The Idea Village

Staff

Tim Williamson: Co-founder & CEO, The Idea Village

Tim Williamson is the co-founder and CEO of The Idea Village, a private, independent 501(c) (3) non-profit organization founded in 2000 with a mission to identify, support and retain entrepreneurial talent in New Orleans.

An entrepreneur by trade and by training, Mr. Williamson has successfully started and operated five...

Cameron Adams: Director of Marketing and Communications

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. With experience in event planning, marketing, and design she joined The Idea Village team to help complete...

Victoria Adams: Network Manager

Victoria Adams, a native of Miami, moved to New Orleans as a freshman at Loyola University. Settling into campus life only days before Hurricane Katrina would strike the city, she has experienced the rebirth of New Orleans firsthand, growing to love and appreciate the city that she now calls home. After graduating from Loyola with a...

Megan Barry: Development Coordinator

Megan graduated from Louisiana State University with a BA in history in December 2009, and eagerly returned home to New Orleans to begin her next chapter. Megan joined The Idea Village team temporarily to lend support during New Orleans Entrepreneur Week ’10 and has since become a fulltime staff member coordinating The Idea...

Rhea Ghosh: Events and Marketing Coordinator

Rhea Ghosh is a proud alumna of Babson College from which she received her BS in Strategic Management, Global Business Management and Entrepreneurship in 2011. Returning home to New Orleans, she rediscovered her love for the city’s emerging entrepreneurial community (and the food and music, of course!)

Since graduation, she has...

Emily Madero: Managing Director

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...

Ravi Prakash: Operations Manager

Ravi first came to New Orleans as a tourist and instantaneously fell in love with the spirit of the city. He joined Tulane’s MBA program in 2009 after working for 3 years with HCL and Microsoft. Along with his coursework he became involved with different startups in the city and grew to channelize his technical experience and...

Kate Schneiderman: Director of Development

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...

Sara Thomas: Director of Product Management

Sara first visited New Orleans as a Stanford MBA over her spring break during the first New Orleans Entrepreneur Week, eager to work on a consulting project with eco-friendly businesses through Idea Village’s IDEAcorps program.  She helped Feelgoodz flip-flops plan a marketing tour to support their recent launch into Whole Foods...

Angelica Valenta: Product Coordinator

Angelica, a native of Santa Barbara County, landed in New Orleans in August 2012 with a carry-on and a backpack as part of her post-graduation travels. She instantly fell in love with the vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem and has yet to purchase her flight home. With experience working for an entrepreneurship summer camp in the...

Board of Directors

• Bill Hines - Chairman

  Managing Partner, Jones Walker

• David Darragh - Vice-Chairman

  CEO, Reily Foods Company

• Margaret Beer

  Marketing, IBERIABANK

• Michael Brown

  Vice-Chairman and COO, IBERIABANK

• Kevin Clifford

  CEO, American Funds

• Daryn Dodson

  Calvert Funds

• Michael Gollner

  Managing Partner, Operating Capital Partners, LLP

• Yvette Jones

  Executive Vice President of University Relations and Development, Tulane University

• Chris Laibe

  Founder, Schedulist

• Merritt Lane

  President/CEO, Canal Barge Company, Inc.

• Ti Adelaide Martin

  Co-proprietor, Commander's Palace

• Amith Nagarajan

  Co-founder, Abstraction Ventures

• John Payne

  President, Enterprise Shared Services at Caesars Entertainment Corporation

• Wendell Pierce

  Actor

• Mark Romig

  CEO, New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation

• Tim Ryan

  Consultant

• Hugh Weber

• Tim Williamson

  Co-founder & CEO, The Idea Village

• Matthew Wisdom

  CEO, TurboSquid, Inc.

Chairman's Advisory Committee

• E. Tiffany Adler

  COO, Adler's

• Taylor Beery

  Principal, Beery Advisors

• Allen Bell

  Partner, TopSide & Co-Founder, The Idea Village

• Darryl d’Aquin

  President, CommTech Industries

• Quentin Dastugue

  CEO, Property One

• Allen Eskew

  CEO, Eskew Dumez Ripple

• Sally Forman

  Author

• Sam Giberga

  Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Hornbeck Offshore Services

• David Guidry

  President/CEO, Guico Machine Works

• James Hardy

  Life Science Commercialization Consultant

• Scott Jacobs

  Principal, Strategic Comp

• Suzanne Mestayer

  CEO, ThirtyNorth Investments

• Kenneth Purcell

  CEO, iSeatz

• David Sylvester

  Partner, Fitzgerald & Rhodes LLP

• Jimmy Treuting

  CEO, Farm Dog, LLC

• Robbie Vitrano

  Co-founder, Trumpet, Naked Pizza, and The Idea Village