Rob Lalka
Professor of Practice and Executive Director of the Albert Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Biography
Rob Lalka is the Albert R. Lepage Professor in Business at Tulane University’s A.B. Freeman School of Business and Executive Director of the Albert Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. In both 2019 and 2020, he received the A.B. Freeman School’s Excellence in Intellectual Contributions Award.
Lalka moved to New Orleans from Washington, DC, where he was a director at Village Capital and a senior advisor at the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. Prior, he served in the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Global Partnerships and was on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff, for which he was recognized with the State Department’s Superior Honor Award and its Meritorious Honor Award.
Lalka currently serves on the boards of Public Democracy, Inc., Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, and Venture For America in New Orleans. He graduated from Yale University, cum laude with distinction in both history and English, and he holds his master’s degree in global public policy from Duke University.
Lalka is a founding member of the Nieux Society, a community of entrepreneurs, artists, creators, and lovers of New Orleans exploring the promise of Web3 to inspire New Orleans’ creative culture to realize its full potential. Rob serves on the Nieux Society's Advisory Council, a small group of civic leaders, including B Mike, Big Freedia, Galactic, Demario Davis and Walter Isaacson, the Leonard Lauder Professor of American History and Values at Tulane.
Education
Duke University
Yale University
Links
Articles
Opportunity Zones can boost business where it's needed
Editorial
Louisiana is well-positioned to take advantage of investment in Opportunity Zones, but public officials and civic leaders need to develop strategies to optimize the outcomes.
Don't rob "Opportunity Zones" of their full potential
Editorial
Ever since the tax reform law passed last December, we have been working with an enthused network of impact investors, mission-oriented businesses and public-sector leaders eager to identify new sources of private capital for some of our country’s most distressed areas — 8,761 census tracts designated as "Opportunity zones."
Media Appearances
Anthropic Eyes an IPO as Big Tech's AI Cash Crunch Comes for Wall Street
"The scale of it's eye-popping," said Rob Lalka, a business professor at Tulane University. "The fact that this company raised as much as they had raised, and they ran through quite a bit of money pretty quickly as they got here."
Louisiana startup deal count ties highest level since 2016 despite Q1 2026 funding dip
Placing Louisiana’s overall funding in the context of the rest of the nation, it’s clear the state’s venture capital scene is far behind states in the Northeast or the West Coast, according to Rob Lalka, a business professor and executive director of the Albert Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Tulane University.
Corporate America's toughest job? Being COO during the tariff whiplash
Many companies are still grappling with the impact of actions they took last year to cope with Trump's tariff hikes, said Rob Lalka, who teaches entrepreneurship at Tulane University.
New Orleans startups embrace AI but show caution about rent and salaries, Tulane report says
“Historically speaking, when trends happen, we're not usually the first movers," said Rob Lalka, a Tulane business professor who helped create the GNO Startup Report in 2019. "We're maybe middle of the pack or later, but with AI, there are more people here using it, and we are trying to really harness its tools to get a competitive advantage."
Venture capital ties could shift U.S. government policies
"Traditional Republican conservatism is generally small government, but it's not anti-government in the same way this new movement is," said Rob Lalka, a professor at Tulane University's Freeman School of Business and author of The Venture Alchemists: How Big Tech Turned Profits Into Power.
Mark Zuckerberg and Meta go all-in on Trump
Just five years ago, when Meta was still called Facebook and said it was focused on making social media healthier and safer, Tuesday’s changes would have been “almost unthinkable,” said Rob Lalka, a business professor at Tulane University.
How Silicon Valley is disrupting democracy
Lalka is a business professor at Tulane University, and The Venture Alchemists focuses on how a small group of entrepreneurs managed to transmute a handful of novel ideas and big bets into unprecedented wealth and influence.
Tulane Today Mentions
New Orleans startups bet on AI as Tulane expands its survey statewide in 2026
Survey: New Orleans startups see AI as their biggest opportunity — and threat
Tulane business expert, alumnus discuss how social media influencers can now thrive
More hiring and office space among post-pandemic changes for startups, Tulane study says
Tulane business model contest seeks innovators
Albert Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation selects eight for faculty fellows grants
Tulane Business Model Competition names semifinalists for $25,000 top prize
In the News
USA Today: World leaders react as Supreme Court ruling strikes down Trump tariffs
Deseret News: Californians are asking, is it time to raise taxes on the rich?
Wall Street Journal: For Trump, the Warner Megadeal Talks Are All About CNN
NBC News: Elon Musk has left the White House, but he hasn't left politics behind on X
The National Desk: Perplexity AI proposes TikTok merger; part US government ownership
The Guardian: Silicon Valley’s right wing notches victories nationwide and at home
Nola.com: New Orleans' startups were hot even before recent blockbuster deals, Tulane report finds
