Notable New Orleanians: A Tricentennial Tribute

Above: Texaco Center 1984.
Top: Canizaro with architect August “Augie”
Perez, III.
Below: U.S. Navy Information Technology
Center at the University of New
Orleans, 1998
with employment, residences, schools and
recreational amenities centered on health and
wellness, education, culture and the environment.”
Tradition lies adjacent to the largest
national park in Mississippi, and in close proximity
to the area’s white sand beaches. It provides
a small town feel, centered on neighborhood
parks, walking trails, a beautiful lake,
and a neighborhood YMCA and pool. With a
focus on education for all ages, Tradition is
home to William Carey University, Mississippi
Gulf Coast Community College, St. Patrick
Catholic High School, and excellent public
schools. In addition to a wide array of housing
and lifestyle choices, Tradition is easily accessible
to other area communities.
From the start, Tradition was planned to be
a community emphasizing education, sustainability,
healthy lifestyle and high quality of life.
Nowhere is this more evident than in its selection
as the home of the National Diabetes &
Obesity Research Institute, a state-of-the-art
research facility, which is a key component of
Tradition’s 150 acre Learning Medical City.
Diabetes and obesity currently represent a
growing epidemic in the United States with
more than 100 million Americans having diabetes
or pre-diabetes. To address this alarming
trend that the National Diabetes & Obesity
Research Institute was founded. Affiliated with
the world-famous Cleveland Clinic’s
Endocrinology & Metabolism Institute, its
underlying goal is to find a cure for diabetes. In
furtherance of this goal, the Institute is focused
on the following areas: to conduct and share
groundbreaking clinical trials and research; to
reduce diabetes incidence nationally through
education, treatment and prevention; and to
address healthcare disparities in underserved
populations. Canizaro serves on the Institute’s
Board of Directors as secretary-treasurer.
In addition to real estate development,
Canizaro’s impact on the community has also
extended to the financial sector. In 1991, he
recognized opportunity where others had
seen trouble, purchasing First Bank and Trust,
the successor to First City Bank of New
Orleans, which had failed during the real
estate crisis of the early 1990s. Subsequently,
Canizaro bought Peoples Bank in Amite,
Louisiana, and First Bank and Trust of
Mississippi (the successor to Central Bank for
Savings, in Winona, Mississippi) merging
them with First Bank and Trust.
Today, First Bank and Trust is a $950 million
commercial bank, which offers consumer,
mortgage, and commercial loans, as well as
deposit services, to a wide range of customers
across the Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf
Coast. Further diversifying his financial offerings,
Canizaro formed FBT Investments, Inc.,
a full service securities brokerage firm in 1999.
Then, FBT Advisors, Inc., was formed in 2000,
serving as a securities advisory firm complementing
the products and services of First
Trust Corporation, the bank holding company.
In 1998, Canizaro founded Corporate
Capital, L.L.C., a venture capital firm focused on
investing in traditional American businesses such
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