Jake Wood Was Once a Warrior, Then a Nonprofit Leader. Now He’s an Entrepreneur.
“I just got to tell you something that I think is really cool,” says Jordan Leech, a former New Orleans-area high school teacher and school board member, who also was a member of the New Orleans Saints football team. After retiring from the Saints, Leech became a motivational speaker.
“He’s not on any motivational message sites or anything but he’s been around for a while, and he’s got stories,” says Leech’s friend, fellow motivational speaker Mike Smith. “And Mike’s got all the stories because he’s been around a long time. And all he says is, ‘I just got to tell you something that I think is really cool.'”
Leech and Smith met while Smith was running businesses in and around New Orleans. They started a mentorship group, and then started an organization, a 501(c)(3) called the Center for Nonprofits and Youth in New Orleans (CNNY).
“That is his background,” says Smith, who served for five years on the New Orleans City Council before being elected to the Board of Aldermen. “Jordan has done a phenomenal job mentoring some of our younger council members, which is good for the city, good for the people, and all of that.”
Smith’s background is in the political arena, and the organization is based on what he has experienced himself.
On March 6 in New Orleans, Smith will be speaking at the first-ever New Orleans Entrepreneurship Expo, a gathering for about 1,100 businesspeople and entrepreneurs who are creating jobs, growing companies and creating better jobs.
“He’s had a tremendous amount of experience with nonprofits and the nonprofit world; he did it for 30 years,” Smith says. “And he’s one of those guys that can sit back and look at the bigger picture, and he can still be a very good mentor. He really can. I have a good mentor.”
Smith says Leech has made an impact on some of the younger members of the City Council.
“He’s very involved,” says Leech, of which Smith has fond memories. “He’s one
