Lydia Cutrer has pursued a career combining economic development and finance. In September 2012, she returned to her hometown and joined the City of New Orleans as a Service and Innovation Manager focused on identifying opportunities to increase revenues and reduce expenditures through business processes and technology.
Prior to this role, she served as an Investment Officer at Calvert Foundation in Bethesda, Maryland, where she managed a portfolio of affordable housing and community development investments and helped 24 borrowers secure $27.3 million in financing.
Previously, as an Asset Manager at PNC Realty Investors in Washington, DC, she managed a 1.5 million sf commercial real estate portfolio, proposed 41 leases resulting in $17.5 million of income and managed two dispositions totaling $28.0 million.
Lydia has also worked as an Analyst at JPMorgan Chase in New York, where she helped originate over $5 billion in financing.
Lydia received her MBA in 2006 from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with concentrations in Real Estate and Strategic Management, and earned three fellowships. Lydia is a 2001 summa cum laude graduate of Temple University, earning a BBA in Accounting.
Complementing her work experience, Lydia is committed to community. She completed the Emerging Philanthropists of New Orleans program in November 2013 to support a non-profit that works in an underserved neighborhood. In addition, she serves as a guide to a public high school student in the Young Leadership Council’s College Admissions Project.
Lydia is a member of the Project Development committee for Project Homecoming, an affordable housing developer. She also completed Junior League’s “Get on Board” non-profit board training in the spring of 2013.
Lydia received the competitive John M. Bendheim Loan Forgiveness Fund for Public Service Award from Wharton which supports alumni pursuing public and nonprofit service.