Alicia Baron, managing director of the Downtown Business Association, has resigned her position with the organization after three years to pursue other interests.
Baron served as an independent contractor with the organization, and DBA Board Chairman Lauralyn Maranto says her replacement will also be a contactor, not a full-time employee.
During her tenure as managing director, Baron says membership in the organization increased from approximately 30 to more than 150. She also implemented a monthly membership program that alternated between meetings, lunch-and-learn seminars and after-work socials at downtown venues.
“I was happy to grow the membership,” Baron says. “My goal was to support, market and showcase our membership and the downtown business community and I’m certainly honored to have been a part of that for the past three years and anticipate the organization will continue to thrive.”
The DBA is a membership-based organization best known for the production and promotion of the Live After Five concert series, which began in 1999 and has come to symbolize the downtown renaissance over the past decade. But the organization’s mission is actually broader than that—to support, market and showcase its members and the downtown business community.
The DBA is already searching for Baron’s replacement. Baron says she will remain in Baton Rouge and pursue event-planning opportunities through her firm, PINC Events.
—Stephanie Riegel
