Just five years ago, Louisiana led the nation as the number one site to make movies, outpacing even California and New York. We attained this lofty position as a result of  a generous program of state tax incentives , which cost the state treasury real dollars. But what did we gain in the process? By…

Being a mid-size city in the Deep South — known as a “tertiary market” in the business world — Baton Rouge is not known for being an artistic hub. But the Capital City has a wealth of artistic and musical talent that is often overlooked and under appreciated. It’s not hard to find, it’s just…

Dr. David Carmouche is President of the Ochsner Health Network, the accountable care network of the massive Ochsner Health System – the largest nonprofit, academic healthcare system in Louisiana. It boasts 40 owned, managed and affiliated hospitals and specialty hospitals, more than 100 health centers and urgent care centers, nearly 25,000 employees and more than…

There are countless studies of equality in the workplace that demonstrate how unequally men and women are treated, in everything from opportunity to income. In entrepreneurship, we create our own playing field. In small women-owned businesses, women are the boss and they make a point of treating of other women how they would like to…

On this edition of Out to Lunch, Stephanie’s guests can make you look like a million bucks and feel like a million bucks. Blair Couatre, with her husband Dustin Clouatre, owns a business called Mera Salon Suite, a co-working space for aesthetic entrepreneurs. Mera rents out space in its state-of-the-art salon on a weekly basis…

In 2011, Mary Patricia Wray was a young law student at Loyola University Law School in New Orleans. Just three short years later, she found herself serving as the communications director for a longshot candidate in the Governor’s Race, a democratic state Representative from Amite named John Bel Edwards. You know what happened next: Edwards…

Stafford Wood is one of the most talented women in Baton Rouge, and the founder and owner of Covalent Logic, a full-service integrated communications firm that specializes in branding, corporate communications, graphic design, web design, public relations and crisis communications. Covalent’s clients, past and present, include hospitals, banks, state agencies, churches and nonprofit organizations. Stafford…

We talk a lot about the importance of getting in shape – especially at the beginning of a new year or before hitting the beach — but do you know what it really means to be in shape? And how, exactly, do we get healthy? It’s a question local businesses and entrepreneurs are helping their…

Thirty years ago, a young, high-energy entrepreneur left his private sector job to create the Louisiana Business and Technology Center on the LSU campus, a business incubator for small startups. In the three decades since, the LBTC has helped launch hundreds of  businesses and has spawned the creation of the much larger LSU Innovation Park,…

 Andrea Leyerle is a Baton Rouge-based entrepreneur who has created an online and retail nutraceutical business, Andi Lynn’s Pure and Custom Formulary.   Andrea started the company in 2010 in her kitchen, where she began making her own version of elderberry syrup, known for its cold- and flu-fighting properties. In the years since, Andi Lynn’s…