Fleur-de-lis Ambassadors Announce Inaugural Trip to Boston

NEW ORLEANS (April 11, 2007) – The Fleur-de-lis Ambassadors made their public debut this morning and announced the agenda of their first trip to Boston, April 16 – 17.

Tulane University President Scott Cowen and New Orleans City Council Vice President Arnie Fielkow created the Fleur-de-lis Ambassadors Program to share positive news of New Orleans’ economic and cultural revitalization and combat misperceptions about the city’s recovery. Local business and community leaders will represent the city and provide their personal experiences of living and working in New Orleans in order to share their belief in New Orleans’ recovery and viability.

Cowen and Fielkow, joined by Rod West, President and CEO of Entergy New Orleans, and Kim Boyle, Esq., Partner, Phelps Dunbar LLP, lead the program and recruited a core group of influential local leaders to serve as the program’s initial ambassadors. Volunteers include:

The Hon. David Bell, Chief Judge, Orleans Parish Juvenile Court
Cesar Burgos, Managing Partner, Burgos & Evans, LLC
Ron Forman, CEO, Audubon Nature Institute
Dr. Norman Francis, President, Xavier University
Ruthie Frierson, Founder, Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans
The Hon. Stacy Head, Councilmember, New Orleans City Council
Leslie Hirsch, President and CEO, Touro Infirmary
Gregory Ben Johnson, President and CEO, Greater New Orleans Foundation
Merritt Lane, President and CEO, Canal Barge Company, Inc.
William Raymond Manning, President, Manning Architects
Ron Markham, President and CEO, New Orleans Jazz Orchestra
Ti Martin, Managing Partner, Commander’s Palace Restaurant
Anne Milling, Founder, Women of the Storm
Father Vien Thé Nguyen, Pastor, Mary Queen of Vietnam Catholic Church
W. Anthony Patton, President and CEO, EBONetworks, LLC
Phyllis Taylor, Chairman and CEO, Taylor Energy Company, LLC
The Hon. Oliver Thomas, President, New Orleans City Council
Sidney D. Torres IV, President and CEO, SDT LLC Waste and Debris Services
Dr. Vera Triplett, Assistant Professor of Counseling, Our Lady of Holy Cross College
Dr. Michael White, Jazz Musician, Professor, Xavier University
Becky Zaheri, Founder, Katrina Krewe

The Ambassadors who will travel to Boston include Ambassadors Fielkow, W. Anthony Patton, President and CEO of EBONetworks, LLC , President and CEO of Entergy New Orleans Rod West, and Becky Zaheri, Founder of the Katrina Krewe. The group will meet with media, political and civic leaders including The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, New England Cable News, The Greater Boston Foundation, The Boston Chamber of Commerce, The Economic Development MA Association of Community Development Corporation, The Harvard Business School Public Education Leadership Project, State Representative Smitty Pignatelli, among others.

On Tuesday, April 17, the Ambassadors will attend the public opening of a special Katrina exhibition at the Nobles and Greenough School. About 40 students from the school volunteered in New Orleans in March working on rebuilding projects in the Lower 9th Ward and in St. Bernard Parish. The exhibition will feature photos, journals, memorabilia, and student anecdotes.

“If our long-term recovery is going to be successful, it is critical that we build a solid base of support for New Orleans around the country,” Cowen said. “The ongoing one-sided, negative news coverage and misperceptions continue to exist, and these stand as two of the largest roadblocks to our efforts to rebuild one of America’s great cities.”

“New Orleans has made great strides toward overcoming the devastation of Hurricane Katrina,” Fielkow says, “but we need to spread this message far and wide while continuing to reach out to cities around the country, like Boston, which continue to send volunteer groups to help our communities recover and rebuild.”

The Ambassadors Program will visit several other key markets, including: Dallas, Atlanta, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Houston, Tampa/St. Petersburg, Miami, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Jacksonville, and Birmingham.

Funding for the Fleur-de-lis Ambassadors Program is being provided by the Greater New Orleans Foundation, the New Orleans Business Council, Tulane University, and Bill Goldring, Republic Beverage. Express Jet is providing travel to some of the selected cities and Wellington & Co. Fine Jewelry provided fleur-de-lis lapel pins for each ambassador, to be worn during their travels. The ambassador 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. Comprehensive information about New Orleans ongoing recovery can be found online at http://fleurdelis.tulane.edu