Quentin L. Messer Jr., CEcD

President and CEO, New Orleans Business Alliance (NOLABA)
​As President & CEO, Quentin reports to an eighteen person Board of Directors that includes the Mayor of the City of New Orleans, President of the New Orleans City Council and corporate business leaders and leads a team of 30+ professionals.
 
Quentin leads initiatives and programs related to making New Orleans the most attractive city of its size for financial and human capital investment.  These initiatives and programs are conducted across four workstreams: business attraction/retention, small business growth, talent and workforce development and strategic neighborhood development.  Under his leadership, the Business Alliance became one of fewer than 80 AEDOs recognized internationally by the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) and hired the state of Louisiana’s only dedicated BioInnovation and Life Science-focused economic development professional among other milestones. 
 
PRIOR WORK EXPERIENCE:  Immediately prior to joining NOLABA, Quentin was the gubernatorially-appointed Assistant Secretary for Louisiana Economic Development, (LED) the state department of economic development, https://www.opportunitylouisiana.com/, where he testified before committees of the Louisiana State Legislature. 
 
Prior to his work in economic development, in addition to his time at the Boston Consulting Group and O’Melveny LLP, Quentin served as a Turnaround President and Chief Operating Officer for one of the largest K-12 education management organizations in the U.S. and Broad Resident in Urban Education.
 
EDUCATION:  He is a graduate of Princeton University, where he was a Woodrow Wilson School major and completed graduate degrees at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he received his JD and MBA from Columbia Law School and Columbia Business School, respectively.