Sharing the stories of baton rouge's Business leaders and creators

Craig Stevens is a Louisiana native born and raised in Opelousas. Upon graduating High School, Craig immediately left for the Air Force. In his 25 year career in the military, Craig served multiple roles including Fireman, Executive Officer, Flight Commander and ultimately retiring as Captain in the 93rd Bomb Squadron. 

After his service in the military, Craig served as Director of Operations for Circle K Convenience Stores where he was responsible for the Operations of 105 convenience stores throughout Louisiana and Mississippi.

Craig is currently President of Genesis 360 Construction & Maintenance. He started the business in 2011 by doing parking lot striping which has now grown to a full blown one-stop shop for any type of construction and facility/property maintenance.

In addition, Craig is a very proud supporter of the local community as he serves on the board for Baton Rouge Food Bank (former), Boys & Girls Club, Dream Teachers (former), BREC, and Home Builders Association. He is also a recent graduate of Leadership Ascension, New Orleans Emerging Leaders, additionally a Rotarian. He is married to the lovely Felicia Stevens whose a 4th grade teacher at GW Carver in Ascension Parish and they have 2 year old twin babies.

Jacob is an award-winning UI/UX designer, Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder of Block, an early-stage tech company for the lawn care industry.

Previously, he was a Principal and Director of Digital Strategy at MESH, a full-service creative agency, where he led a team of designers, writers, strategists and project managers to create beautiful, engaging customer experiences across the web.

He also founded a podcast network and production company called Parachute.fm with Abraham Felix. As the host of their flagship podcast, altBR, Jacob has had over 100 conversations with Baton Rouge’s most notable change makers, celebrating their work to make Baton Rouge a better place. In 2017, the Parachute.fm team brought together the city’s movers and shakers for The altBR Summit to hear from speakers such as Mayor Sharon Broome, Metromorphesis founder, Pastor Raymond Jetson and Walls Project CEO, Casey Phillips, as they inspired and cast vision for the city.

Following in their footsteps to move the city forward, Jacob has volunteered with a variety of local organizations including CASA, Futures Fund and Junior Achievement. He’s also served on the board or advisory council of Dream Teachers, Laurel Oaks Elementary and Mid City Makers Market, bringing his expertise in human-centered design to education and community events.

As a result of his efforts in the Baton Rouge community, he was named one of 225 Magazine’s 2018 People to Watch and a Great Futures Honoree by Boy's and Girl's Club of Baton Rouge.

Jacob has spoken on stages around the world from Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal to TEDx in order to teach future generations about the power and impact of design.

Though it’s often hard to distinguish his work from his play, on his “off-hours” he's authored a couple of books, backpacked across the world, written 300+ articles on simple, creative living and won awards for his family's quirky annual Christmas Cards.

Rob Wise is a self-proclaimed entrepreneur since his early days of washing cars, cutting grass, recycling cans, and setting prices or selling items at garage sales. As a boy, Rob enjoyed doing hard work, leaving something better than he found it, and helping people. As an adult, he manages to find the same fulfillment in business by impacting and inspiring those around him at ITinspired where he is the CEO and co-owner.

In seven years, ITinspired has grown to a staff of twenty people and hit several milestones along the way. Notable achievements include ranking 2,584th on the Inc5000 list in 2018 as one of the nation’s fastest-growing companies, Inc.'s Best Places to Work in 2018 and 2019, the 2019 and 2020 Louisiana Growth Leader Award, and LSU's Top 100 Tiger Led Businesses of 2019.

Rob serves on non-profit boards for Junior League of Baton Rouge, Leadership Baton Rouge Alumni, Manfulness Living, and the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge. He's been honored as a member of the LSU L-Club, Baton Rouge Business Report's 2018 Forty Under 40, 2017 Leadership Baton Rouge class, 2019 Leadership Louisiana class, Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses graduate & alumni ambassador, and the Young Entrepreneur Academy of BR mentor ambassador.

He enjoys working on his self-development and business leadership skills in programs such as the LED CEO and SEBD Roundtables, Economic Gardening, Leadership Baton Rouge, Leadership Louisiana, Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses, American Academy of Entrepreneurs Mentor program, and the Louisiana Growth Leader Network. Rob is also a volunteer for Junior Achievement of Greater Baton Rouge & Acadiana, Nepris Inc., and Red Cross.

He is a graduate of Louisiana State University with a bachelor's in ISDS and a minor in Electronic Media. Rob is a former LSU Cheerleader and Mike the Tiger mascot. He met his wife Michelle, a former LSU Tiger Girl, on a bus ride to a collegiate dance and cheer camp in San Marcos, TX. Rob and Michelle are happy parents of two beautiful children and are proud to call Baton Rouge home.

As a Vistage Chair and CEO of Meredith Eicher and Associates, Meredith provides coaching and facilitation of CEO round tables on a monthly basis.

She provides an exclusive and trusted environment where issues, opportunities and concerns are addressed. Professional development in the areas of leadership, emotional intelligence, soft skills, effective communication, trust, productive conflict and listening skills are a sampling of the skills that are addressed.

She has gone on to make meaningful impacts among so many organizations across Louisiana but also is committed to serving the community as she has served in numerous leadership positions in several non-profits.

A business and global healthcare leader on thinking, innovation, and creativity, Mr. Fuselier has maintained practice in executive management since 1998 and global public health since 1995. Driven by a passion for multinational business, finance, and healthcare, as a certified public accountant and advanced practice public health registered nurse, Mr. Fuselier has developed expertise in international finance, management, and global healthcare leadership. Proficient in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and French and has maintained a network throughout the United States, in Canada, Central and South America and Europe in a variety of industries including education, music and entertainment, real estate and law.

Michael has received a number of accolades during his career including a 2017 Service Excellence Award as a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, 2002 distinguished fundraiser award from United Way of Acadiana, induction into the Omicron Delta chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society in 1998, award for excellence in Research and Leadership in 1995 from McNeese State University, and induction into Phi Kappa Phi national honor society and the Kappa Psi chapter of Sigma Theta Tau international honor societies in 1995.

He served as administrator of Doctors' Physical and Occupational Rehabilitation Center of Opelousas in 1998, administrator of the Recovery Center of Lake Charles, Louisiana in 2002. Later, he was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Vermilion Hospital in Lafayette, Louisiana in 2004 and then as Chief Executive Officer of Dubuis Hospital in Lake Charles, Louisiana. From 2005 to 2011 he spearheaded the creation of several new enterprises and took over as Chief Executive Officer of a conglomerate of businesses that included a chain of health, wellness and pharmaceutical providers including Remedies®, Scriptex®, Relief Plus® and ACTIO® Healthcare Management firms.

Later, in 2012 Mr. Fuselier assumed the position of Chief Finance Officer of Central Louisiana Surgical Hospital where he achieved exceptional earnings growth and innovative initiatives using informational technology and data integration. He then was appointed Chief Finance Officer for David Raines Community Health Centers in Shreveport, Louisiana in 2018 where he is instrumental in robust improvements in financial accounting and reporting, the use of business intelligence and organizational transformation where he served until 2020. In June of 2020, he joined eQHealth Solutions, LLC as the company’s Chief Finance Officer.

An energetic and vibrant speaker, Mr. Fuselier has delivered countless addresses nationwide on topics ranging from Effective Planning and Management with the University of Louisiana at Lafayette to Building an Effective Business Costing Platform with the Physician Hospitals Association. In collaboration with Acadiana Computer Systems based in Lafayette, Louisiana, Mr. Fuselier delivered a presentation on Creating Dashboards and Scorecards that Get Results to an audience of healthcare executives and thought leaders. Recent presentations and written work include addresses on Effective Employee Performance Management and Preparing for Value Based Payment Systems.

As an accomplished linguist, Mr. Fuselier works as a translator and has published multiple written works on the topic of linguistics in business and healthcare. Some of his most recent and notable works include Cinque Motivi per Assumere Talenti Multilingue, Los Líderes con Competencia en un Segundo Idioma Hacen Mejores Decisiones, and Aptidão Crítica do Negócio: Esteja Preparado Para Dizer "Não", El Plan de Negocios para Entrada Mercados Nuevos para los Emprendedores Internacionales, El Plan de Marketing para El Sabor del Luisiana en América Latina.

Mr. Fuselier graduated from Louisiana State University at Eunice in 1992 where he earned an associate degree. He later graduated from McNeese State University in 1995 where he earned a bachelor’s degree with honors and was elected to Phi Kappa Phi International Honor Society and the Kappa Psi chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society. He then earned a master’s degree from University of Phoenix with honors and was elected to Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society. He was a post-graduate Fellow in healthcare management at Lake Charles Memorial Health System in 1999. As part of his diverse repertoire of industry experience, Mr. Fuselier also studied Music and Music Business through Berklee College of Music, Teaching Foreign Language through Arizona State University and Construction Management through New York State University

Mr. Fuselier is an active member of multiple professional and civic organizations. He serves as a mentor to young professionals and is an active volunteer and board member with many non-profit organizations. He and his wife reside in Louisiana and have three children.

Jay Thompson’s first fascination with leadership came by looking up to his Grandparents and learning the captivating family origin story about a WWII wedding of an Army Capt. James Thompson to Lt. Opal Larson in a tent chapel of the 170th General Hospital near LeMaus, France. Jay spent a good deal of his youth in admiration of the Doctor and Nurse couple who spent their lives operating a small business as Eunice’s only Doctors office. Whenever visiting Jay was always happy to see the faces and hear the stories of his Grandparents practice as recounted by those who lived them.
 

Jay wanted to do more than just appreciate stories of leadership, he wanted to make a difference in people’s lives just like the countless stories he grew up hearing. With this in mind, Jay earned two bachelor’s degrees from Louisiana State University and went on to complete an MBA from Southeastern University.
Starting work with Louisiana Cat, he specialized in increasing performance through continuous improvement and the development of people and processes and by age 29 he was managing 50+ people.
While achieving the level of 6 Sigma Master Black Belt, he coached or led over 60 improvement projects resulting in over $11.8M in annual savings.
By age 39 he was serving as SITECH Louisiana’s chief executive producing 914% Revenue growth through employee development and inspiring the team to buy into our WHY - Building a Better Louisiana. This buy in enabled us to transform customer businesses with Technology.

Living the WHY has driven 3 key team behaviors:
We will put out customer needs ahead of our own.
Empowerment though education and self-improvement. Profitable growth through teamwork.