Biz Talks

New Orleans Entrepreneur Week is back, live and in-person in locations around the city March 21-25. The event will culminate with the Idea Pitch, where top startups from The Idea Village’s VillageX accelerator program compete for a $50,000 prize. This week, Corey James, program director for VillageX, discusses the competition’s top prospects and his other “don’t miss” picks for NOEW 2022.

The New Orleans Police Department is designed to function with more than 1,500 police officers on the force but currently has less than 1,000 patrolling the streets. Rafael Goyeneche, longtime president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, believes this is one of the primary causes of the recent spike in violent crime. In this week's podcast, he discusses strategies for rebuilding the NOPD’s rank...

In this week's podcast, General Manager Mali Carow talks about how the Four Seasons Hotel New Orleans, the city's first five-star hotel, has fared since it’s opening last summer, how their first Carnival season is going and shares some details on two more large features set to open in the next month.

As of January 2022, there were more than 70,000 onshore wind turbines in operation throughout the United States. And, in 2020, onshore wind power provided 25% of all energy used by the Texas power grid. Move offshore, though, and the number of U.S. wind turbines drops to an amount you can count with the fingers on one hand. As it happens, Louisiana companies were instrumental in constructing the f...

Metairie native Thomas Richards’ family has owned and operated what has been known as Clearview Mall for over 50 years. Now, Richards is behind the mall’s reinvention into Clearview City Center, a mixed-use project set to include a “super clinic” from Ochsner and high-end apartment community, among its new offerings. This week, Richards chats about what people can expect from the new development a...

This week’s podcast features Marquita White, workforce training and development manager at the New Orleans Culinary & Hospitality Institute. The school is now accepting applications for its Pathways for Upward Mobility Program, which is focused on hospitality professionals from the BIPOC community (Black, Indigenous and People of Color). The 8-week crash course provides leadership and entrepre...

The only Louisiana attraction and highest-ranking museum to be honored in the “Best New Attraction” category in USA TODAY’s 10Best Readers’ Choice travel awards, the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience may not be somewhere you’re familiar with yet as it just opened last May, but if it’s not, it should be. This week we chat with Executive Director Kenneth Hoffman about what is it about the mus...

Robert Thompson's Frenchmen Hotel renovation will be unveiled at the end of the month. Meanwhile, he made headlines this month for purchasing the much larger Whitney Hotel on the other side of the French Quarter. On this week's podcast, he talks about why he moved his business and family to New Orleans, and how his writer's imagination inspires his restaurant and hotel designs.

Seniors have always been at an increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19, but with this aggressive Omicron variant, what should they be doing to stay safe? Is it OK to resume those doctor’s appointments? See family? What about protecting mental health? Dr. Brienne Loy, regional medical director for CenterWell Senior Primary Care for Texas and Louisiana, shares her advice.

This week, we talk to award-winning writer, editor and "Biz Talks" co-host Kim Singletary, who has been the managing editor of Biz New Orleans magazine since its launch in 2014. In this episode, she discusses the most important business stories of the year, and the top executives featured in the January issue.

This week, producer Kelly Massicot interviews Biz Talks co-host Rich Collins about his new role as the editor of Biz New Orleans ' new publication the New Orleans 500 . The New Orleans 500 is an annual book that profiles the business leaders who are driving the greater New Orleans economy today and making decisions that will shape the region’s future. The inaugural edition is out now and Collins t...

Last week, Calgary-based Canadian Pacific Railway finalized a $31 billion dollar purchase of Kansas City Southern railway. The deal, which is North America’s first major merger of Class I railroads in 20 years, could have a noticeable impact in south Louisiana, where some of Kansas City Southern’s 6,700 miles of track is located. John Spain is the executive vice president of the Baton Rouge Area F...

On today’s episode, we talk to University of Holy Cross President Dr. Stanton McNeely. Under his leadership, the Algiers-based school’s rankings are on the rise and several new programs are attracting attention. Next semester, for instance, UHC will match TOPS scholarship awards for qualified students and is providing a one-time $1,500 housing scholarship for students who sign a contract to live o...

Armed with a marketing degree and zero culinary experience, Seventh Ward native Greg Tillery has transformed his dream to create tasty chicken wings into an Instagram-fueled success story. After only eight years, We Dat’s Chicken and Shrimp now boasts seven locations in two states, plus a popular line of seasonings, and is quickly moving toward franchising. In this episode of Biz Talks, Tillery sh...

This week’s episode features U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, who was one of the five lead Republican negotiators and a member of the bipartisan group of 22 senators that drafted the recently passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. On the podcast, Cassidy talks about how the bill will affect the greater New Orleans region, which projects might start the soonest and where the job opportunities will b...

Inventory is down and prices are up, but does that mean you should wait to buy a car? Not according to Roch Eshleman, director of public relations for Ray Brandt Auto Group, who offers up a more complete picture of how car buying has changed during the pandemic, and explains how consumers can still come out on top in this week's episode. 

Husband-and-wife entrepreneurs Austin Sherman and Alexis Korman founded Big Easy Bucha seven years ago to create "healthy beverages spiked with New Orleans flavor." Now, they produce, distribute and sell millions of bottles annually. Last week, it was announced that Latin American drink maker Beliv purchased Big Easy Bucha for an undisclosed amount. Sherman and Korman plan to hire another 50 emplo...

Since taking over in January of 2019 as the third generation of Baumers to lead Baumer Foods — makers of the iconic Crystal Hot Sauce for almost 100 years — Alvin Adam “Pepper” Baumer III has been battling to lead the company through the pandemic and all its challenges. In this casual chat, he shares the big lesson he learned from aunt and great aunt Ti Martin and Ella Brennan about handling adver...

Jeff Strain is a video game programmer whose new studio, Possibility Space, is headquartered in downtown New Orleans. An icon in the industry, Strain is the founder of Undead Labs, which makes the State of Decay video game series; and co-founder of ArenaNet, makers of the Guild Wars online role-playing game.

Following up on last week’s podcast with Jack Jensen, Robby Showalter — a veteran of the container shipping industry and head of an opposition group to Port NOLA’s $1.5 billion proposed container facility in Violet — shares his opposing views on the proposed project and why he plans to do whatever it takes to keep it out of St. Bernard Parish.

This week’s podcast features Jack Jensen Jr., founder of TCI Trucking and Warehousing. As a member of the board of commissioners of the Port of New Orleans, Jensen is enthusiastic about the Port’s plans for a new container terminal in St. Bernard Parish. He talks about why he believes the Violet terminal will be beneficial to the parish, the city and the region — and what New Orleans needs to do t...

New Orleans is once again a hotbed for filming: just in the first three quarters of 2021 the industry has brought $753 million into the city. In this week's episdoe, Carroll Morton, director of Film New Orleans, shares her thoughts on the future (including the threatened IATSE strike and tax credit battles) along with details on how easy it is to break into the industry and start a new career.

This week’s Biz Talks podcast features native New Orleanian Scott Wolfe, a lawyer and entrepreneur who founded the New Orleans-based technology startup Levelset in 2012 to make payments less stressful for contractors and suppliers in the construction industry. The company is headquartered in the Lower Garden District and has nearly 300 employees worldwide. News broke last week that California-base...

Now in its 11th year, the must-attend event of the year for the New Orleans residential and commercial real estate industry is returning for two virtual half-days of programming Oct. 19 and 20. In this week's episode, we talked to event co-chairs, Katie Witry and Mike Mito, to learn about the highlights of this year’s schedule.

In this week's episode, Jerry Bologna talks about the challenges business owners have faced because of Hurricane Ida. Bologna is president and CEO of the Jefferson Parish Economic Development Commission, an independent arm of parish government that works to support businesses in the area. Since Aug. 29, JEDCO has been providing resources and information to help the business community recover...