Mitch Landrieu

Founder

Mitch Landrieu is an American politician, lawyer, author, speaker, nonprofit leader, and CNN political commentator. He served as the 61st Mayor of New Orleans (2010-2018). During his term as mayor, Landrieu led the recovery from Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill as well as the removal of four Confederate monuments.

Under Landrieu’s leadership, New Orleans was widely recognized as one of the nation’s great comeback stories. In 2015, Landrieu was named “Public Official of the Year” by Governing, and in 2016 was voted “America’s top turnaround mayor” in a Politico survey of mayors. He also served as President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Most recently he served as a senior advisor to President Biden and the Infrastructure Coordinator at the White House, responsible for the implementation of the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. He now serves as co-chair of the Biden-Harris 2024 campaign.

Landrieu gained national prominence for his powerful decision to take down four Confederate monuments in New Orleans, which also earned him the prestigious John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. In his best-selling book, In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History, Landrieu recounts his personal journey confronting the issue of race and institutional racism that still plagues America.

In 2018, he launched E Pluribus Unum, an initiative in the South created to fulfill America’s promise of justice and opportunity for all by breaking down the barriers that divide us by race and class. E Pluribus Unum’s goals are to build a series of programs and initiatives to cultivate courageous leaders committed to realizing an inclusive vision for a new South, champion transformative policies to reverse the enduring harms of America’s Jim Crow era past for those who continue to experience them today, and change narratives that perpetuate systemic and interpersonal racism in order to shift people’s attitudes and behaviors.

Prior to serving as Mayor, Landrieu served two terms as lieutenant governor and 16 years in the state legislature. He and his wife Cheryl live in New Orleans, where they raised their five children.