After more than two years at the helm, Calvin Mills Jr. will be stepping down from leading Nexus Louisiana in January.
Mills was tapped as a management consultant to handle leadership responsibilities for the organization after former President and CEO Genevieve Silverman stepped down in June 2022,
He has also withdrawn his name from Nexus’s search for a permanent CEO. Mills was one of sixteen candidates vying for the position.
He tells Daily Report that he plans to return to his own companies and helping them grow.
“It’s in the best interest for me to,” Mills says. “I’ve done my job, I’ve served my purpose to serve this community of entrepreneurs.”
This marks the third leadership change for Nexus in less than three years. Nexus Louisiana’s Executive Director Stephen Loy, a fixture in the organization for more than two decades, departed in September for a position with LSU-led FUEL.
Under Mills’ leadership, Nexus was targeted for a substantive makeover in surprise legislation authored by Sen. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge. The initiative, which got its start as an innocuous sickle cell anemia bill, would have substantively changed the makeup of the Research Park board of directors, which oversees Nexus Louisiana.
As written, it would have reduced the board of directors from a range of nine to 12 members to seven to nine. It was also designed to give Barrow and Rep. C. Denise Marcelle of Baton Rouge control over two of those appointments for what was intended to be a statewide advocacy organization and resource for entrepreneurs. It also called for reducing the maximum number of appointees representing the business sector from seven to two.
Gov. Jeff Landry vetoed the bill after some in the business community raised concerns.
Aside from his work from Nexus, Mills leads two companies, CMC Technology Solutions, and SLT Technology Inc. Earlier this year, he was appointed the adviser of technology, innovation and entrepreneurship to Sylvia Nagginda, queen of Buganda, who visited in May.
Mills says his last day will be Jan. 15, one day after the Nexus board is expected to conduct virtual interviews of the semifinalists for permanent CEO.
Who will lead the organization during the gap of Mills’ departure and the new CEO’s arrival? Nexus Board Chair Anita Byrne says the board is working through that and that they have an executive committee meeting scheduled next week.
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