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Our annual People to Watch
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Albert Ruesga, president and CEO of the Greater New Orleans Foundation, says, “The Greater New Orleans Foundation is our region’s best-kept secret. I’d like to change that.”
The GNOF’s purpose is to serve as a vehicle for connecting donors with the region’s most efficacious charitable work.
“We do our work by designing and leading initiatives to improve the region, connecting donors to community needs, identifying and supporting great nonprofit organizations, and strengthening civil society.
“The ultimate goal of the Greater New Orleans Foundation,” Ruesga explains, “is to create a resilient, sustainable, vibrant community in which individuals and families flourish and in which the special character of the New Orleans region and its people is preserved and celebrated.
“The Greater New Orleans Foundation is there to add meaning and depth to the giving of individuals, families and institutions.”
Certainly a weighty task, especially when considering the GNOF community comprises 13 parishes and addresses needs in areas including housing, revitalization, the environment and the arts.
“Foundations and the nonprofits they support are one of the few remaining civilizing forces in our country,” Ruesga says.
Of his own achievements, Ruesga says, “I’m most proud of the work I’ve done in encouraging philanthropic institutions to address issues relating to social justice, which I interpret as fairness and equality of opportunity.”
As would be expected of a man in his position, Ruesga maintains a reserved but affable demeanor. He says, with only a hint of a smile, “You have to be very serious when you’re dealing with other people’s money.”
Zoey Devall is the proprietor of the sweetest little shop on Magazine Street – Bee Sweet Cupcakes. Devall, who left her nearly decade-long career in lobbying and public relations to start her business, says, “Everything’s about fun – that’s why I make cupcakes!”
“I always heard that successful businesses find a need, and fix it. I was fanatic about cupcakes, and there wasn’t a cupcake bakery in the city,” she says.
So, inspired by her love of baking, and the joy of sharing the activity with her 4-year-old son Aidan, Devall set out to start her business in late 2008; a short seven weeks later, Bee Sweet Cupcakes was up and running.
“[Aidan] told me, after I opened the first store, ‘Mommy, you have the best job, you get to eat cake all day – when I grow up, can I work with you?’ That sums up why I do what I do.”
Devall says her long-term goal is to expand Bee Sweet Cupcakes to areas beyond New Orleans and the second shop in Old Metairie to locations “throughout the South, and beyond.”
“We are working with business development professionals to create a plan for expansion that includes potential new stores and an online store arm, and we’re working in partnership with local New Orleans businesses to develop cupcake products,” she says.
Since you readers must be curious, there’s one more question to answer – how does a cupcake baker stay so thin? By running marathons! In fact, Devall just completed the San Diego “Rock & Roll” marathon this past June.
Nic Whitacre wants you to register as an organ donor at his Help Everyone Receive Organs Web site, www.h-e-r-o-movement.org. And he won’t be shy about asking.
Whitacre lived with diabetes for 33 years, suffering over time nerve damage, blindness and intestinal problems. One year, he recalls, brought 39 trips to the hospital.
One day he awoke in a hospital after a two-week-long coma to learn his kidneys had failed – to live, he would need five-hour dialysis sessions three times each week, administered through his neck.
It took a year of testing to get his name on the transplant list.
A person often waits three to five years for a transplant. Nic Whitacre waited three months. His donor, Chris Gregory, a 19-year-old Loyola University student, died unexpectedly of an aneurysm; he had only made his wish to be an organ donor known the week before.
Of his donor, Whitacre says, “His belief in giving the gift of life has given me the opportunity to live.”
“I feel it’s my destiny, and Chris’ destiny, to continue the legacy of saving lives,” he says.
On March 27, 2010, Whitacre will launch “i H-E-R-O”, an online awareness campaign involving contests between all of Louisiana’s public universities.
Whitacre is studying to become a registered nurse so he can work in the Transplant Unit at Ochsner – “where I received my kidney and pancreas transplant,” he says.
Seven thousand people die each year awaiting transplant. “The technology is already there. … All we have to do is register.”
Fashionista Elsa Brodmann is as chic and sophisticated as her design label, Ottilie Brodmann (named for her German grandmother). Brodmann says, “My goal is to establish my clothing label as a luxury fashion house that I can pass on to future generations.
“I have always loved designing clothes and enjoy working with creative people,” she says, mentioning that she may have inherited her weakness for shoes from her mom.
Brodmann’s design credentials are impressive. A graduate of the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, Brodmann has costumed top names in fashion such as former America’s Next Top Model contestant Furonda Brasfield, and her garments have been featured on ABC 26’s Good Morning New Orleans as well as in local CUE and Antigravity magazines.
Ottilie Brodmann, incepted in January 2008, features garments comprising elegant fabrics including silks (“I love silk,” she says), cottons and “recycled” (vintage) furs. Of design icons, Brodmann notes avant garde Italian-Parisian designer Elsa Schiaparelli, known, as surely Brodmann will be, for her vivacious yet elegant designs.
Currently, Brodmann is looking to acquire a storefront Uptown. “There will be a bridal salon, showroom and boutique included,” she says of her plan. Until then, you can see her designs online at www.shopottilie.com.
“The biggest challenge,” Brodmann says of starting her label, “has been maintaining my budget amidst a deep recession by being very conscious of company spending. It’s been an uphill battle but I’m in it for the long-haul.”
Greater New Orleans, Inc. President and CEO Michael Hecht describes his organization as “a community wealth creation nonprofit.”
Hecht’s goal is to develop New Orleans’ economy now so there won’t be a need to eradicate poverty later. “It’s about opportunity,” he says, “and quality of life.”
Before taking his position with GNO, Inc., Hecht served as director of business recovery services for Louisiana Economic Development, where his work focused on small business recovery following hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Now, Hecht continues his community-improvement work in 10 Louisiana parishes including Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines and Tangipahoa.
Hecht hopes that the work of GNO, Inc. will contribute to building a “stable and growing middle class” as well as “decent infrastructure and healthcare.”
Currently, GNO, Inc. is working on projects in fields including public policy, business development and workforce development. GNO, Inc. aims to generate wealth in four key areas comprising advanced manufacturing; creative media and design; energy, petrochemicals and plastics; and international trade.
Hecht’s role in Louisiana’s development seems a fitting investment, as the GNO, Inc. president/CEO says his family has lived in Louisiana since 1830.
Hecht has a wife, Marlena, and two children, ages 3 (“going on 15,” he says) and 6. Make sure to note the item, an iced coffee, Hecht’s holding. He says of his attachment to his morning beverage ritual: “It’s more than an addiction now – it’s a relationship.”
Cornell Landry and Louis Schmitt, author and illustrator, respectively, are the brains behind New Orleans’ soon-to-be classic children’s book Goodnight NOLA.
Written, Landry says, for his 2-year-old daughter Corinne, Goodnight NOLA is a hometown take on the classic kid’s book Goodnight Moon, with a sprinklin’ of Zatarain’s spice.
“It was near the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and pictures of the disaster were being shown daily. I was tired of seeing stories of the devastation and negativity,” Landry explains. “So, I decided to write Corinne a little story about some of the things that make New Orleans such a unique city to grow up in.”
From there, the story became a book and, once Schmitt agreed to create, and completed, the illustrations, the team was well on their way to getting published. Sort of.
“We got turned down by a couple of large New Orleans publishers. So, we then decided that we were going to have to put up the money ourselves to self-publish,” Landry says. “We gambled and funded the project.”
“The response to Goodnight NOLA has been amazing,” Schmitt says.
“My goal,” Landry says, “was for my daughters to be able to walk into the store, see the book displayed on the shelf and then have a proud smile come over their faces as they say, ‘my daddy wrote that.’”
Schmitt’s dream is similar: “It would make me so happy to know that one day my children and family will look back on all of my accomplishments and be proud.”
Micah Fortson began his career as director of production with the New Orleans Opera Association in 2007, taking on the weighty task of planning and implementing all production elements for each opera.
“I have always felt at home in the world of the performing arts, and I’ve spent a good portion of my life working to preserve the highest level of artistic freedom and expression through careful and creative arts-management,” Fortson says. “I love the rehearsal process and the fact that on any typical day I can find myself surrounded by music created by our own Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and some of the most talented singers in the world.” Fortson’s love of talented singers carries over to his personal life, too – his newly wedded wife, Georgia, is an accomplished opera singer.
Among high notes for the New Orleans Opera, the organization has moved back home to the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts. Fortson says, “It took the work of many, many people to complete the project, but I was proud to be an integral part of the process.”
Fortson is now taking on a different challenge, which will move him from the stage to the classroom. “Building on my foundation of arts management I feel I can have a great impact on the New Orleans arts community through legal counsel and political involvement.” Fortson began law school at Loyola University last month.
Modest and abashed Col. Robert Sinkler was appointed in May 2009 to one of this city’s most painfully challenging jobs – Commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ New Orleans Hurricane Protection Office.
“I have only one goal right now,” the commander states, “and that is to complete the Greater New Orleans Area Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System on schedule in order to reduce flood risk for the great people of New Orleans.”
He continues, “We are working 24 hours a day and 7 days a week at our major construction sites to meet this goal.”
Having previously worked for the Corps at Rock Island, Ill., Sinkler brings experience in flood management to his new post. “My biggest challenge as the Rock Island District Commander was to complete the structural repairs of the 2008 Midwest flood-damaged levees along the Mississippi River before the ’09 spring flood season arrived,” he says. “We accomplished our mission by not listening to those who said we couldn’t do it.”
Sinkler says he has yet to achieve his greatest accomplishment, which will be “working with the state, cities, parishes and levee authorities to complete the multi-billion-dollar Greater New Orleans Area Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System in 2011.”
Sinkler says, “There is nothing more rewarding than serving the American people.”
On a reassuring note, Col. Sinkler lives in a one-story Creole plantation house, two blocks from one of New Orleans’ levees, with a young lady whom he speaks of, without hesitation, as his “soul mate.”
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