S10 http://www.fortune.com/adsectionsindustry among the nation’s fastest-growing, and the ar-
rival of DXC cemented the city’s reputation as a growing
tech hotspot. What’s more, SmartAsset recently ranked
the city as No. 3 for women in tech. While this story may
seem surprising, New Orleans has a long tradition of
innovation. It will soon begin developing its new Spirit of
Charity Innovation District downtown, centered around
the redevelopment of Charity Hospital, founded in 1736
and shuttered after Katrina.
Tulane University will anchor the district. Foundedin 1834 as the city’s first medical college, Tulane has a
$1.1 billion impact on Louisiana. As a leading university,
it attracts researchers and scholars who are vital to the
state’s biomedical industry and digital economy, says
Sharon Courtney, vice president of government and com-
munity relations. “We’ve helped found 355 companies,
a third of which are located in New Orleans. And we pro-
duce the robust ecosystem that homegrown companies
need to thrive,” she says.
Ochsner Health System was also a medical pioneer inNew Orleans, opening a clinic uptown in 1942 that quickly
expanded into a nonprofit foundation devoted to research,
education, and philanthropy. Since then it has grown into
a nationally recognized, $3.5 billion enterprise with 40
hospitals within its network. It has also conducted 700
clinical research studies and is the state’s largest private
employer, with 25,000 people on payroll.
“We’ve become a
national leader in digital
health,” says Warner
Thomas, president and
CEO of Ochsner. In 2009, it began using telemedicine to
improve treatment for stroke, particularly in rural areas.
Two years later it opened Louisiana’s only electronic
intensive care unit, and in 2015, it launched an innova-
tion business. “Our physicians want to work where it’s
exciting, where they can really make a difference,” says
Thomas. “Louisiana is a great place to live and bring
your business, and we think we’re a good example of the
great things happening here.”As an energy-dominant state, Louisiana is sensitive
to oil and gas price fluctuations. Higher is generally bet-
ter for producers and associated industries, of course.
But lower natural gas prices—prices that are not just low
relative to their history in the U.S. but relative to prices
abroad—in recent years have lit a match to the chemical
industry, a heavy user of the resource. “We’re becoming
the location that provides natural gas that powers the
energy economies of many nations around the world,”
says Pierson.
The boom is happening primarily in the southwest
around Lake Charles, which Southern Business & Develop-
ment magazine last year named Small Market of the
Year for the eighth year in a row. Almost $117 billion in
projects in the area have been announced since 2012.
Westlake Chemical was early on the scene, opening
the first of five plants in the area in 1986, with oth-
ers elsewhere in the state. The second-largest global
producer of polyvinyl chloride, the plastic known as PVC,
it has won recognition from the Occupational Safety and
Health Administration for its safety standards, says Joe
Andrepont, principal for community affairs. “Safety will
always remain our No. 1 priority,” he says.
Many of the companies coming into Lake Charles are
foreign-owned. Sasol is a South Africa–based interna-
tional chemicals and energy company. In Louisiana,“Louisiana is a great place to live and bring your
business, and we think we’re a good example of
the great things happening here.”
WARNER THOMAS
PRESIDENT AND CEO, OCHSNER HEALTH SYSTEM