Laura Beauchamp
Vice President, Business Operations and Strategy, Entergy Louisiana
Laura Beauchamp is the Vice President of Business Operations and Strategy for Entergy Louisiana, where she leads the strategy required to power one of the nation’s most energy-intensive states. With more than 25 years of experience in the utility industry, she leads the decisions that shape Louisiana’s energy future.
Laura oversees the infrastructure strategy needed to support a rapidly evolving energy landscape, with a focus on large-load growth, including the expansion of the state’s data center sector. As demand accelerates, Laura is leading efforts to deliver reliable, scalable, and sustainable energy solutions.
Her portfolio includes generation and transmission strategy, integrated resource planning, and energy efficiency and demand response programs—balancing industrial growth with system reliability and affordability for customers.
A seasoned regulatory leader, Laura represents Entergy before the Louisiana Public Service Commission and federal agencies, translating technical complexity into clear, actionable policy.
She also serves as an adjunct lecturer at Tulane University A. B. Freeman School of Business and sits on advisory boards supporting energy research at Tulane University and Louisiana State University.
A graduate of Tulane University, she holds a Bachelor of Science in Management (Finance) and an MBA.
* Entergy Louisiana serves 1.1 million customers in 58 parishes across Louisiana.
Kevin Ferguson
Deputy Mayor & Chief of Staff, City of New Orleans
Kevin is a dedicated civic and business leader and passionate advocate for the people and culture of New Orleans. A New Orleans native, Kevin has committed his career to uplifting his hometown by bridging the worlds of business, community development, and community service.
After graduating from Florida State University with a focus in history, Kevin returned to New Orleans with a clear mission: to contribute to the city’s vibrant recovery and renaissance following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. He brought with him a deep commitment to the city and a personal passion for bettering the quality of life for all New Orleanians.
Kevin spent more than a decade with the New Orleans Pelicans and New Orleans Saints organizations, rising through the ranks to help lead premium sales both organizations. His tenure reflected a broader commitment not just to sports business success, but to the economic and cultural life of the city through its beloved teams.
Before joining the Mayor’s team Kevin served as the Vice President of External Affairs and Membership at New Orleans & Company, the city’s official destination marketing and tourism organization. In this executive leadership role, he was responsible for designing and executing strategies that grow organizational membership, build meaningful community partnerships, and strengthen New Orleans' reputation as a premier destination—while ensuring the needs of local residents are prioritized in every conversation.
Kevin’s portfolio spanned critical areas of public and civic engagement, including government relations, workforce development, and advocacy for quality-of-life issues such as public safety, homelessness, public transportation, environmental sustainability, and accessibility. Under his leadership, New Orleans & Company has launched and supported transformative initiatives including:
- Home For Good New Orleans – A comprehensive coalition focused on reducing homelessness through permanent supportive housing, wraparound services, and public-private partnerships.
- Recycle Dat – A Mardi Gras sustainability initiative that promotes recycling and waste reduction in the face of the city’s largest celebration, setting a model for sustainable tourism practices.
- Accessibility Efforts – Targeted programs aimed at increasing accessibility in our city including conducting a complete survey of sidewalks in the French Quarter, partnering with Wheel the World to provide assessments of businesses, and support for the Beignet Fest Foundations sensory activation vehicle to provide free support to local festivals and events among other initiatives.
Kevin is also involved in multiple community organizations such as the Young Leadership Council, GNO Inc. NextGen Council, ADL Glass Leadership Institute, New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity, and the New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation. He is a graduate of Florida State University where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in history in 2006.
Josh Fleig
Chief Innovation Officer, Louisiana Economic Development (LED)
Josh is the Chief Innovation Officer for Louisiana Economic Development (LED) and the founder and leader of Louisiana Innovation (LA.IO), the state’s dedicated division for accelerating the growth of its innovation economy. A senior executive with over 20 years of experience at the intersection of technology, economic development, and education, Josh is recognized for architecting high-impact strategies that drive both regional and statewide growth.
Prior to returning to LED to launch LA.IO, Josh served as the Senior Vice President of Business Development at Greater New Orleans, Inc. (GNO, Inc.). During his tenure, he led a business development team that cultivated a project pipeline exceeding $20 billion. Under his guidance, the team engineered strategies to advance key industries across Louisiana’s largest region, spearheading initiatives in entrepreneurship, future energy, and entertainment.
Josh’s career has been defined by his role as a trailblazer in Louisiana’s technology sector. During his initial tenure with LED starting in 2012, he architected recruitment strategies that secured dozens of software and digital media wins. His legacy includes the co-creation of the state’s Entertainment Development Fund and the design of Louisiana’s largest venture capital program under the U.S. State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI).
Earlier in his career, Josh demonstrated a knack for innovation as the Director of Media & Brands at SinglePoint (now Bally’s Corporation - NYSE: BALY). There, he managed publisher relationships for the SaaS business, driving interactive TV engagements for major broadcasters like CBS, Disney, Viacom, and Discovery. His journey into the media industry began at NBCUniversal, where he served as a technical producer in interactive media product design, creating hundreds of groundbreaking fan engagements for NBC Sports, Bravo, Syfy, MSNBC, and CNBC.
Josh’s passion for innovation also extended to education, where he spent four years at St. Joseph’s Academy in Baton Rouge. As the youngest chair of the computer science department in the school’s 150-year history, he built the school's first multimedia program.
A proud graduate of Lafayette High School, Josh holds a B.A. in Art History from LSU and an M.F.A. in Interactive Design from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He continues to foster the next generation of talent as an adjunct instructor in LSU’s College of Art + Design and serves on the advisory board for Tulane’s SoPA Digital Design program.
Beyond his professional achievements, Josh is a dedicated family man, living in Uptown New Orleans with his wife Amanda, an HR professional and Baton Rouge native, and their two daughters, Eva Jane (9) and Eloise (6). Josh is a master mixologist with a passion for Tiki traditions and a cinephile with a deep admiration for the Golden Age of American Cinema—the 1970s.
Rob Lalka
Albert R. Lepage Professor in Business, Freeman School of Business
Executive Director, Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Rob is the Albert R. Lepage Professor in Business at Tulane University’s A.B. Freeman School of Business and Executive Director of the Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. He is the author of The Venture Alchemists: How Big Tech Turned Profits Into Power, which was named one of the 22 best business books of 2024 by SABEW and won the 2025 Axiom Gold Medal in Business Ethics – Future Trends. Kirkus Reviews praised it as “an impressive work of research and intellectual reflection… among the most clear-eyed, well researched, and morally uncompromising” books of its kind.
Previously, Lalka was a director at Village Capital and a senior advisor at the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. He served in the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Global Partnerships and was on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff, where he received both the Superior Honor Award and the Meritorious Honor Award.
Lalka currently serves on the boards of Public Democracy, Inc., and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana. He graduated from Yale University, cum laude with distinction in both history and English, received his master’s degree in public policy from Duke University, and earned executive education certificates from Harvard Business School and the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Walter J. Leger III
President and CEO, New Orleans & Company
Walt Leger is President and CEO of New Orleans & Company, the official destination marketing and sales organization for the tourism industry of New Orleans. Representing over 1100 member businesses, New Orleans & Company’ is the tourism and hospitality industry’s official destination sales, marketing, and trade organization, responsible for driving billions of dollars of diverse annual business to the regional cultural economy. By attracting leisure and cultural travel, business meetings conventions, sporting, and special events to New Orleans in a highly competitive global environment. Founded in 1960, New Orleans & Company is committed to celebrating the richness of our culture, while creating jobs, building careers, and enhancing the quality of life for every New Orleanian.
Walt is well-known in the state of Louisiana as a strategic thinker and fierce advocate. First as an Assistant District Attorney in New Orleans and later as an attorney with the law firm of Leger & Shaw, Walt has been a zealous advocate for his clients and victims of violent crime. Just out of law school, Walt served the people of the City of New Orleans as an Assistant District Attorney specializing in the prosecution of violent offenders and drug traffickers. He tried countless cases before Judges and Juries and earned the respect of his peers and opponents as aggressive, fair, and just.
Walt is a proud graduate of Louisiana State University. In 2018 he was inducted into the LSU Hall of Distinction and chosen as the Young Almnus of the Year. After graduating from Louisiana State University with numerous honors, Walt attended Tulane Law School, earning a certificate of specialization in Admiralty & Maritime Law and his Juris Doctor. At Tulane, Walt served as the Business Editor of the Tulane Maritime Law Journal, the Editor-in-Chief of the Tulane Environmental Law Newsletter, 1L Class President, and Student Bar Association Vice-President. He currently serves on the Tulane University President’s Council and on the Advisory Board of the Ogden Honors College at LSU.
Walt was elected by acclamation in 2012 and again in 2016 to serve as the Speaker Pro Tempore of the Louisiana House of Representatives, the youngest member to ever serve in this 2nd highest ranking position in the Louisiana House of Representatives. He was first elected to be the State Representative for District 91 with 65% of the vote in the fall of 2007 and re-elected without opposition in 2011 and 2015. In the Legislature, he represented parts of Uptown, Central City, the Lower Garden District, the Irish Channel, Broadmoor, Marleyville Gert Town and Hollygrove in New Orleans.
In the Legislature, Leger was a senior member of the powerful Appropriations Committee, and the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget, as well as the House Education Committee, House Judiciary Committee, House Criminal Justice Committee, House Executive Committee, House Select Committee on Homeland Security, The Energy Council, the Justice Reinvestment Task Force, Multimodal Commerce Advisory Commission, Executive Committee of the Southern Legislative Conference of State Governments, and the Council of State Governments Governing Board for 1 2017-2018. In October 2012, Leger was elected to the Chairmanship of the Southern Rail Commission formerly known as the Southern High Speed Rail Commission. For many years, Leger served as the Chairman of the Louisiana Juvenile Justice Reform Implementation Commission. On the National Level, Leger served a co-chair of the National Conference of State Legislatures Committee of Health and Human Services for two years. In 2015 he was awarded a Rodel Fellowship of Public Leadership at the Aspen Institute. The Fellowship seeks to enhance our democracy by identifying and bringing together the nation’s most promising young political leaders to explore, through study and conversation, the underlying values and principles of western democracy, the relationship between individuals and their community, and the responsibilities of public leadership; to support and inspire political leaders committed to sustaining the vision of a political system based on thoughtful and civil bipartisan dialogue; and to help America’s brightest young leaders achieve their fullest potential in public service.
Walt has been widely recognized and acclaimed as a problem solver, a consensus builder and someone who gets results. Between 2008-2020, Leger passed over 125 pieces of legislation. His support for tax, revenue and budget reform and stabilization, strategic infrastructure investments particularly for our Ports, rail and multi-modal facilities, Criminal Justice Reform and Reinvestment, Early Childhood Care and Education, Education Reform and Economic Development has been recognized nationally and across the state with dozens of awards naming him a legislative champion, legislator of the year, or advocate of year.
Walt is regularly called upon to lecture at Continuing Legal Education programs for lawyers and Judges through the Louisiana State Bar Association, the New Orleans Bar Association and other organizations. Walt is a founding board member and Vice President of the Louisiana Institute for Children in Families, which focuses on foster youth and adoption as a method for ensuring every child in Louisiana is loved and cared for. Walt currently services as a board member of the U.S. Travel Association (Executive Committee), Louisiana Travel Association, Anti-Defamation League South Central Board, Goodwill Industries of Louisiana, Louisiana Appleseed, Early Partners, the Business Council of New Orleans, GNO, Inc., the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce, the Louisiana Children’s Museum, Agenda for children, PCMA, and the Audubon Nature Institute. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Louisiana Judicial College and has lectured regularly over the years at Tulane University School of Law, Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, LSU Law School, Tulane University, the Loyola University Institute of Politics, and at conferences around the country. Walt is also an adjunct professor of Law at Loyola University New Orleans, College of Law.
Leger currently resides in New Orleans with his wife, Danielle, and daughters Cate and Caroline.
Evan Nicoll
Co-Founder and Managing Partner, 1834 Ventures
Evan Co-Founder and Managing Partner of 1834 Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund based in New Orleans investing in founders with "Tulane in their DNA." He has backed startups across sectors including digital health, AI, consumer products, and climate tech. A triple Tulane graduate and adjunct professor, Evan is passionate about connecting founders with capital, strategic support, and the broader Tulane and Louisiana innovation ecosystem.
as of 5/12/2026
