Gayle Benson OWNER, NEW ORLEANS SAINTS & PELICANS Gayle Marie LaJaunie Bird Benson has a name almost as long as the list of all the businesses she’s founded or currently runs. She branched from real estate into sports, owning both the New Orleans Saints and the Pelicans. There’s more, including a brewing company and a thoroughbred racing stable, but her philanthropic endeavors get her into the Worthy 100. Here, the list is even longer, ranging from the Gayle and Tom Benson Stadium in Texas to ongoing health and cancer research donations culminating in the 343,000 square-foot Gayle and Tom Benson Ochsner Children’s Hospital.
Kyle Bibby CHIEF OF CAMPAIGNS, COLOR OF CHANGE Kyle Bibby was a captain in the Marine Corps and served in Afghanistan. Since then, he’s devoted his considerable energies to empowering social change across various issues. For example, he’s a Political Partner with the Truman National Security Project, which develops leadership and intelligent solutions for national security. He currently serves as Chief of Campaigns at Color of Change, the country’s largest online racial justice organization; he co-founded the Black Veterans Project, a nonprofit that works to eliminate racial injustice in the military. In what little spare time he must have left, he’s served as a Presidential Management Fellow and directed the New Jersey Reentry Corp., which helps citizens integrate from incarceration into the community.
Juan Domingo Beckmann CO-FOUNDER, GRAN CORAMINO TEQUILA Juan Domingo Beckmann comes from a family making high-quality Mexican tequila for 11 generations. But what cements his place among the Worthy 100 is the Gran Coramino Tequila brand he founded with one of the world’s funniest (and shortest) entrepreneurs, Kevin Hart (see below). In association with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), Gran Coramino has started the somewhat unimaginatively named Coramino Fund. The Fund works with LISC to make $10,000 grants available to Black and Latinx small business operators who don’t have enough growth capital. In the two years since its launch, the Fund has awarded grants to more than 100 small businesses, with another 50 on the way for 2024.
Pablo Barreiro CO-FOUNDER & CHAIRMAN, FORTEC Carrying more than 20 years of real estate experience, Pablo Barreiro co-founded Fortec, a company that transforms urban neighborhoods by building schools. As chairman, he focuses on bringing top school operators to rapidly growing communities with inadequate educational infrastructure. The idea behind Fortec is to revitalize abandoned sites into helpful new resources that can boost a neighborhood’s prosperity. Fortec has developed 20 schools and early childhood centers in just four years, completing over $170.4 million in real estate transactions across several states, with another $40 million presently underway. WORTH.COM
WINTER 2024
35