About

The Idea Village Staff


The Idea Village

The Idea Village

The Idea Village was founded in 2000 as a 501(c)3 nonprofit designed to support high impact entrepreneurial talent by identifying growth challenges, setting goals, providing business strategy, marketing support and financial direction. As of February 2010, The Idea Village has supported over 265 local entrepreneurial ventures, representing 975 jobs and over $87 million in revenue. Students, professionals and collaborative partners have contributed over 49,000 hours towards business consulting and resources development and allocated over $1.5 million in grants directly to businesses.

Staff

The Idea Village Team is a group of entrepreneurs, innovators and professionals with diverse backgrounds, career paths and levels of experience. Many have either personally started or helped start and grow businesses.

Tim Williamson

Tim Williamson

Co-Founder & CEO of The Idea Village

Tim brings his energy and leadership experiences from founding four entrepreneurial ventures in the last 15 years. Since 2000, Tim focused on founding and leading The Idea Village, one of the most innovative economic development organizations in New Orleans. Tim's career began as Vice President with Bear Stearns in Boston and he received a BSM in Finance from Tulane University. Tim serves on the State of Louisiana Small Business and Entrepreneurship Commission and on the Board of Kingsley House. He is a graduate of the 2004 NORLI class, graduate of Loyola's Institute of Politics, a member of 1999 City Business Power Generation, member of 2004 Gambit 40 under 40 and a 2004 Junior Achievement Rising Star Award Winner.

Allen Bell

Allen Bell

Co-Founder & COO of The Idea Village

Allen returned home to New Orleans in 1994, relocating an Atlanta marketing agency which he founded in 1987. In 1998 Allen became General Manager of New Orleans Net, publisher of NOLA.com and MardiGras.com. Allen served as a board member for New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity from 1997 - 2003 and was Board President in 2001. A New Orleans native, Allen received his BA from Southern Methodist University.

Jodine Gordon

Jodine Gordon

AmeriCorps*VISTA member/EIC Programming

Jodine first came to New Orleans in the Spring of 2008 as a University of Pennsylvania Political Science student with the Fox Leadership Program researching the impact of the non-profit sector in redevelopment efforts. That summer she eagerly returned as an intern with The Idea Village researching mechanisms for building social capital and helping to launch a “Trust Your Crazy Ideas” campaign. After volunteering in Lagos, Nigeria launching a microenterprise initiative following graduation, Jodine is happy to join the Idea Village staff as an Americorps VISTA at the Entergy Innovation Center through Tulane University's Center for Public Service. Jodine hails from Teaneck, New Jersey.

Nicky Henriquez

Nicky Henriquez

Strategic Consulting Coordinator

Nicky, a native of Curaçao, earned a Bachelors of Science in Management with a focus in Information Systems from Tulane University. Joining The Idea Village team first as an IT intern, she decided to stay with the organization upon graduation due to the unique opportunities the city provides.

Jo Ann Minor

Jo Ann Minor

Manager Entergy Innovation Center

Jo Ann is a New Orleans native and a graduate of the University of New Orleans. As the result of a lengthy banking career in South Florida she is well experienced in small business banking and commercial lending. Jo Ann is a member of the National Association of Black Accountants and the Community Investment Network. She is the Treasurer/Secretary and Founding member of Zawadi, a Giving Circle established in New Orleans in 2005 just prior to hurricane Katrina. Jo Ann joined the Idea Village in June 2009 specifically to manage the Entergy Innovation Center.

Emily Madero

Emily Madero

Director of Strategic Consulting

Emily moved to New Orleans as an undergraduate Tulane student prepared for an adventure. She graduated with a BA in Spanish and Psychology, MA in Spanish and Latin American Studies, and a love for New Orleans. After co-founding several start-up ventures, Emily returned to Tulane's Freeman School of Business. Katrina reinforced Emily's connection and commitment to the people and the culture of New Orleans. She became President of the Tulane's Entrepreneurs Association and was a leader in the development of IDEAcorps™, a partnership between The Idea Village and Tulane University. Emily is now a full-time Idea Village employee and leads the strategic consulting program.

Kate Schneiderman

Kate Schneiderman

New Orleans Entrepreneur Week Manager

Kate Schneiderman, a native New Yorker, began her love affair with New Orleans in 2006. After graduating from the University of Michigan with a BA in Political Science, Kate was pursuing a career in corporate/investor communications when she watched as Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. A year later, she decided to move to New Orleans and take part in the recovery and rebuilding as Communications Director and, later, co-Chief of Staff for New Orleans City Councilman-at-large Arnie Fielkow. After a stint working on economic development in Detroit, Kate returned to her adopted hometown to join The Idea Village team and manage their annual New Orleans Entrepreneur Week (NOEW).

Cameron Yancey

Cameron Yancey

Special Projects Coordinator

Cameron, a native New Orleanian, returned to the city in May 2009 after graduating from the University of Georgia with a Bachelors of Arts in Publication Management from the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Joining The Idea Village team first as a volunteer turned marketing intern to help complete How They Did It, she is now a full-time employee at the helm of many crazy ideas.

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Brent Godfrey

Intern

Brent, a native Californian, came to New Orleans in 2008 after graduating from Yale with a degree in History. After volunteering for many months at The Idea Village, Brent was hoodwinked into building a summer internship program aimed at attracting top tier business talent to the city, and he's thoroughly enthused about the challenge. When he's not helping create infrastructure for the local entrepreneurial ecosystem, Brent is a full-time firefighter for the New Orleans Fire Department.


Special Guests

James Carville, Jim Coulter, Bob Brown, General Wesley Clark, Amy Cosper, Dr. Scott Cowen, Mark Cuban, Michael Hecht, Walter Isaacson, Julie Silard Kantor, Robin Keegan, The Honorable Mitch Landrieu, Mary Matalin, Irvin Mayfield, Stephen Perry, Peter Reiling, Hugh Weber & Kurt Weigle

  • "Inspired by Design"

    Entrepreneur.com - 5/3/10

    Just recently, Hardy was chosen as one of seven entrepreneurs to partner with an MBA team in New Orleans Entrepreneur Week 2010, when over 150 top MBA students, corporate volunteers, and our nation's most accomplished entrepreneurial talent congregated and collaborated in New Orleans to provide 9,121 hours of direct service to 329 early-stage New Orleans entrepreneurs....

  • "Reaping the Reward"

    myNewOrleans.com - 4/8/10

    What a year it has been so far! And now we are smack in the middle of festival season: Pinch me, I must be dreaming in the land of dreamy scenes. As good as it has been (Thank you, Saints. Thank you, Mitch. Thank you, Rex, etc.), plenty has been going on in parallel to all the Big Things that should not go unnoticed.

  • "How Businesses Are Launched, Big Easy Style"

    GOOD - 4/8/10

    Right after Hurricane Katrina hit, the academic world responded to the disaster. Schools sent students to do relief work, symposiums were planned.... Over spring break, while many of their peers lapped up tropical-flavored drinks, business students from around the country flew to New Orleans, where they were matched with local entrepreneurs as part of Idea Village's Entrepreneur Week.

  • "C.U. Team Takes First Place in Entrepreneur Challenge"

    The Cornell Daily Sun - 4/2/10

    The first time's a charm. The Johnson School of Management team travelled to New Orleans from Mar. 20 to Mar. 27 to compete for the first time in the Entrepreneur Challenge and won first place - beating out rival business schools Stanford, Northwestern, University of California-Berkeley and University of Chicago.

  • "Big Easy Blends wins Entrepreneur Week competition"

    New Orleans CityBusiness - 3/30/10

    Big Easy Blends, makers of the portable potable Mar-GO-rita, were chosen winners of New Orleans Entrepreneur Week’s competition among up and coming businesses. One of CityBusiness’ Innovator of the Year honoree in 2009, Big Easy Blends was founded in 2007 by Craig Cordes....

  • "Jazz Festival for Entrepreneurship"

    TravelTalk Media - 3/28/10

    Mixing work with fun is a longtime New Orleans specialty and nobody does it better. Mix they did again this week in the Big Easy for the annual New Orleans Entrepreneur Week where some of the nation’s most creative minds congregated to celebrate, support and promote entrepreneurship and innovation.

  • "Johnson School team wins New Orleans IdeaCorps Challenge!"

    Cornell University The Johnson School - 3/27/10

    A team from the Johnson School, participating in their first IdeaCorps Challenge in New Orleans, took first place among other visiting business-school teams from Kellogg, Booth, Haas and Stanford.

  • "Students team up for New Orleans Entrepreneur Week"

    Tulane University Freeman School of Business - 3/27/10

    Jack and Jake's Local and Organic Market is a new business that plans to bring locally grown food to customers in underserved neighborhoods within three days of harvest, but to achieve that goal, the company first needs a top-notch distribution system. That’s where a team of MBA students from Tulane, Loyola and UNO comes in.

  • "New Orleans entrepreneurs merge commercial and social-welfare interests"

    The Times-Picayune - 3/23/10

    Hurricane Katrina disrupted the sense of detachment and malaise that can often envelope communities, and in doing so it laid the groundwork for a burgeoning innovative entrepreneurial community in New Orleans, the president and chief executive officer of the Aspen Institute said Monday.

  • "Entrepreneur Week Kicks Off In New Orleans"

    Good NOLA - 3/22/10

    Entrepreneur Week Kicks Off In New Orleans. Entrepreneur Week in New Orleans is a meeting of the minds for upstart businesses and up-and-coming talent. The week is about matching top business talent from across the country with ...

  • "Village Capital and The Idea Village: Starting Social Enterprises"

    TechDrawl - 3/21/10

    The Idea Village in New Orleans is an excellent model for how a small group of dedicated entrepreneurs have created a remarkable ecosystem. A group of young entrepreneurs in New Orleans went to Atlanta, New York, Boston, and Chicago, did well in start-ups and finance, and then moved back to the city....

  • "Entrepreneur Week billed as Jazz Fest for business"

    The Times-Picayune - 3/21/10

    Despite their splashy appearance, the three-foot-long, black and yellow flags emblazoned with a light bulb and the phrase "It's On In NOLA" that were sent to businesses around the metro area this month may prove to be an understated way ...

  • "Bloomberg Television to focus on New Orleans entrepreneurs"

    The Times-Picayune - 3/19/10

    The digital-cable business network Bloomberg Television will present a live New Orleans edition of "On the Road with Betty Liu" on Tuesday (March 23) from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.

  • "Idea Village sets economic development pace"

    New Orleans CityBusiness - 3/19/10

    Let's spend a few minutes celebrating a victory and remembering what could have been. First of all, congratulations to The Idea Village for making its 10th year and helping countless New Orleans area entrepreneurs make something of themselves and their good ideas.

  • "Big Help in the Big Easy"

    Inc.com - 3/17/10

    Organizers of New Orleans Entrepreneurship Week estimate the event will provide some $900,000 worth of consulting to local businesses. New Orleans already is the fastest-growing city in the U.S. - and a local nonprofit wants its businesses (and hopefully, a reputation for fostering innovation) to keep pace.

  • "Johnson School team to be part of Entrepreneur Week's IDEACorps"

    Cornell - 3/16/10

    A team of Johnson School students has, for the first time, been invited to compete with the best in the Idea Village Entrepreneur Challenge in New Orleans, LA from March 20-28. The challenge, which is part of Entrepreneur Week, charges teams from the nation's leading MBA schools to use their professional skills in short-term, high impact service roles in the revitalization of New Orleans.

  • "New Orleans Entrepreneurship Week: Meet With Google, Deloitte, Salesforce.com"

    BayouBuzz.com - 3/3/10

    Google, Deloitte and Salesforce.com…Jazz Fest of Entrepreneurship…What a week…Attend Friday's Introduction, Cocktail Party and Mingler. Idea Village, a leading organization in Southeast Louisiana is announcing Entrepreneur Week which will be a week-long event involving many New Orleans sites, business and major national industry leaders.

  • "Blue Ocean: Can the popular business strategy help Louisiana find its next big catch?"

    1012 Corridor - 2/9/10

    When state economic development officials talk about the kinds of companies they want to attract to Louisiana, they point to TurboSquid.

  • "Receivables Exchange capitalizes on the down economy"

    The Times-Picayune

    Nic Perkin and The Receivables Exchange, an online auctionhouse for accounts receivable are trailblazing for a new generation of entrepreneurs by capitalizing on a huge theoretical market. New Orleans is welcoming driven entrepreneurs with open arms, says Tim Williamson, co-founder of The Idea Village. "The biggest ideas are the ones that have skepticism in the beginning."

  • "Back in Business After Katrina"

    CNN - 10/22/09

    Sean Callebs reports on how Rock 'n Bowl bounced back after Hurricane Katrina. Rock 'n Bowl discusses with CNN the generous grant he received from The Idea Village which made it possible for them to quickly open their doors to the public news-Katrina.

  • "The New NOLA Tech Zone"

    Where Y'At Magazine - 10/15/09

    According to Tim Williamson, President and Co-founder of the Idea Village, New Orleans possesses, among other things, a university system and a creative culture. New Orleans is also a "worldwide brand." "The good news is that the foundation is there," Williamson says.

  • "After the Storm: New Orleans' economic rebirth"

    CNN - 8/27/09

    "If you look at the people that have come since Katrina, there has been this influx of talent who has come to New Orleans, initially to help, but now they are here to stay and live and to grow new companies. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to reinvent an American city," Tim Williamson said.

  • "Entrepreneurs Take to 'Big Easy'"

    Wall Street Journal - 8/24/09

    Small-business owners who left are now coming back, driven by a sense of mission to help the struggling city and to take advantage of generous tax breaks. Young professionals have moved to the Big Easy to help with its recovery, enjoy its cultural offerings and start businesses.

  • "The changing face-and faces-of New Orleans"

    The Times Picayune - 8/23/09

    "Now you have some people who are here not just for the recovery, but who have drunk the Kool-Aid and want to be part of the long-term economic and social change of New Orleans," Tim Williamson said.

  • "A Place of Their Own"

    1012 Corridor - 8/1/2009

    "If you’re a young, bright entrepreneur, New Orleans looks pretty interesting right now," [Idea Village CEO Tim] Williamson says. "There aren’t hundreds of thousands of layoffs; there’s actually a growing, entrepreneurial community. We’ve got our coolness, but there’s also a sense of opportunity here, because we’re going through a transformation."

  • "Entrepreneurs Leverage New Orleans's Charm to Lure Small Businesses"

    The New York Times - 7/30/09

    "Competitive gets you nowhere. It's about being collaborative. And this city is so like that, from the people helping each other rebuild their homes to building businesses," said Seema Sudan, the owner and director of the knitwear company LiaMolly.

  • "Introducing the Entre-pioneers of the 'New' New Orleans"

    Social Earth - 7/30/09

    Clusters are a validation that entrepreneurs can create economic and social change.

  • "Persevering in New Orleans"

    The Washington Times - 7/29/09

    Driven by the mantra "Trust your crazy ideas," The Idea Village is a nonprofit dedicated to accelerating the city's for-profit entrepreneurial culture. Through a combination of talent attraction, technical support and connection to financing, the organization has supported more than 255 entrepreneurial ventures representing 946 jobs and more than $69 million in revenue.

  • "Think Tank"

    WWL - 7/24/09

    Think Tank hosts Tim Williamson, Miji Park, Jo Ann Minor and Amy Cosper, Editor in Chief of Entrepreneur Magazine, on July 24th to discuss entrepreneurship in New Orleans and the grand opening of The Entergy Innovation Center.

  • "Entrepreneur Magazine Highlights the New Orleans Entrepreneurial Ecosystem"

    Entrepreneur Magazine - 7/23/09

    "When The Idea Village was founded in 2000, we were building the framework for vibrant entrepreneurial community. 9 years later, this nascent spirit is alive and growing" says Tim Williamson.

  • "Laid-off Wall Streeters Find Entrepreneurial Spirit"

    Christian Science Monitor - 7/23/09

    "Clustering entrepreneurs is quite useful," says Tim Williamson, President of The Idea Village, a New Orleans business incubator. "It allows people to interact closely, bump into each other at the water cooler, [and it] forces conversation," he says.

  • "Entrepreneurial Hubs Are Springing Up Across the City And Spurring Economic Development"

    The Times Picayune - 7/19/09

    "The hubs operate under edgy names - Entrepreneur's Row, The Icehouse, The IP and the Entergy Innovation Center. The hubs encourage networking and collaboration among innovative companies while seeking to recreate a freewheeling culture reminiscent of Silicon Valley."

  • "Despite the National Recession, New Orleans is Attracting a Wave of Workers Pursuing Entrepreneurial Jobs"

    The Times Picayune - 6/26/09

    "New Orleans is attractive because there are lots of opportunities here and less layoffs than in other places like Boston or San Francisco," Tim Williamson said.

  • "Trumpet named one of top 10 marketing agencies in the country by Fast Company magazine"

    The Times-Picayune

    Regional New Orleans ad agency continues to craftily reinvent itself news-Katrina by becoming a startup incubator.

  • "3-D role in building up America"

    Anderson Cooper 360

    Turbosquid, a New Orleans-based 3-D imaging company becomes a worldwide leader in its industry despite difficult odds.

  • "James Carville: New Orleans is Storming Back"

    CNN

    James Carville pens a tribute to New Orleans’s historic rebirth.