The man who rebuilt Audubon Zoo into a nationally ranked attraction and transformed the Mississippi riverfront with the Aquarium of the Americas is now leading a campaign to refashion New Orleans' oldest business organization.

Ron Forman, chief executive of the Audubon Nature Institute and incoming chairman of the New Orleans Regional Chamber of Commerce, has begun to outline his idea to radically change the business group during private meetings with key business and political leaders in the region.

Under this plan, the now-separate chamber and MetroVision would converge into a regional economic development organization -- a "mother ship," as Forman calls it -- that would serve as an umbrella group for a collection of independent, parish-level organizations. The reform might involve changing the chamber's name to reflect its new mission, Forman said.

Forman said the new entity also might seek to establish a dedicated source of public financing for the group, something like the tourism taxes that finance the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The overall model would be similar to ones adopted in St. Louis and Houston, Forman said.

Forman hopes the new organization will stimulate industries that can produce the most jobs in the shortest time, such as in shipbuilding, riverfront development and the biomedical and health-care sectors. Forman also said he will seek to increase almost fourfold the chamber's and MetroVision's annual budget, from about $4 million annually to about $15 million.

Next month, at the New Orleans Regional Chamber of Commerce's annual meeting, Forman will take the helm of the 100-year-old organization and formally begin what he foresees will be a yearlong process to draft and implement this plan to reshape the business group and its MetroVision economic development arm.

Although Forman remains fuzzy on the details, his overriding vision is clear: to focus the group's mission on creating jobs. In the past, Forman said, the chamber has measured its success according to other things, such as the number of members on its rolls. These measures, Forman said, might be outmoded if the chamber is to play a key role in the city's economic life.

"There's incredible value in membership," Forman said. "But if you give value to the community, then members will join.

"If we're creating good jobs," Forman said, "if we're growing good jobs, then our chamber's successful."

Forman said the time is right for change. With the business community on an extended honeymoon with New Orleans' new, pro-business mayor, Ray Nagin, and MetroVision riding a wave of good will after spearheading the region's successful bid to relocate the Hornets basketball team from Charlotte, Forman sees an opening.

"There's a window right now that maybe wasn't here a couple of years ago and might not be here a couple of years from now," Forman said. "And part of that is a can-do attitude. People believe."

Motion without action

Over the past several months, as part of an initial, 100-day phase, Forman has held meetings with business executives and government officials, including Nagin and Jefferson Parish President Tim Coulon. Forman also has commissioned a consultant to survey area leaders to gather information on the region's economic development practices.

Once the report is delivered, Forman and chamber leaders plan to spend the next 60 days digesting the report, seeking comment on its recommendations and drafting a plan, said Brian Schwaner, a chamber spokesman.

The next phase, expected to take about one year, would entail implementing the plan, Schwaner said.

Although they share some staff and board members, the chamber and MetroVision are separate organizations. They have separate boards, financing sources, staff and missions, Schwaner said. Even the scope of the two groups varies: The chamber represents seven parishes, while MetroVision represents 10.

On the local level, the chamber is composed of area councils: one for New Orleans; one each for the east and west banks of Jefferson Parish; one for St. Bernard Parish; and one for the River Parishes, which includes Plaquemines, St. John, St. James and St. Charles parishes. MetroVision's region also includes Tangipahoa, Washington and St. Tammany parishes.

One possible plan would be to spin each parish council into a separate, autonomous organization, where members would conduct networking and other activities now associated with the chamber. All of these organizations would be represented on the regional level by the mother ship economic development entity.

Forman takes over at a time when the chamber chairman wields considerable power within the organization. In August, the chamber's President and Chief Executive, Bob Gayle, resigned the top staff position, citing philosophical differences with the chamber's executive committee. Gayle's hand-picked No. 2 staffer, chief operating officer Mike Rollins, also resigned at the time, leaving a considerable vacuum at the top.

Barbara Johnson, senior vice president for regional initiatives and a 10-year chamber veteran, is serving as interim president. But the group has said it will wait to fill the two vacant spots until the chamber decides what the new organization will look like and what the new executives' duties will be.

Forman's predecessor, outgoing chamber Chairman Mike Bush, said part of Forman's task will be to keep the process on track, despite the many strong-willed business executives who will inevitably participate in the process.

"Are egos going to be a big piece of this?" said Bush, who is president and chief executive of Mississippi River Bank in Belle Chasse. "Yes, they are."

During his year as chairman, Bush, a big, outspoken man with a banker's sense of realism, has been critical of what he views as the chamber's lack of direction. While the chamber's MetroVision arm has emerged as a household name because of its role in the Hornets bid, the chamber itself has been static, Bush said.

"If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got," Bush says, summing up what he sees as a need for change. Another favorite quote: "Don't confuse motion for action."

"We've had a lot of motion," Bush said of the chamber, "but not much action or results."

Jeff execs praise concept

Forman is the right person to effect change, Bush said.

"If we really want a change, then I think Ron is going to have the ability to do that," Bush said. "He has pretty much regionwide credence that he can get the job done."

As a turnaround artist, Forman indeed has few peers. In the three decades since he took over management of the Audubon Zoo, Forman has turned a struggling enterprise into a sprawling empire, with annual revenue of more than $20 million, which comes largely through memberships fees, admissions and donations from the private sector.

The Audubon Nature Institute, formerly the Audubon Institute, was established in 1988 as a non-profit fund-raising and management arm of the city's Audubon Park Commission. Its array of projects now include the zoo, aquarium, Audubon Park, Woldenburg Park, the Freeport-McMoRan Species Survival Center and the Audubon Center for the Research of Endangered Species.

In building this empire, Forman has proven himself a deft fund-raiser, able to win the respect -- and largesse -- of the same business executives who almost certainly will have to rally behind the new chamber if it is to reach Forman's financial goals.

He also has shown a skill for keeping projects on track amid controversy. The recently completed $6 million renovation of the Audubon Park golf course is a case in point. In developing the course, Forman overcame seemingly constant complaints from community activists and pushed the project through with only minor concessions.

Keith Hardie Jr., an attorney for Save Audubon Park, predicted Forman's connections and political savvy will enable him to make whatever changes he sets his mind to at the chamber.

"There's no question that Forman's very capable, and he's very likely to succeed in getting done whatever he wants to get done," Hardie said. "Anyone who's going to oppose Forman is going to face an uphill battle."

Hardie also offered a caveat to other chamber members. Noting Forman's ability to consolidate a bedrock of power within the public Audubon Park Commission, for which Forman is technically just a contractor, Hardie said: "People need to look at whatever proposals Forman makes to make sure power will not be concentrated in the hands of a few."

Schwaner said any new governing structure would almost certainly provide considerable power to outlying parishes, particularly Jefferson and St. Tammany, where much of the region's economic growth has occurred in the past decade.

At this stage, Forman said, he's trying to articulate his plan and address concerns.

"What we're trying to do is listen," he said. "What's the resistance? What would you have us do?"

For now, leaders of at least some other business organizations appear comfortable with Forman's concept.

"I definitely think there's some merit to the mother ship idea," said Henry Shane, a real estate executive who recently completed a term as chairman of the Jefferson Business Council.

Shane likened the structure to that of industry trade associations, which often have independent state and local chapters that deal with local issues even as they support a national trade group that deals with national matters.

"The majority of the work is done at the local level," Shane said. "That concept works because you feel a part of the process."

Todd Murphy, a vice president with Omni Bank in Metairie and chairman-elect of the 850-member Jefferson Chamber of Commerce, agreed the mother ship concept appears promising.

"From the standpoint of the Jefferson chamber, we see this process as one that could be very healthy," Murphy said. "We see it as a great opportunity for everybody."

New Orleans developer Pres Kabacoff attended the first meeting where Forman introduced the mother ship concept. Although Kabacoff said he had been consumed by his Wal -- Mart development and therefore not able to devote much attention to the Mother Ship plan, he did say the idea seemed good and that he believed Forman was the right person to handle it.

"I'll only say I would bet on Forman," he said.

Forman said his job is simply to create a vehicle that can channel the energy the region already has shown it can muster.

"If we can put this energy together to get the Hornets, why can't we put this same energy together to make other aspects of the city work?" Forman said. "If you have the entire business community dreaming the same dream, there's nothing we can't accomplish."