John Elstrott, chairman of Whole Foods Market, will deliver the keynote address at the Baton Rouge Area Chamber’s annual Shareholders’ Meeting, which will take place March 24 at L’Auberge Casino & Hotel.
BRAC says its annual meeting will be the biggest yet, and will include an awards ceremony, recap of achievements from 2014 and presentation by BRAC President and CEO Adam Knapp.
“2014 saw historic employment numbers, and regional economic growth provided BRAC and our regional allies several opportunities to embrace progress, change and diversification of the economy,” Knapp says in a news release issued this morning. “The 2015 Shareholders’ Meeting will be a great way to celebrate with members of our business community and learn more about BRAC’s plans for the year ahead.”
BRAC says Elstrott will share insights and experiences from his 40-year career as an entrepreneur. Along with his work at Whole Foods, which is a Fortune 300 and S&P 500 company, he is also emeritus executive director of the Levy-Rosenblum Institute for Entrepreneurship at Tulane University’s A. B. Freeman School of Business in New Orleans. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics from LSU and a doctorate in economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
“I look forward to talking with leaders from the Baton Rouge business community during this interesting time of unprecedented growth in the market,” Elstrott says in the news release. “They appreciate that Louisiana and Baton Rouge, through their universities, non-profits, organizations like BRAC and other economic development agencies, have initiatives, policies, and programs intended to stimulate and support entrepreneurship and innovation, which are critical to the strength of the regional economy.”
