Loyola University New Orleans Welcomes Chief Operating Officer

Loyola University New Orleans President Tania Tetlow announced today that Carol Ahn Markowitz has been named the university’s new Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Operating Officer. As chief operating officer at Loyola New Orleans, Ms. Markowitz will report directly to the president and provide clear leadership over an ambitious plan to revitalize the institution and enhance its financial stability for the future, within a rapidly changing environment for higher education.

“A graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Business School, Carol Ahn Markowitz brings a wide variety of experiences that will serve Loyola well. Throughout her impressive career, Carol Ahn Markowitz has been part of complex, high-functioning organizations and has also built an organization from scratch,” said President Tetlow.  “Her most recent success is the launch of one of the city’s most exciting projects, New Orleans Culinary and Hospitality Institute (NOCHI), an entrepreneurial educational effort designed to help grow the next generation of hospitality industry talent.” 

After building a career in corporate finance in environments ranging from Fortune 500 to private equity and venture capital-backed companies, Ms. Markowitz has served for the last six years as Founding Executive Director of a new educational institution, New Orleans Culinary and Hospitality Institute (NOCHI).  Together with President Tetlow, the first woman and lay president of the university, and an emerging senior leadership team, she will have an unparalleled opportunity to help to shape Loyola’s future through strong fiscal stewardship, ingenuity, and leadership.

As COO, Ms. Markowitz will have direct oversight over all of the financial functions of the university, as well as other important business function areas. From a financial perspective, she will provide executive leadership and oversight of the Division of Finance and Administration, including the university’s operating budget, restricted accounts, bond indebtedness, and endowments, and will partner with the Endowment Subcommittee of the Board of Trustees on management of the endowment. She will also provide executive leadership and oversight of the areas of Facilities, Public Safety, Emergency Management, Information Technology, and Human Resources.

A Korean-American native of Los Angeles, Ms. Markowitz has deep expertise in corporate strategy and finance, having worked for companies such as SBC Communcations and Liz Claiborne in positions ranging from Controller to Vice President of Finance. In 2011, she moved to New Orleans to be part of the renaissance of the city. She spent a year as Entrepreneur-in-Residence for The Idea Village, then was hired as Executive Director of NOCHI, an effort to fill an important educational need for world-class training, research and development to help grow the city’s burgeoning culinary and hospitality industry.

In her role as NOCHI’s Founding Executive Director, Carol launched New Orleans’ only professional culinary school in January 2019 with direct, personal responsibility and oversight of every aspect of a high-profile $30 million capital project that included the launch of a nonprofit post-secondary school that is the first of its kind in the City of New Orleans.  

Her work with NOCHI over the last six years has involved securing and handling $32 million of financing involving a cooperative endeavor agreement with the city’s Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, historic and new market tax credits, a capital campaign bridge loan and a working capital line of credit.  She led NOCHI’s entire design and construction process, program development, recruitment and hiring, vendor management, business development and external relations, board management and development, and all finance and administration for the organization.

Markowitz joins Loyola as the university is building momentum and seeing enrollment results under new direction. She starts work at Loyola on July 1, 2019.