Rob Lalka
- Professor of Practice
- Executive Director, Albert Lepage Center
- Albert R. Lepage Professorship in Business
| Office Address | 330E |
|---|---|
| Phone | (504)314-2007 |
| rlalka@tulane.edu |
Biography
Rob Lalka is Professor of Practice in Management, the Albert R. Lepage Professor in Business, and the Executive Director of the Albert Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
He has received the A.B. Freeman School’s Excellence in Intellectual Contributions Award three times, most recently for the critically acclaimed new book, The Venture Alchemists: How Big Tech Turned Profits Into Power, from Columbia University Press. It was named one of the 22 best business books of 2024 by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing 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. MIT Technology Review commended it for “deflating the myth that these entrepreneurs were somehow gifted seers of (and investors in) a future the rest of us simply couldn’t comprehend or predict,” while exposing “the price we’ve paid in handing over unprecedented power to Big Tech — and explain[ing] why it’s imperative we start taking it back."
Lalka moved to New Orleans from Washington, DC, where he was a director at Village Capital and a senior advisor at the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. Prior, 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, for which he was recognized with the State Department's Superior Honor Award and its Meritorious Honor Award.
Lalka currently serves on the boards of Public Democracy, Inc., and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, where he is Secretary of the Board and Chair of the Risk Committee. He graduated from Yale University, cum laude with distinction in both history and English, holds 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.
Courses
Undergraduate Seminar Course
Fall and Spring Semesters, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026
In this two-semester course, students will develop an understanding of the resources, strategies, and management skills required to launch a new business. Working out of the Lepage Center's Student Venture Incubator, you will have the opportunity to take an idea from its earliest inception to analyze potential product-market fit. Throughout this course, you and your team will work on your new venture by developing your business model and business strategy; creating financial, marketing, sales, and hiring analyses; developing your founding documents and policies; setting up your chart of accounts; and developing a new venture pitch.
Undergraduate Seminar Course, Cross-Listed with the School of Science and Engineering, Fall Semester 2025
What is the good life? What does that mean for you personally, and in society overall, in a world defined by technology and innovation? How do we define and measure worthwhile progress? Who prospers and who gets hurt? This course will address these and other core questions alongside insights from technologists, religious leaders, innovators, and ethicists throughout history. We will address specific technological questions involving artificial intelligence, bioinnovation (genetic engineering and computer-human interfaces), energy and climate, social media, weapons and war, space exploration, and more. We will also explore what it looks like to form a good team and a good company to create this good future and how such a future impacts our career choices. This course is neither triumphalist nor defeatist about innovation; instead, students will sit with the questions, test their assumptions, reflect on ancient wisdom, and debate all sides in pursuit of a better future “Not For Oneself, But For One’s Own.”
Undergraduate Seminar Course: Freshman TIDES
Fall Semester, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 and Spring Semester 2025
In this course, students will be given a behind the scenes look at the entrepreneurial ecosystem in New Orleans — the lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts and what needs to happen to have a vibrant startup community that is equitable, accessible, and collaborative. From local entrepreneurs to community partners to support organizations to investors and more, this course will bring together some of the most important stakeholders in the New Orleans entrepreneurial ecosystem. We will also leverage our data from the Greater New Orleans Startup Report, hearing from our very own Lepage Center to present an in-depth overview of the current state of the early stage business economy in New Orleans.
Undergraduate Lecture Course
Spring Semester, 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026
Students in this course review fourteen business cases. The cases are supplemented with interviews of visiting CEOs, investors, and other business executives. The class explores problems and opportunities encountered in the search, evaluation and acquisition of new, as well as ongoing, ventures. Students will further develop analytical skills in finance, accounting, business analysis, management and marketing that they have acquired in other courses. Brainstorming sessions will challenge and improve innovative thinking while assignments and presentations hone business communication skills. With interactive and dynamic classroom discussions, you will learn how to address the challenges of entrepreneurship head-on, which will prepare you for not only a more entrepreneurial career but also a more entrepreneurial mindset in how you think about many of life's choices.
