Speakers

More speakers will be announced soon!

Susan Bonnett Bourgeois

Susan Bonnett Bourgeois has three decades of experience in building, transforming and sustaining organizations through strategic planning, project development, fundraising and advocacy.

Prior to her appointment as LED Secretary, she served as President of SBB Consulting and President Emeritus of the Northshore Community Foundation, having served as the CEO for 17 years since its founding.

Before launching the Foundation, Bourgeois was President of Bonnett & Co., a governmental and public affairs consulting firm specializing in insurance interest and advocacy. Prior to her consulting, she held multiple roles in Louisiana Governor M. J. Foster’s Administration, including Director of Administrative Affairs and Special Assistant
to the Governor.

Bourgeois is an active member of the International Women’s Forum and serves in leadership roles on several Boards, including past Chairman of GNO, Inc., a Board member of the Northshore Business Council and Lakeview Regional Medical Center.

Known for her visionary acumen, Bourgeois emphasizes innovation, collaboration and meaningful alliances, all of which are critical components to creating thriving communities and a thriving state.

She and her husband, Mace Bourgeois, have four grown children and live in Covington.

Tim Temple

Tim Temple was elected as Commissioner of Insurance in 2023. Tim worked in the insurance sector for over two decades and is dedicated to leveraging his extensive industry experience to shape a regulatory and statutory environment that not only ensures competitiveness, but also enhances the attractiveness of Louisiana's insurance market. 

As the state’s top insurance official, Tim is committed to protecting the interests of policyholders while promoting a flourishing insurance market that benefits all residents and businesses in the great state of Louisiana.

Prior to becoming Commissioner of Insurance, Tim served as President of Temptan, a family-owned investment management business in Baton Rouge. Additionally, Tim is a former Chair of the Louisiana Committee of 100 for Economic Development, working outside of government to provide leadership and resources with a focus on growing Louisiana’s economy. 

Tim is a native of DeRidder. He and his wife Amy live in Baton Rouge with their two daughters.

Ted Abernathy

Ted Abernathy serves as the Managing Partner of Economic Leadership, LLC. Economic Leadership, based in Shallotte, NC, is a small group of data, strategy, and policy experts working with private and public clients to analyze competitiveness, develop strategy, support leadership, and reimagine the future. Over the past nine years, the team has worked on 146 projects in more than twenty states and internationally. Ted is the principal author of close to 100 reports on future trends, economic and workforce development, technology, and leadership, and he speaks on the economy almost every week. He currently serves as an economic advisor to the Council of State Chambers and previously held a similar position to the Southern Governor’s Association.

In his 42-year career, Ted has led city, county, and regional economic development organizations and an economic policy think tank. Born in Dallas, North Carolina, Ted received his bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and his master’s from Johns Hopkins University, is a graduate of the Economic Development Institute and is an Eisenhower Fellow for global economics.  

He and his wife live in a small town on the North Carolina coast and share their backyard with hundreds of sea birds and quite a few alligators.

 

Kristy Davis

Kristy Davis has consulted for Microsoft Security, Crowdstrike, and a number of other security vendors. She started her career as a developer, data architect, and business analyst.  When she landed on the front cover of computer world magazine for innovation using the internet she caught the eye of a number of organizations before becoming the Director of IT for EMC Corporation.  After EMC, she went on to head up the eCommerce efforts and evaluation of internet business models for Johnson and Johnson's spine division where she landed on 4 US patents.

Most recently she worked for an MSP to help build out a full-stack MSSP brand and offering after evaluating dozens of security vendors and mapping capabilities to both NIST and CIS. There, she also forged an OEM partnership with an automated pen-testing company and re-engineered its pricing model, go-to-market, and Channel strategies incorporating them into the MSSP offerings.

The Channel Company then recruited her to build out our security consulting practice for GTM and Channel Strategy.  Kristy has been featured on the IoT Integrator podcast discussing IOT / OT Security. She is a licensed Cybersecurity Insurance professional.  

Donald Monistere

Serving as CEO and President of General Informatics, Monistere is responsible for the overarching strategic vision of the company and has been actively growing its reach since he joined the team in 2020.

Monistere has been a well-known executive for many years in the technology space. Monistere served as the Chief Operations Officer for IBML and Senior Vice President and General Manager at C-Spire. Before C-Spire, Monistere served in leadership roles for TekLinks over a span of ten years and most recently served as the company’s President, prior to TekLinks being acquired by C-Spire in 2018. Prior to his tenure at TekLinks, Monistere was the Founder, CEO and President of Vista Information Systems, a regional Systems Integration company that was acquired by TekLinks in 2008 after 15 years of prosperous growth.

Don has a strong background in successfully leading information technology companies and his experience in sales, marketing, operations and IT services along with support helps organizations accelerate their growth trajectory, better serve their customers and he facilitates management frameworks that allows organizations like Vista, TekLinks and IBML to scale their operations and prepare for hyper-growth

Monistere earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Aspen University, completed executive MBA studies at Samford University and earned a Bachelor of Science in Management from Southeastern Louisiana University.