Tommy J.

Kurtz

Position: Managing Director
Office: New Orleans

Tommy Kurtz is managing director of Avident Advisors, an affiliate of Jones Walker LLP. He advises corporations, governments, and public-private entities on site selection, expansion, relocation, and related economic development opportunities.

Tommy has nearly 30 years of economic development experience across the Gulf Coast region. He has held executive and leadership positions in the private, nonprofit, and governmental sectors in Louisiana and Texas, including with regional, state, and local agencies; utility organizations; and private engineering companies. Over the course of his career, he has been deeply involved in site selection and economic development initiatives that have resulted in the creation of more than 12,000 new direct jobs, retention of over 21,000 jobs, and $40 billion in new capital investment from more than 100 announced projects.

Prior to joining Jones Walker, Tommy served as vice president of business and strategic development for the Corpus Christi Regional Economic Development Corporation (CCREDC), where he was responsible for business development and marketing, business attraction and recruitment, project management, strategic planning, data and information systems management, and site development efforts. Among other major projects during his tenure at CCREDC, he played a key role in the development of a $10 billion ethylene manufacturing facility and a $2 billion electric arc furnace steel manufacturing project.

Previously, Tommy served for five years as executive director of the Business Expansion and Retention Group at Louisiana Economic Development (LED) under Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, during which time Tommy coordinated more than $26 billion in new investment and the creation of 3,000 new direct jobs in announced new manufacturing, liquefied natural gas (LNG), and other projects throughout the state. He has also held senior positions at the Ascension (Louisiana) Economic Development Corporation, Greater New Orleans, Inc., Entergy, the City of New Orleans, and the Louisiana Lottery Corporation. Under his leadership, these organizations — and Tommy individually — have earned numerous awards from Baton Rouge Business Report, the Public Employees Roundtable, New Orleans City Business, and other publications and organizations.

Tommy serves on the boards of the Texas Economic Development Council (TEDC), the Padre Isles Property Owners Association, and the Island Strategic Action Committee of the City of Corpus Christi, Texas. He was the 2009 chairman and remains an active member of the Louisiana Industrial Development Executives Association (LIDEA). He also is a member of the International Economic Development Council (IEDC), the Industrial Asset Management Council (IAMC), and the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI).

In addition to earning a master of public administration from LSU and a bachelor of arts in economics from Boston College, Tommy is a graduate of the Economic Development Institute at the University of Oklahoma and is a certified economic developer (CEcD) through the IEDC.

Tommy is committed to supporting the next generation of leadership. Among other community service activities, he was former vice-chair of the South Texas Council of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), where he raised significant financial contributions from the private sector for the BSA.