How are businesses and residents feeling in the French Quarter in the wake of the New Year’s terrorist attack? What are the thoughts going into the Super Bowl? How is the French Quarter Management District adapting its efforts? Jane Cooper, chair of the board of commissioners for the French Quarter Management District, shares her thoughts.
about
Jane Cooper did her undergraduate work at Augustana College in Illinois and received a master’s degree in speech and communication from Western Illinois University. After practicing in that field for several years, she started a health and wellness company, and, in 1985, was recruited to New Orleans to serve as the VP of sales for Delta Health Network, a provider-owned HMO.
In 1989, Cooper founded and served as the CEO for Advantage Health, a Louisiana-based health plan, for 8 years, then did healthcare consulting across the country. In 2001, she founded Patient Care, the nation’s leading advocacy and healthcare transparency company, and served as its president and CEO. The company provided services to more than 500 employers and 1.6 million members across the country. She sold the company to DirectPath Health in January 2017.
Following the sale of Patient Care, Cooper started JLC Company, a national healthcare consulting practice. In 2015, she and her husband, Bob Heaps, founded Grande Krewe Fine Wine and Spirits store in the Faubourg Marigny in New Orleans and subsequently started Grande Krewe Abroad, an international wine tour company.
Cooper serves as an adjunct professor, teaching entrepreneurship at the business school at Loyola University and serves as a commissioner and board chair for the French Quarter Management District.
She is very involved in the Louisiana entrepreneurial community, serving as a mentor for the Idea Village Accelerator Program, and is also a co-founder of the Flamingo Funders, a group of female investors who invest in and mentor local, women-led startups.
