John B. Elstrott Jr., PhD and Patty West Elstrott

John Elstrott is an entrepreneur and founder of the Levy-Rosenblum Institute for Entrepreneurship (LRI) and the Tulane Family Business Center at the A. B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University. John also founded the Freeman Consulting Club through which students provided free business and project support to small business and nonprofit organizations in the New Orleans metro area. Students who donated at least 25 hours of work over the course of the academic year were awarded The Freeman School Community Service award at graduation. This servicelearning program was a forerunner of what eventually became the University wide community service requirement for Tulane students. After teaching for more than 30 years and retiring in 2013, he is now Emeritus Director of the LRI.

As a doctoral student in economics at the University of Colorado, John met two men who were launching an herbal tea company. He joined them part-time and prepared loan applications, developed an inventory system and secured an appropriate location for their headquarters. Just about the time he graduated, the company began to be successful. That company was Celestial Seasonings. He stayed with the company for five years before he, his wife and two young children returned to Louisiana to be closer to their families.

John has a successful history of co-founding and investing in grocery, organic food products, environmental and technology companies, venture capital, restoration ecology and regenerative agriculture, advertising and marketing services, music audio hardware and software, functional food, herbal wellness, and manufacturing businesses. He may be best known as the former chairman of the board of directors of Whole Foods Market. Local entrepreneur Peter Roy sought John’s help to grow the New Orleans based Whole Food Stores in 1980. Those stores were acquired by Whole Foods Market in Austin, Texas in 1987. John joined the Whole Foods Market board in 1991 and in 2005 became its chairman. Over the decades he saw Whole Foods Market expand in three countries to employ 90,000 people.

John has been generous with his time and insight to Tulane. He is a past member of the Cowen Institute Advisory Committee (2007-2014); the Executive Education Board of Directors (2012); and the LRI Advisory Board. He was awarded the Tulane Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year Award and the Tulane Outstanding Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2013 from the Tulane Council of Entrepreneurs. He served as a Business Model Competition Judge in 2015 and 2018.

Both of John and Patty’s children graduated from Tulane. Their daughter, Rachel NC ’00, double majored in English and philosophy. She is a clinical social worker/therapist. Their son, Justin TC ’02, double majored in philosophy (cum laude) and psychology (summa cum laude with department honors) before earning his doctorate in neuroscience at University of California at San Diego.

John and Patty have established a legacy gift to benefit the Levy Rosenblum Institute for Entrepreneurship.