Mentor Network
Regional Partnerships
Our regional partnerships broaden our mentor network to include truly world-class connectivity to local and non-local thought leaders.
Our Mentor Network is Expanding Rapidly!
Mentorship is an essential part of any entrepreneurial ecosystem. From helping to shape a business idea to providing advice on how to navigate the ups and downs of the early stages of a startup, a great mentor can provide the support and guidance necessary to ensure a startup’s success.
Interested in Becoming a Mentor?
Your business prowess is an invaluable contribution to our local network.
Peggy Head
Partner
Certified Business Transition Expert
I have a passion for helping companies grow, transition through times of change and attain high efficiency, peak performance results that translate to bottom-line profits. Helping owners and executives gain visibility into causes of sub-par profitability and develop solutions together lights up my work day. I love challenges and finding ways to overcome them. Business wins truly gratify me. I also consider it a privilege to advise and support owners in business structural changes as well as effective succession planning and preparation.
Our world changes so quickly and businesses have to be prepared in ways we’ve not experienced before to address the new and varying challenges that we face. I would be honored to visit with you to learn about you and your company. Perhaps together we can activate the positive change you’ve been desiring for your organization.
If you would like some additional information about me, it follows below. I welcome your contact so we can meet and discuss the untold possibilities that await your organization. Just press the Contact Peggy button to the left.
I am a results-oriented professional with more than twenty-five years’ experience across diverse business environments including manufacturing, various services and retail. I am a leader whose key strengths include strong business acumen combined with organizational structuring and development, communications, problem resolution and team building.
I have demonstrated ability to identify ways to increase efficiency and productivity through system improvements, procedural changes and personnel placement and growth. I have developed and led efforts to enhance profitability by identifying and closing avenues of revenue leakage, eliminating unnecessary costs, and providing greater visibility to revenue and expense drivers to all levels of management. I am a proven resource to help guide companies through circumstances of growth, transition and innovation.
As an advisor and executive team member to owners and executives, I have impacted organizations across a broad spectrum of key business aspects including growth through mergers and acquisitions, divesture of assets or holdings, business succession planning and business exit strategies. I have directed initiatives for improvement of risk management as well as managed and helped guide organizations through disaster recovery. My oversight of human resources provided key feedback to optimize compensation and benefit structures to drive profitability. I have also served as a compliance and regulatory advisor in human resources, financial reporting and other areas to help safeguard against loss due to non-compliance.
Rich Simmerman
Co-founder & CEO
Ceres
Rich is passionate about environmental sustainability and plant-based foods, rich conceptualized ceres in his senior year of college during the COVID-19 pandemic.
prior to co-creating ceres, rich worked in public policy and technology.
birthplace – louisiana
education – loyola university new orleans (b.a) ; tulane university mba (2023)
John Bennett
Local Business Growth Specialist
Fox 8 News
John Bennett has been working at FOX 8 since 2010, first as an intern, then as the station’s first sports producer and now as Local Business Growth Specialist.
John uses his background in media messaging to align with the goals of local businesses to create successful and long-lasting partnerships. The ultimate goal is to connect loyal customers to the businesses that serve our community by utilizing creative messaging and strategic planning.
Just as FOX 8 has disrupted traditional mainstays to become Greater New Orleans’ #1 news source, John is eager to help entrepreneurs turn their visions into realities.
Justin Landry
Vice President of Finance and Capital Market Specialist
Stirling Properties
Mr. Landry joined Stirling Properties in October 2007. As Vice President of Finance and Capital Markets, his primary focus is to oversee a $1 billion debt portfolio of over 80 loans. It’s Mr. Landry’s role to ensure the debt portfolio is capitalized in the most prudent way to allow for maximum cash flow and flexibility across the entire property portfolio. It’s also his responsibility to oversee the economic feasibility of new development opportunities and certain acquisition opportunities. Once the decision is reached to move forward with a development or acquisition, it is his responsibility to raise the debt capital to source the project and oversee financial and due diligence duties through the close of transaction. Mr. Landry is also in charge of the oversight of all multi-family properties in the Stirling portfolio.
Since 2007, Mr. Landry has placed over $2.0 billion of interim and permanent financings. Additionally, over the course of his career, he has underwritten over $5.5 billion in actual and potential development and acquisition projects.
As asset manager of Stirling’s multifamily portfolio, Mr. Landry is responsible for the oversight of a 1,200-unit apartment portfolio of properties located throughout Louisiana. His role entails financial reporting, budgeting, financing and refinancing, implementation of strategic initiatives, contractual compliance, general client/investor interface, and capital renovations.
Outside of Stirling Properties, Mr. Landry previously served as an Instructor at Louisiana State University for Finance 7720 – Commercial Real Estate Investing from 2012-2018. He is an active member ICSC where he was recently selected as one of 59 individuals under the age of 40 to serve on their Next Generation Leadership Network. He is also a current member of its Scholarship Committee. Mr. Landry serves on various board committees for the St. Tammany Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the 2019 Class of Leadership St. Tammany. He is currently involved with Louisiana Association of Business and Industry’s (LABI) Emerging Leaders Council.
In 2019, he was the recipient of the prestigious ‘Money Makers’ award given by New Orleans CityBusiness for his financial achievements in Real Estate. In 2022, he was named one of the Northshore’s 40 Under 40 business leaders by EDGE of the Lake Magazine. Additionally, Mr. Landry previously served on the Board of Directors for Vinson Guard Service, Inc where he was largely responsible for the sale of the business in 2019 to one of the largest security companies in the U.S. He is also, along with his wife, Founder and Owner of an expanding fitness business, Evolve Studios, soon to have three locations in Louisiana.
In 2020, Mr. Landry was awarded the prestigious CRE® (Counselor of Real Estate) credential by The Counselors of Real Estate®, an international group of high profile real estate practitioners who provide expert advisory services to clients on complex real property and land-related matters. Membership in The Counselors of Real Estate is selective and extended by invitation only, attesting to Mr. Landry’s expertise and proven competence in his chosen area of real estate. Once invited to membership, Counselors must adhere to a strict Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Practice. Counselors are recognized in the marketplace as having consistently demonstrated the highest levels of knowledge, experience, integrity, and judgment. Fewer than 1100 real estate professionals currently hold the CRE credential. This is one of the highest credentials one can achieve in real estate.
Mr. Landry graduated in 2007 from Louisiana State University in Finance with a Concentration in Real Estate. During his time there, he was also a pole vaulter on the Track & Field Team where he received the Athletic Directors Cup for the achievement of academic excellence as a student athlete.
Bradley Cook
Advisor
Stirling Properties
Bradley Cook serves as an Advisor with Stirling Properties’ commercial real estate team. Based in the Covington, LA, office, his primary focus includes investment and development in the land and industrial sectors. He works closely with local, state, and regional leaders to promote economic development opportunities. He is a member of the St. Tammany Chamber of Commerce, Louisiana CCIM Chapter, Realtor Land Institute (RLI), New Orleans Metropolitan Association of Realtors (NOMAR) Commercial Investment Division (CID), and National Association of Realtors (NAR).
Since joining Stirling Properties, Cook has focused his efforts on projects within the Southeast Louisiana triangle between Baton Rouge, New Orleans and the Northshore. He has worked on successful projects for companies of all sizes, including Carvana, St. Tammany Health System, Ochsner Health, American Freight and Factory, Dana Incorporated, DSLD, goPuff, Burger King, Sonic and others. In addition, Cook is the lead broker for the 6,000+ acre Bilten Park future development site, Louisiana’s premier future advanced manufacturing and logistics mega-site location in St. Tammany Parish. He also led efforts for Stirling Properties’ first build-to-suit industrial facility for Dana Inc., which is now operational within Fremaux Park in Slidell.
Born in New Orleans and a resident of the Northshore, Bradley earned his bachelor’s and Master of Science degrees from Louisiana Tech University while also being named as the Graduate Student of the year in 2006. He is a strong local advocate for the special needs and foster care communities as a former Board Member and active volunteer for Special Olympics Louisiana, Youth Service Bureau (YSB) and James Samaritan. Cook served as the President of the Realtor Land Institute Louisiana Chapter from 2018-2021 and was a graduate of the 2019 New Orleans Regional Leadership Institute (NORLI), the 2018 Nancy Marsiglia Institute of Justice Inaugural Class at Loyola University, and 2018 Leadership St. Tammany.
Cook is a CCIM and holds commercial real estate licenses in Louisiana and Mississippi. He is also pursuing the Accredited Land Consultant (ALC) and Certified Louisiana Economic Development (CLED) designations.