Today’s Breakfast Briefing, our first of 2025, focused on St. Tammany Parish’s shift from being a part of the New Orleans metropolitan area to becoming its own economic area, called the Slidell–Mandeville–Covington metropolitan statistical area (MSA). This discussion explored what this new designation means, what opportunities have arisen because of it, and how parish officials can manage growth and modernize government for this new era. Our speakers included Parish President Mike Cooper, economist Robert Habans, and St. Tammany Corp.’s CEO Chris Masingill.
This event, “Realizing St. Tammany’s Potential: What the New ‘Economic Area’ Designation Means for Residents, Businesses and Parish Government,” was free to the public thanks to the generous sponsorship of First Horizon Bank and venue host Hornbeck Offshore Services.
Click below to watch the full event or highlights, and scroll down to view photos and the bios of our speakers.
Photos
About Our Speakers
Parish President Mike Cooper has been a resident of Covington his entire life. He earned a City and Regional Planning Degree at the University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette. He worked for St. Tammany Parish Government early in his career in the Planning Department. Following in his father’s footsteps, Parish President Cooper was elected Mayor of the City of Covington in 2011. He served two terms as Mayor before being elected to his current post as St. Tammany Parish President. He was sworn in as St. Tammany Parish President in January 2020. During his first two years in office, he led the citizens of St. Tammany through a global pandemic, record-breaking hurricanes, including Hurricane Ida, and a 500-plus year flooding event, while ensuring essential public services were maintained and key initiatives were set in motion. He was re-elected last fall and began his second term as Parish President in January.
Parish President Cooper has a deep-rooted dedication to shape the future while preserving the character of the parish he calls home. Under his leadership, he has prioritized planning for and building a sustainable future by investing in our drainage and transportation infrastructure as well as instituting comprehensive planning initiatives for the first time in parish history. He is proud to be an integral part of the community and to serve the citizens of St. Tammany as Parish President.
Robert Habans, PhD, is an applied economist and social scientist. He recently joined the Kathleen Babineaux Blanco Public Policy Research Center at the University of Louisiana Lafayette. Previously as Chief Economist and now as a consultant, he also contributes to The Data Center of Southeast Louisiana, where he authored a recent explainer on the separation of the St. Tammany and New Orleans metro areas as defined by the federal government. Dr. Habans holds degrees from UC Berkeley, UNO, and the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Chris Masingill has led the St. Tammany Corporation as Chief Executive Officer since July 2018. Under Masingill’s leadership, the organization adopted, and implemented THRIVE2023, St. Tammany’s first 5-Year economic development strategic plan and has been accredited by the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) as an Accredited Economic Development Organization (AEDO). Since July 2018, St. Tammany Corporation has announced multiple major business recruitment and expansion projects representing over $291.9 million in capital investment and 2,299 new and retained jobs. He grew staff capacity and expertise at St. Tammany Corporation, facilitated the development of a unified local industrial tax exemption incentive process, and entered into a private-public partnership with Gulf South Commerce Park an almost 1,000-acre property zoned for advanced manufacturing and logistics.
Masingill’s vision and results at St. Tammany Corporation have earned recognition in the economic development field, including being named by Consultant Connect as a Top 50 Economic Developer in 2020 and again in 2023, and being recognized in Southern Business & Development Magazine’s 2024 “Under 50 to Watch”. Masingill serves as a Commissioner for the New Orleans Regional Planning Commission and is the Western Regional Director on the Executive Committee of the Board of the Southern Economic Development Council. He is a member of the International Economic Development Council’s Board of Directors and serves on the Performance and Oversight and Audit Committees. In September 2024, he was appointed by Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Susan B. Bourgeois as an Advisor to the Louisiana Economic Development Partnership Board.