Stephen Moret
Secretary
Louisiana Economic Development

Prior to being appointed by Governor Bobby Jindal as secretary of Louisiana Economic Development in 2008, Stephen Moret served as president and CEO of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber of Commerce (BRAC). Under Moret’s leadership from 2004-07, BRAC grew into a national-caliber, regional economic development organization. Revenues tripled at the chamber during Moret’s tenure, following the launch of "The Campaign for a Greater Baton Rouge," a five-year, $15 million economic development initiative for the nine-parish capital region.

Moret’s other professional endeavors include working as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, a leading global consultancy serving senior executives of Fortune 500 companies and large public sector organizations. At McKinsey, he specialized in healthcare and service operations.

A native of Mississippi, Moret considers Baton Rouge, La., his adopted hometown since attending Louisiana State University as an undergraduate. He holds a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from LSU and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He is a graduate of Leadership Louisiana and was selected for the Greater Baton Rouge Business Report’s “Top 40 Under 40.” Moret and his wife Heather have a three-year-old son, Jackson, and a one-year-old son, Samuel.

Elliott B. Stonecipher
Evets Management Services Inc.

Elliott Stonecipher is the President and owner of Evets Management Services, Inc., a full-service opinion research and marketing consulting firm he founded in 1980. During his career he has been involved in various roles in over 200 political campaigns at the local, state and national level.

In addition to political campaign services, Mr. Stonecipher's firm provides political campaign services and serves commercial clients with opinion research, strategic and marketing planning, and geo-demographic studies. The company's work in these areas has been featured in various publications, including The American Banker. In addition, Mr. Stonecipher has specialized for over twenty years in the use of opinion research in change-of-venue studies in criminal court cases, a field in which he is a recognized expert.

Mr. Stonecipher frequently serves as guest lecturer in colleges and other venues, and has taught Demographics in the Social Sciences Department of Centenary College in Louisiana. He is a recognized expert in political science, opinion research and population and demographic trends, and has served as on-air analyst for CNN Television News and various network television and radio affiliates in his home state. Other news organizations to which he has provided political and/or demographic analyses include: National Public Radio (NPR), Associated Press (New York, Washington, DC and Louisiana Capitol Bureaus), Reuters News Service, Fortune Magazine, Time Magazine, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and many more.

Janna Shearman CES
First American Exchange

Janna Shearman is vice president and manager of the Louisiana office of First American Exchange Company, a division of The First American Corporation, America’s largest provider of business information.

She has worked in the exchange industry since 2004 and has attained the designation of Certified Exchange Specialist. As a frequent lecturer on 1031 exchanges, she provides continuing education credit courses for attorneys, accountants, title insurance agents, and REALTORS. Ms. Shearman facilitates all types of 1031 tax-deferred exchanges, including simultaneous, delayed, reverse, and construction exchanges of both real and personal property. She has had articles published in several trade journals.

Before joining First American Exchange, she worked as a commercial real estate paralegal and licensed title insurance agent. She is a member of the New Orleans chapter of Commercial Real Estate Women and currently serves on the Programs Committee and is also a member of the Federation of Exchange Accommodators. Janna delights in delivering personalized service to clients, backed by the financial security and strength of a Fortune 500 parent company.

Perry Pertuit
Entergy Louisiana

Perry Pertuit is the Senior Lead Analyst for Entergy Louisiana’s Economic Development department. Among other marketing responsibilities, Perry performs necessary analysis to identify prospective industries and businesses to locate in Louisiana and a plan of action to contact these prospects, along with maintaining market trend information, managing the Economic Development website, the Site Selection Research Center and the Louisiana Site Selection Center website - Louisiana’s free, statewide Buildings & Sites Database and GIS mapping application with detailed Demographic and Business Data, Parish & Community Profiles and a Geospatial Data Download Portal. He also works on the annual economic development marketing plan and strategies.

Victor Leotta
LEO, LLC

Victor Leotta launched LEO, LLC (Leotta-Evers Consulting) in April 2008 for the purposes of providing high value geospatial technology consulting services to state and local government. Victor has focused his efforts on the application of GIS technology for local and regional land use planning and economic development. This focus led to the advent of LEO, LLC and includes performance of targeted GIS-based site selection projects and development of web-based GIS applications to facilitate management and distribution of information for site selection consultants, planners, local economic developers, and commercial real estate professionals. This includes the innovative use of GIS-based land use suitability models to identify optimal locations for commercial and industrial development within a parish or region. Victor created GIS-based suitability models that offer a more strategic use of geographic information for local planning and regional economic development.

Prior to beginning LEO, LLC, Victor spent six years managing the Geospatial Technology Services for C-K Associates, LLC in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His principal objective was to develop an expert Geospatial Technologies team while focusing C-K’s GIS and remote sensing expertise in their core business fields of environmental and ecological sciences. In doing so, Victor has worked with public and private sector clients in the application of GIS technology and remote sensing to aid in more targeted and cost effective environmental data management and coastal restoration planning.

A 1994 business school graduate of Louisiana State University, Victor is currently pursuing a master’s degree from LSU in geography (Master of Natural Science) with an emphasis on GIS and remote sensing. He serves on the steering committee for the annual state GeoInfo Conference, the principle GIS conference sponsored by and geared toward state government. Victor also serves on the advisory committee for the Baton Rouge Community College where he co-developed a new curriculum for an Associates Degree in Geospatial Science under BRCC’s Environmental and Engineering Technician Programs. Victor routinely speaks at trade organization conferences, industry workshops, and local government and civic functions on the application and value of GIS technology for planning and economic development.

Randy P. Roussel
Phelps Dunbar LLP

Randy Roussel is a partner in the business group in the Baton Rouge office of Phelps Dunbar LLP. His general business practice is concentrated in the areas of real estate, banking, and commercial transactions. Randy has represented Wampold Companies, Waffle House, Whitney National Bank, Gross Builders, Inc., and a variety of multifamily and commercial developers.

Prior to joining Phelps Dunbar, Randy was a certified public accountant for Arthur Andersen & Company in New Orleans from 1978 to 1981. He served a judicial clerkship for the Honorable E. Grady Jolly, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, New Orleans from 1984 to 1985. From 1986 to 1987, he was an associate at Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson in Baton Rouge and in 1987 he became partner at Bradford & Roussel in Baton Rouge which merged with Gary Field Landry & Bradford in 1991. Randy joined Phelps Dunbar in 1995.

Randy is among a select group of lawyers, recognized in the category of Real Estate, listed in a nationwide client survey published in Chambers USA, America’s Leading Lawyers for Business.

Scott D. Johnson
General Counsel, Louisiana REALTORS

Scott Johnson is General Counsel with Louisiana REALTORS. He is responsible for oversight of legal/risk management services for members, professional standards hearings, and for providing general advice to both the state association and local boards on a variety of issues, including association law, antitrust issues and employment law. Scott also works closely with the governmental affairs department and is the staff liason to the Housing Opportunities/Diversity team.

Scott earned his B.A. from Louisiana State University in 1990 and J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1993. Scott served as a Judge Advocate in the U.S. Marine Corps and practiced with the Kean Miller law firm for 10 years, focusing on toxic tort, expropriation and admiralty litigation as well as representation of teachers in administrative hearings on grievances and other employment-related matters. Scott joined Louisiana REALTORS in January 2008.

You can register online for the Commercial Development Conference or call Louisiana REALTORS at 1-800-266-8538 for more information.