The 2018 Silicon Bayou 100 is the annual list of the 100 most influential and active people in tech and entrepreneurship in Louisiana over the last year. The list is compiled by the community through an anonymous nomination process.
Over the next two weeks we will be sharing the bios of each of the 100 in alphabetical order. View the full Silicon Bayou 100 here and meet group 1 below.
Aaron Miscenich
As President of the New Orleans BioInnovation Center (NOBIC), Aaron brought the vision of a biotechnology incubator in New Orleans from concept to reality. For over a decade, he has worked to bring the 66,000 square foot to house tenants ranging from bio-fuel manufacturing to genetic testing. On LinkedIn.
Alba Huddleston
As a former industrial engineer, Alba is now heavily involved in the New Orleans tech scene through her work with New Orleans Women in Technology (WIT) and the local maker movement. She has previously been a finalists for the Ada Lovelace Awards, an annual event hosted by LookFar that recognizes the achievements of women in tech. On Twitter.
Andrea Chen
As the Executive Director of Propeller, Andrea has helped empower social entrepreneurs through strategic management and assistance for the many years. She was a consultant and sat on the board of a number of organizations including the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools and the Greater New Orleans Writing Project. On LinkedIn. On Twitter.
Andrew Albert
Andrew is a former Venture for America fellow who is now the director of the program is New Orleans. He is actively engaged in the pursuit of funneling and retaining young talent to promising startups for the benefit of New Orleans’ economic development. He was previously at Lucid. On LinkedIn.
Antonio Alonzo
Antonio works with several organizations in New Orleans including entrepreneurial support organization Fund17 and the World Economic Forum initiative for young leaders called Global Shapers. He is also the President of Dig Easy, a local organization on a mission to make composting cool, easy, and viable for people and organizations.
Arthur Bart-Williams
Vizzit founder and CEO Arthur is a three-time entrepreneur with executive experience that is passionate about, startups, technology,mentorship, and education. His company is a mobile publishing platform that enables storytellers to create and monetize place-based content as self-guided experiences around destinations and events. In 2018, Vizzit won the IDEAcorps MBA Consulting Challenge as well as the Startup Prize in Shreveport. On LinkedIn.
Ben Cappiello
Ben founded the medical device firm, Bioceptive, along with Shuchi Khurana in 2010. Bioceptive is a venture-backed firm currently developing a patent-pending IUD insertion device. He has been the CEO and President since 2016 and holds a BSE in Biomedical Engineering from Tulane University and certificates in various aspects of women’s health and contraception. Ben is also a founding advisor and now the director of Business & Partnership Development at AxoSim, a company that has commercialized a unique benchtop model of the human nervous system as a more accurate, less expensive, and faster alternative to animal testing. On LinkedIn. On Twitter.
Blair Broussard
Blair joined the growing public relations firm AR|PR to head up the New Orleans office in late 2013 as the Vice President and has since been promoted to SVP. Over the last few years, the company has added employees across the country, including four in New Orleans, and won several awards for their work with tech clients. On LinkedIn. On Twitter.
Brendan Finke
Along with fellow Tulane graduate Joe McMenemon, Brendan founded ChapterSpot to solve the problems of group management. ChapterSpot’s online application allows groups (initially fraternities and sororities) to communicate efficiently, collect membership dues, share important files, maintain a member database and design a website all on one platform. On LinkedIn. On Twitter.
Brent McCrossen
Music licensing and interactive media professional Brent McCrossen is the Founder and current CEO of Audiosocket in addition to founding Interface Booking and Mgt back in 2001. As a music industry entrepreneur, he has already been highly successful with Audiosocket, building relationships with MTV, NBC, ABC, Disney and many more within the last few years. On LinkedIn. On Twitter.