Elstrott, second from left, at Sambazon’s açaí processing facility in Santana, Brazil. Pictured with Elstrott are, from left, consultant Richard Aust, Sambazon co-founder and CEO Ryan Black, and fellow investor and board member Steve Demos.
To say John Elstrott doesn’t fit the popular stereotype of the entrepreneur is a bit of an understatement. He’s not a shameless self-promoter. He’s not a perpetual salesman. He’s not a brash risk taker. He’s not self-aggrandizing or self-important. In fact, he’s almost the opposite of those things.
“He’s very low key,” says Aaron Miscenich (MBA ’91), executive director of the New Orleans BioInnovation Center and a longtime friend and colleague of Elstrott’s. “He’s very personable. As a business person, he gets along with everybody, and he really encourages interaction and collaboration.”
“What I was so impressed with as a student is that he is personally so kind,” adds Emily Mitchell Madero (MBA ’07), managing director of the Idea Village, which assists startup ventures in New Orleans. “He has all these impressive accomplishments, but there’s a humility about him that makes him really approachable.”
“My first impression of him was—for all his experience and all those black belts that he has—just how down to earth he was,” says Paco Robert (MBA ’11), who serves as a teaching assistant to Elstrott and works with him at EMH Strategy, Elstrott’s consulting firm. “He’s what a professor should be like. He’s educational in all aspects, not just in the classroom but also in trying to expose you to things outside the classroom as well.”
“One of the things I remember about John when he was a teacher is that he would start every class by giving us a little tidbit about New Orleans,” recalls John Shackelford (MBA ’87), founder of GreenWave Health Technologies, a healthcare data processing company he co-founded with Srin Vishwanath (PHTM ’97), another former student of Elstrott’s. “He started every class with just a couple of minutes—‘This is an interesting book that has a lot to do with New Orleans history. It’s called A Confederacy of Dunces.’ That sort of thing. It was a very appropriate and gentle introduction to Freeman and New Orleans, and it made a very strong impression on me.”
Elstrott traveled to Rajasthan, India, in 2011 for the dedication of the Dr. John B. Elstrott Community School, which was established in his honor by the founders of Traditional Medicinals. From left to right, Elstrott, his daughter Rachel, Nioma Sadler and Drake Sadler, co-founder and chairman of Traditional Medicinals.
Elstrott does more than just preach the virtues of a well-balanced life. It’s part of his DNA. In addition to eating well, he maintains an active exercise regimen and practices yoga and meditation on a daily basis. For recreation, he enjoys golf, tennis and sailing. He’s also a music fanatic, a hobby he’s periodically combined with his entrepreneurial interests. He was a partner in a music distribution company in the early ’90s and later that decade became an investor in Tipitina’s, the legendary New Orleans music club. He was also a co-owner of SoGo Live, a Baton Rouge live music club. Today, he continues to indulge his musical interests as a partner in PreSonus Audio, a Baton Rouge-based manufacturer of professional audio equipment and software.
“He’s just a multidimensional kind of person,” says Lina Alfieri Stern, director of the Levy-Rosenblum Institute, who’s worked alongside Elstrott since the late ’80s. “He’s not all business. For a while, he decided that we needed flowers in the office, so he gave me money every week to buy flowers. I don’t know how to explain it. He just wants to make everybody smile.”
“I just consider him to be one of the more noble people that I’ve ever met in any walk of life,” says Mike Webber (MBA ’91), president of Webber Air Cargo and a former research assistant for Elstrott. “I think the world of him.”
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