Dr. Mark E. Zappi, PE has over 25 years working with energy and/or waste management technologies ranging from basic research to full-scale commercialization. Dr. Zappi serves as the Executive Director of the Energy Institute of Louisiana at UL and the Director of the UL Center for Environmental Protection. Dr. Zappi holds the BORSF Chair in Bioprocesses and is a chemical engineering professor. He holds a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of Louisiana and a MS and PhD in Chemical Engineering from Mississippi State University. Dr. Zappi has over 250 technical publications, given over 300 technical presentations, holds six patents, and is a professional engineer within the State of Louisiana. He has secured over $120M in R&D funding and has managed numerous multi-million, multi-partner projects. Dr. Zappi has been very active with assisting Louisiana municipal and government entities with recruiting, evaluating, and assisting new industries into their regions.

Michael Hecht is President & CEO of Greater New Orleans, Inc., the economic development agency for southeast Louisiana. GNO, Inc.'s mission is to create a region where our kids can stay and prosper.   Under Michael's leadership, GNO, Inc. was recently named a “Top Economic Development Organization in the United States” (one of 11 of 2,300) by Site Selection magazine.

Before coming to GNO, Inc. Michael led the quarter-billion dollar Katrina Small Business Recovery Program for the
State. Previous to coming home to Louisiana, Michael worked for Mayor Michael Bloomberg in New York City, running the post-9/11 small business program.

Michael's entrepreneurial experience includes co-founding a conglomerate of restaurant ventures, including “Foreign Cinema,” named Restaurant of the Year 2000 in San Francisco. He began his career as a strategic management consultant in the US, Canada, Europe and Australia.

Michael holds an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, and an undergraduate degree from Yale.

Recently Michael has been recognized as “One of the Ten People Who Made a Difference in the South,” “One of the 20 Business “Icons” of the Tricentennial,” and “One of the Top 50 Economic Developers in North America.”

With family roots in Louisiana back to the 1830s, Michael now lives in New Orleans with his wife, Marlene, an ESL professor at Delgado, and his two sons, Dexter and Kaj ("Kī").