In January, Paige Carter will take the helm as the new president and CEO of the Greater Baton Rouge Economic Partnership. Carter, who currently serves as Louisiana Economic Development’s chief business development officer, brings more than a decade of economic development experience to the nine-parish organization as it prepares to chart its next five years.
Carter says she plans to prioritize supporting existing businesses, strengthening regional collaboration and positioning Greater Baton Rouge to capitalize on an unprecedented wave of industrial investment across Louisiana. For Carter, who has called Baton Rouge home since 2013, the decision to move from statewide economic development to regional leadership was as personal as it was professional.
“Ultimately, this is my home,” Carter says. “This is where I’m fortunate to raise my family. And so when this opportunity came up, it was a really beautiful maturation of my passions and my professional life, actually getting to serve the place that I’m personally very passionate about.”
Four early priorities
Carter identified four preliminary priorities for her tenure, beginning with business retention and expansion.
She wants The Partnership to place greater emphasis on supporting the companies already operating in the Capital Region, helping them expand and ensuring they have the resources they need to be active participants in Louisiana’s growing pipeline of major projects.
Her second priority is strengthening relationships among the nine parishes. She said that while different communities have different needs, their economic fortunes are deeply interconnected.
“Economic development doesn’t see parish boundaries,” she says. “And so when we’re working on a project, the investors don’t see the Iberville line creeping into Ascension or West Baton Rouge into Ascension. They view it as an entire living ecosystem, and we need to do that as well.”
Asked about perceptions that the organization, formerly the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, hasn’t always represented outlying parishes equally, she characterized those assessments as “very personal and individualized” and stressed her desire to focus on the future.
Another priority is site and infrastructure development. Speed to market matters, she said, which is why she believes the region needs available industrial sites and adequate infrastructure to remain competitive.
Her fourth priority is strengthening relationships with other regions. She’s of the opinion that closer collaboration with the state’s other regional economic development organizations, including Greater New Orleans Inc., Grow NELA and One Acadiana, will help the Capital Region capture opportunities generated by projects elsewhere in Louisiana.
A year of transition
The Partnership’s existing five-year strategic plan, called Bring It! Baton Rouge, concludes this year, but Carter doesn’t intend to immediately replace it.
Morgan Almeida, The Partnership’s senior vice president of marketing, said the organization will extend elements of its existing strategy through 2027, giving Carter time to solicit stakeholder input before developing the next five-year plan. Her first 100 days will focus heavily on candid conversations with business leaders, parish officials and other regional stakeholders.
“My leadership is very much listen first and develop second,” Carter says.
Building on regional strengths
As Carter sees it, the Capital Region’s natural resources and expertise in energy, industrial construction and manufacturing make it an indispensable link in the supply chains of some of the world’s largest industrial developments.
“We fuel the world, but what often gets missed is that we fabricate the world,” she says.
The region’s concentration of industrial contractors, fabricators and manufacturers, she said, could become a foundation for economic diversification.
Rather than pursuing industries simply because they’ve succeeded in other metropolitan areas, she favors identifying complementary businesses that can build upon the region’s existing industrial strengths. That could mean, for example, recruiting companies to co-locate alongside established manufacturers, potentially reducing operating costs for those manufacturers.
“What are the symbiotic ecosystems that we can develop? … Rather than looking across the country and looking at what other people are going after, let’s go after what ultimately makes the most sense for our ecosystem of companies that operate here currently,” she said.
She also acknowledged that retaining highly educated young professionals remains a persistent challenge. She wants to collaborate more closely with universities to better understand the career opportunities graduates are seeking and use those insights to inform recruitment efforts.
What’s next for LED?
Asked whether a search is underway for Carter’s replacement as LED’s chief business development officer, LED said it’s “currently looking at all options to ensure we make the best decision for the Landry administration’s continued success in economic development.”
Carter previously served as LED’s director of business development before joining the LSU Foundation, where she established its Office of Industry Engagement. She returned to LED in June 2024 as chief business development officer, helping oversee the state’s business recruitment and expansion efforts.
In a statement, LED Secretary Susan Bourgeois called Carter a “driving force behind Louisiana’s record-setting economic growth.” The state has announced more than $260 billion in proposed capital investments since January 2024.
“While we will certainly miss having her on our team every day, I could not be more excited to see her bring that experience and passion to the Greater Baton Rouge Economic Partnership,” Bourgeois says. “Our regional partners are essential to turning Louisiana’s historic momentum into lasting economic growth, and I know Paige will be an incredible leader for the Capital Region and a tremendous partner to LED.”
Carter will succeed Lori Melancon, who was removed from her post by The Partnership’s board of directors in May. Following her departure, the organization named Trey Godfrey, its senior vice president of policy, and Jayson Newell, its senior vice president of business investment, as acting co-CEOs. A national search for a permanent successor was launched in August.
