New Orleans Chamber: NOLA Angel Network Names Elizabeth 'Libby' Favrot Managing Director And Adds Three New Board Members

Press release from the New Orleans Chamber:

December 6, 2021

Mike Eckert, Board Chairman of the NO/LA Angel Network (NO/LAAN), announced the
appointment of Elizabeth “Libby” Favrot to replace Louisa Smith as its Managing Director.
Favrot, who holds a B.A degree from Grinnell College and a master’s degree from Tulane
University, will be responsible for the operations of the Network. Smith will be relocating to
New York City and will remain in her role as Manager of NO/LAAN’s sidecar investing fund, The Pelican Angel Fund.

On the staff of Delgado Community College since 2009, Favrot most recently served as operations manager for the Adult Education Program there. “Libby’s experience in operations management, her self-confidence and the strong feedback we received from her references impressed everyone on our selection committee. We are very excited to have Libby join NO/LAAN” said Eckert.

In addition to Favrot’s appointment, Eckert also announced three new Directors to serve on the NO/LAAN board:
Max Cox, Vice President, Deputy General Counsel of Corporate Governance and
Transactions at Lumen Technologies; Max leads the company’s ESG programs, and provides legal support for all mergers and acquisitions, investments, and divestitures, which have totaled over $30 billion.

Dr. Aleicia Donald, Alumna of Xavier University and the University of Miami School of Medicine, Dr. Donald returned to New Orleans to complete her training in anesthesiology at Tulane University and Ochsner Clinic Foundation. Dr. Donald also served as faculty in the Department of Anesthesiology at Tulane University. Her passion for vetting the science, potential impact and path to market for novel products and services ultimately lead to her investing in early innovative medical devices.

David Waller, recently retired from IBM, after 42 years as a Sales Executive with
international level assignments, including three years in Vienna, Austria, where he
managed key segments of the IBM business in Eastern Europe, Russia, the Middle East, and South Africa.

“NO/LAAN is fortunate to have attracted people of the quality of Max, Aleicia, and David to its Board. They join an extraordinary group of Directors and I am confident they’ll bring new ideas and thinking as we take NO/LAAN to the next level,” added Eckert. The NO/LA Angel Network has 138 accredited investors who have directly invested over $12 million in capital in 67 investing rounds in 32 companies, which resulted in over $100 million in additional investments nationwide.

Members invest in early-stage entrepreneur driven companies to accomplish four major objectives:

1) provide a reasonable return on investment for members

2) create an opportunity for investors to diversify their portfolios in the asset class

3) help stimulate the local economy and job growth by providing needed capital to early-stage
businesses and

4) empower entrepreneurs to scale their businesses through mentoring, networking and additional capital.

This press release was produced by the New Orleans Chamber. The views expressed here are the author’s own.