The message is 'unity'

Odds are, at some point Tuesday, you probably crossed paths with Jason El Koubi, president and CEO of One Acadiana.
Through various engagements, El Koubi addressed the youthful and the seasoned veterans of Acadia Parish’s professional ranks as it looks to grow not only itself but Acadiana.
“One of the biggest things we’re trying to do right now is share this story about what has happened and where we’re going with more people,” said El Koubi during one of his earlier stops during the day, AP40: the Acadia Parish Young Professionals’ breakfast.
At that meeting, he focused on the opportunity to enlighten those unfamiliar with One Acadiana and also focused on the youthful side of One Acadiana’s leadership and goals.
Acadiana, as El Koubi explained, has rocketed to the 108th largest metro area in the United States, and “scratching on the door” of the Top 100 metros in the nation is something of note. That, in part, was helped by Acadiana growing from two parishes in the metropolitan eyes to five.
For a while, Acadiana was seen, by most, as singular parishes with branching similarities, of course, but still separate. Since becoming One Acadiana, the group has focused on coming together and tethering those deep connections. Sure, some work in Lafayette, but live in Acadia, have family living in St. Landry, have clients in Iberia and so forth. It’s a delicate web that One Acadiana has looked to weave and strengthen.
Part of that is a “strength in numbers” approach that can help the region leverage its assets for development and for growth in all areas.
For example, Acadia Parish has one coastal port, zero commercial airports and only five legislators. One Acadiana’s grasp – all nine Acadiana parishes – has seven coastal ports in total, two commercial airports and 25 legislators.
One Acadiana, which was formerly the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce, still is servicing the Lafayette area with traditional chamber activities and as the central business organization for the city. They are also still steering businesses to existing chambers like the Crowley Chamber of Commerce and entities like OneAcadia.
But, it is also embracing businesses, people and organizations looking to build and unlock the untapped potential of parishes. Acadia is one of those parishes, according to El Koubi.
In part, Acadia has its rejuvenated “main street” (Historic Parkerson Avenue) to thank as it is ahead of the game in that area compared to others. It has developments in the works and others being considered. Still, there’s so much potential for a parish like Acadia.
“It’s one of the parishes I’m most excited about,” he said.
As the day went on El Koubi would travel elsewhere in the parish, visiting with more people and sharing the story of One Acadiana. Different kinds of people, too.
His lunchtime stop provided another unique opportunity to engage, as the featured speaker at the Rotary Club of Crowley.
Reflective, El Koubi remembered when he first became president/CEO of One Acadiana how the Rotary Club of Crowley was one of his first stops.
He remembers asking then what needed to happen to make this work. There were answers then and many other stops along the way. That led to the creation of the three main strategy points for One Acadiana:
• Cultivate a portfolio of regional assets, infrastructure and policies for competitive success;
• Strategically market and promote the region to businesses and talent; and
• Revitalize the region’s core and leverage that expertise for similar efforts around the region.
Those strategies are already seeing successes, according to El Koubi, as they has generated a 72 percent increase in pitch-ready sites with 50 ready in portfolio for interested businesses and individuals.
Through those strategies, One Acadiana has developed an agenda and secured support from many in the political realm at all levels of office to have positive effects on regional priorities like workforce investment and Interstate 49.
It has developed custom tours and concierge services for talent recruitment classes in order to answer life questions like “Where would my children be going to school?”
It makes sense that El Koubi is excited about Acadia Parish as the AP40 and Rotary Club meetings were only two of his five on Tuesday and with good reason. Along with the “Freeland site”, a 536-acre site that is a premiere area for development, 30 in total have been identified as potential sites and four are actively being worked on.
“I’d suspect that our first new certified site will be here in Acadia Parish with the Freeland site,” said El Koubi during the Rotary meeting Tuesday.
As One Acadiana also strives to be a resource for the nine parishes, it is pushing for detailed looks at what industries are growing, identifying three, four or five to target that match the area’s resources.
It’s all a part of site development, which is particularly strong in Acadia, he said.
All in all, El Koubi is highly encourage over all of One Acadiana’s work and successes thus far as the group is increasingly acting like a region, not just how it does business, not just how it lives in general, but in terms of how leaders throughout the region are working together to better it.
“I’m tremendously honored, humbled and excited to be a part of that work,” he said.