THREE PARISHES,
ONE MISSION
TO SUPPORT ENTREPRENEURSHIP ON THE NORTHSHORE
Our Brand, Our Message
Great Ideas Don't See Parish Lines
Leading the Charge
St. Tammany’s Lead Economic Development Organization
Meet the STartUP Northshore Team
Cenzo Caronna
Entrepreneur in Residence & Program Manager
Cenzo Caronna
Cenzo Caronna is an engineer by training, an entrepreneur by vocation, and a Louisiana native through and through – having grown up in Mandeville to then attending Louisiana State University where he graduated with a degree in Biological Engineering in 2017.
After graduation, Cenzo spent the next 4 years immersed in the advancement of early-stage tissue engineering companies working in R&D, project management, and commercialization. Throughout this time, he maintained a passion for entrepreneurship and a calling to build networks that change the way people and businesses interact with each other and the world.
After relocating back to Louisiana in 2022, he founded a technology company, Thrivvy, The Search Engine for Groceries, with an aim not just to grow a business but to also build meaningful technology in the city and state that he loves. Alongside running Thrivvy, Cenzo now channels his entrepreneurial passion towards growing the startup ecosystem in his home grounds of the Northshore as he joins St. Tammany Corporation’s team as the Entrepreneur in Residence and Program Manager for the STartUP Northshore initiative.
During his free time, Cenzo loves traveling, hiking, and spending time his wife, Erin, and their dog Scout. His favorite thing about being the EIR and Program Manager for STartUP Northshore is seeing the innovative ideas being developed by the founders he works with and seeing their business models take shape as they become successful ventures.
Chris Masingill
Chief Executive Officer
Chris Masingill
Chris Masingill has led the St. Tammany Economic Development Corporation as Chief Executive Officer since July 2018. Masingill was recruited to redefine economic development in the community and build a high-performing economic development organization with an expanded scope of service, and under his leadership, the organization initiated, adopted, and is now implementing THRIVE2023, St. Tammany’s 5-Year economic development strategic plan. Since July 2018, St. Tammany Economic Development Corporation has announced multiple major business recruitment and expansion projects representing over $107 million in capital investment and 1,520 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 launched the St. Tammany Partnership for Industry, Workforce, and Economic Development, a collaborative workforce development and talent retention initiative. Under his leadership, the organization’s programming, grant, and operational dollars have grown to exceed $3.8 million since 2018, up from less than $1 million. He successfully launched multiple strategic initiatives, including Advance St. Tammany, St. Tammany’s multi-layered business technical assistance program that is intentionally designed to support the evolving business retention and expansion needs of St. Tammany businesses, and The AnalyST, St. Tammany Corporation’s research and data publication featuring a quarterly economic trends report and monthly Snapshot publication focused on a selection of data specifically related to the community’s economic and health landscape during the pandemic.
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. In 2022, St. Tammany Corporation was recognized with the Woody Ogé Excellence in Advocacy Award by Louisiana’s Community & Technical College System for its strong support for workforce development programming and partnership with Northshore Technical Community College. The organization was also named a First-Rate Economic Development Organization in the South by Southern Business & Development Journal in 2020. Chris has maintained since the beginning that cultivating entrepreneurship, innovation, and business formation ought to be a pillar of economic development.
“Our intentional and collaborative engagement with our regional and statewide partners gives us a big picture understanding of the multifaceted opportunities that exist for creating healthy, vibrant, thriving economies of scale within the Northshore footprint.”
Ashley Llewellyn
Vice President
Ashley Llewellyn
Ashley Llewellyn serves as Vice President for St. Tammany Economic Development Corporation, the economic development organization for St. Tammany. She has worked as an economic development practitioner in St. Tammany since June 2013, and in her current role, she leads various initiatives, programs, and projects under the banner of THRIVE2023 – St. Tammany’s 5-Year Economic Development Strategic Plan. She manages and implements the strategic plan, creates programs focused on workforce development and talent retention, develops sector strategy initiatives, and creates opportunities for increased engagement with existing and new stakeholders.
Ashley has served as an economic development representative on various committees and councils within the region, including Northshore Technical Community College, Southeastern Louisiana University, Regional Planning Commission, GNO, Inc., and Partners for Stennis and Michoud. Ashley currently serves on the Board of Directors for the INFINITY Science Center and the Louisiana Industrial Development Executives Association. She is an active committee member of the Southern Economic Development Council and the International Economic Development Council.
Ashley graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi with a Master of Science in Economic Development in 2011. In 2017, she earned the Certified Louisiana Economic Developer certification, and she is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma’s Economic Development Institute. In July 2018, she was honored as the Outstanding Millennial in Economic Development at the Millennial Awards. In December 2020, she was recognized as one of the Northshore’s inaugural Forty Under 40 honorees. Ashley is a lifelong resident of Louisiana.
“After researching the landscape of the assets available within the broader region to support entrepreneurs and discerning the elements needed to support the entrepreneurial ecosystem on the Northshore, St. Tammany Corporation launched STartUP Northshore to deliver first-class programming startups.”
Our Parish Partners
.jpg "tedflogo3 (4)")
Ginger Cangelosi
Executive Director of Economic Development, Tangipahoa Parish Government
Ryan Seal
Executive Director, Washington Economic Development
Regional Partnerships
Our regional partnerships broaden our network to include truly world-class connectivity to local and non-local thought leaders.
Program Partners
Delivering proven, world-class programming directly to the Northshore.
ST. TAMMANY'S LEAD ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION
About St. Tammany Economic Development Corporation
As the lead economic development organization for St. Tammany, St. Tammany Economic Development Corporation’s mission is to create capacity and sophistication as an organization resulting in transformational leadership with the greater outcome of economic prosperity for all of St. Tammany.
Our vision is to strategically align the economic landscape in St. Tammany to be the destination of choice for highly-skilled talent and business formation, attraction, expansion and retention.
Our values outline exactly who we are as an organization and clearly outlines what others can expect from us as leaders, partners, and truth tellers. THRIVE tells us exactly where we are going and how we will measure our effectiveness and success. We are:
Transformational
We intend to move our relationships with business and industry beyond that transactional level, but truly build relationships, partnerships, and coalitions that are transformational – ones that transform the capacity of St. Tammany as a business destination.
Honest
Honesty and integrity are paramount in economic development.
We must clearly articulate our scope, services, value, and impact as an economic development organization.
Results-driven
We aim to move past inputs and outputs and to truly celebrate outcomes.
We can produce results-driven work by utilizing our data tools to best understand exactly where our community is right now and creating a program of work that moves the needle towards positive outcomes resulting in a more competitive community for business, industry, and talent.
Intentional
We understand that economic development is not a cookie cutter business and the work of an economic development organization can be very broad from workforce and talent, to placemaking, to small business development, to land and site development.
We aim to be intentional with our initiatives, programs, resources, and capacity.
We want to engage in high value activities that align with our biggest economic development opportunities for sustainable economic growth.
Vital
The economic development organization’s work is vital to the maintenance and growth of the quality of life we hold dear in St. Tammany. We serve as the truthteller of the economic vitality of the parish.
Engaged
The economic development organization must be engaged directly with all relevant partners: industry and business, parish government and municipalities, LED and GNO, Inc., education and workforce allies all while remaining ahead of the curve on international, national, and regional economic development industry trends and best practices.
As economic development practitioners, we must be engaged in lifelong learning, active listening to constituents and partners, and aware of threats to the local, regional, and state economy.