Chas Roemer Innovations

Innovation

Chas Roemer Innovations was born of a commitment

to dedicate my name, reputation and future to the prospect

that rewards for Louisiana and America will not be realized

without breaking new ground. Venture and risk are the chief portals

to imagination, innovation, positive change, good health, greater

knowledge, and even greater prosperity. CRI is devoted to discovering,

growing, promoting, and managing the ideas that can transform the way

we think, act, and live.

Banking / Finance

In our opinion, community banks play a vital role in the financial fabric of the country, but the challenge for decades had been how to make them competitive? In 2006, we tackled that issue. First, we got rid of bank branches – not a common concept almost 15 years ago. Bricks and mortar were sunken costs and technology had evolved to the point that we believed many banking related tasks could be done remotely or virtually – things like deposits and bill payments.

Secondly, we determined a weakness of many community banks was they were owned by just a few people. They weren’t really owned by the community. So, we decided to start a bank that would have hundreds of owners. Small and medium-sized business owners across our region would each of own a small piece of the bank, with this network becoming a built-in stream of business. We were profitable in our second quarter of operations – unheard of in the banking industry. Business First Bancshares is now listed on NASDAQ (BFST) www.b1bank.com. No branches. Crazy they said.

Communication

At CRI, we believe in a good strong debate. In fact, we champion the principle that the greatest ideas come out of vigorous discussion. That’s why we funded TYT Network in 2014, which is now the most viewed online-only news network. The collaboration started with a few shared beliefs between CRI and TYT founder, Cenk Uyger. Buddy Roemer and Cenk met when Buddy was making a long-shot run at the White House and, while they argued heatedly on a number of topics, they found themselves wholeheartedly agreeing that open, passionate dialogue makes for a better America.

They saw TYT as an opportunity to remind everyone it is possible for people to disagree and yet remain friends. We recognized that TYT could have an outsized influence on politics and, therefore, policy, but we believed it was critical to showcase the debate. So, CRI made an investment in TYT with the limitation that we would have no input into content or opinion. That was o.k. with us. Let’s just have the debate.

Education

We’ve never heard anyone say education wasn’t important. We’ve just heard too few people willing to change a system that doesn’t meet the demands of a more competitive world. We’ve heard too many educational leaders with low expectations for students who more than anything need and deserve encouragement, hope, and high standards. Sure, money helps, but money without high expectations won’t lead to better outcomes. That’s why we helped start the first charter school in Louisiana and would eventually go on to run for and be elected to Louisiana’s State Board of Education serving as its Chairman my last 3 years in office. We brought accountability and innovations to a system that was broken – school letter grades, teacher evaluation, the courage to close a school that was broken, more professional development – and provided a path for more competition with the establishment of Charter Schools and the Louisiana Virtual School, to name just a few. We decided every student had to take the ACT. We gave schools extra credit for the number of AP class offerings.

In the last 10 years, the greatest improvement in educational outcomes for African American students was in New Orleans, Louisiana. The greatest increase in students taking AP exams was right here in Louisiana. Thousands of kids who WOULD NOT HAVE CONSIDERED going to college took the ACT and scored well enough to qualify for a 4- year college. Most of these innovations didn’t require more money. They required an innovation in attitude and outlook. We still have a lot of work to do. Innovation will be the key.

Energy

For many decades now, the United States had a goal to be energy independent. Too many of our policies – economic, political, and military – were driven by the fact that the United States was dependent on foreign countries for a source of energy. Now that has changed. Applying new technology developed with American innovations, the U.S. is now the greatest producer of oil and gas in the world. We’ve gone from a net importer to a net exporter of energy. Now there is a new challenge: Can we provide affordable energy to a world that needs to reduce emissions? Many people jump immediately to the hope that renewables – solar and wind energy – hold the answer. While renewables will play a role, there are impediments and limitations. For example, there were more renewable energy sources in 2019 than at any time in the world’s history and yet the energy produced could not even meet the increase in demand, much less our baseline needs. And renewable energy relies on precious metals and minerals for battery storage and component parts, but none of these minerals or metals can be found in the United States. Which would make us, once again, dependent on foreign countries for our energy. And, if we want to provide affordable energy to the world, is it practical to think you can do that with just renewables? We don’t think that makes any sense. To us, the answer was simple. Remove the emissions from the production of traditional fossil fuels. That’s why we started G2Net-Zero LNG. www.g2net-zerolng.com

It will be the first net-zero emission LNG facility in the world. We can utilize our resources, apply innovative technologies and innovative THINKING and produce LNG that is both clean and affordable. Clean energy. Energy Independence. We can have both AND be profitable.

Lifelong Learning

We believe no one ever naturally stops being curious or being interested in the world around them. When Chas worked in the healthcare industry assisting CRSA develop senior housing across America, he began challenging the assumptions about what it means to grow older. As part of CRSA and then on his own, Chas and CRI began promoting the idea that getting older didn’t mean you had to stop learning, nor did it mean you stopped teaching. We questioned the baseline assumptions.

We asked, what if you built a senior housing development on a college campus? What if the residents could go to class, go to sporting events, and go to cultural activities. And, what if students could come listen to the life experience of the residents? What a rich generational exchange you could create. Drawing on that philosophy, CRSA would go on to develop projects at Penn State, University of Alabama, and University of Texas, to name just a few. Because learning never stops.

Security - AI

9/11 changed everyone’s reality when it came to security. The world had become more dangerous and less predictable. Physical security became something everyone was thinking and talking about. How do we make ourselves safer? Sure, we could subject ourselves to more delays, surrender more of our privacy, and use displays of greater force in order to try and protect ourselves, but was that the best answer? In 2014, we were approached by a firm whose founder had an extensive background in security. She said we can do better. She said they had created an entry point system that combined all of the facets of security found separately at an airport – detectors for metal, hazardous materials, explosive devices, etc. – into a single machine that was more user friendly, less intrusive, and get this… smarter. She used A.I. and IIoT to make all the machines around the world learn form each other every time one of them was used. She said we could use technology and innovation to achieve greater security with less intrusion. We were convinced. So we helped. Now we don’t have to take her word for it, we’ve seen the machine in action at the World Cup, the Olympics, and the Museum of the Bible to name just a few. You should check them out www.qylur.com.