Fleur-de-lis Ambassadors Launch 2nd Year of National Outreach
2008 Ambassadors will serve as messengers of New Orleans’ comeback

NEW ORLEANS (March 7, 2008) – After a highly successful first year of the Fleur-de-lis Ambassador Program, co-founders Scott Cowen, President of Tulane University, and Arnie Fielkow, President of New Orleans City Council, today announced the 2008 Ambassadors who will serve the program as messengers of New Orleans’ recovery. Cowen and Fielkow, joined by Rod West, President and CEO of Entergy New Orleans, and Kim Boyle, Esq., Partner, Phelps Dunbar LLP, created the program in 2007 to convey the importance of New Orleans’ economic and cultural revitalization to media markets around the country, while also combating misperceptions about the city’s recovery. With the many implemented systematic reforms and business developments that have evolved over the past year, there continues to be a need for Ambassadors to take the messages of New Orleans’ advancements abroad. A core group of influential local leaders served as the program’s initial ambassadors for one year. Today, the new group who will serve in 2008 was introduced.

• Representative Neil Abramson, State Representative, District 98
• Latoya Cantrell, President, Broadmoor Improvement Association
• John Casbon, President and CEO, First American Transportation Title Insurance Co.
• Darlene Cusanza, Executive Director, Crimestoppers
• The Hon. Jimmy Fitzmorris, Fitzmorris & Associates
• Senator Cheryl A. Gray, Louisiana Senate, District 5
• Sandra Gunner, President and CEO, New Orleans Chambers of Commerce
• Byron Harrell, President and CEO, Baptist Community Ministries
• Marvalene Hughes, President, Dillard University
• Alden McDonald, President, Liberty Bank and Trust
• John Payne, John Payne, President – Central Division, Harrah’s
• Greg Rigamer, President, CCR & Associates, Inc.
• Nolan Rollins, President, Greater New Orleans Urban League
• Timothy P. Ryan, Chancellor, University of New Orleans
• Charles Teamer, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Dryades Savings Bank
• Warner Thomas, President and COO, Ochsner Health System
• Denise Thornton, President and CEO, The Beacon of Hope Resource Center
• Tim Williamson, President, Idea Village
  
  In 2007, Fleur-de-lis Ambassadors traveled to Boston, Birmingham, Jacksonville, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and New York. Presently, the targeted cities for 2008 include Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Miami, Memphis, Philadelphia, San Francisco, St. Louis, Tampa/St. Petersburg. A new component to the program this year will be a focus on cities in Louisiana in order to promote regional partnerships.
  
  “We are really looking forward to making Louisiana a focus of the program this year,” stated Fielkow. “It is of equal importance that the cities in our own state, and the policy-makers, business leaders and media in those cities, know the true story of New Orleans’ progress.”
  
  “2007 was an amazing first year for the Fleur-de-lis Ambassadors Program,” commented Cowen. “Ambassadors traveled to seven cities, and produced great media coverage. They met with some of the largest philanthropies in the nation, and sat face to face with many of our policy makers. We began relationships with many people and organizations who now want to help New Orleans become an even greater city than it was before.”
  
  Last year, Ambassadors met with media personnel and outlets including Brian Williams, NBC Nightly News; The Wall Street Journal; Fortune Magazine; The Economist; Washington Post; NPR; Bloomberg TV; CNN; USA Today. Meetings were held with political leaders, including House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Office of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Gulf Coast Recovery Chairman Don Powell. Additionally, they cultivated relationships with philanthropies who have demonstrated interest in supporting ongoing recovery efforts. Some of those organizations include Rockefeller Foundation; Wallace Foundation; Financial Services Roundtable and John Hancock.
  
  “There is no doubt that the relationships the Ambassadors have helped New Orleans cultivate with very powerful and influential people and organizations around the country will yield immeasurable benefits for New Orleans for years to come,” stated Fielkow.
  
  New Orleans-based firms Peter A. Mayer Public Relations and Keating Magee Momentum Marketing have been retained to provide strategy and logistics coordination for the initiative. Together, the agencies are designing an integrated media relations campaign to facilitate meetings with key organizations and generate media exposure in each market the Ambassadors Program visits.
  
  Past and present funders for the Fleur-de-lis Ambassadors Program include the Greater New Orleans Foundation, the New Orleans Business Council, Tulane University, Bill Goldring, Republic Beverage, Jay Lapeyre, Laitram Corporation. The program is named after the fleur-de-lis, a stylized representation of an iris with three petals tied by a band, which has become one of the enduring symbols of the City of New Orleans.