John Koch

John L. Koch III is a principal at Élan Capital, a New Orleans investment bank and financial advisory firm, which he joined in 2005. His career spans commercial banking, corporate treasury, and specialty finance. For roughly a decade he held various positions at Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold and McMoRan Exploration Company, rising to Vice President and Treasurer, where he was involved in more than $7 billion of financing transactions.

Before Freeport-McMoRan, Koch served as a Vice President at Hibernia National Bank, where he headed several areas including International Banking and Special Assets / Loan Workout. Earlier in his career he worked for AmSouth Bank in Birmingham, Alabama, focusing on commercial credit underwriting and National Corporate lending. He earned both his BA and MBA from Tulane University in New Orleans.

At Élan Capital — established in 2001 — Koch is part of a management team with a combined 70-plus years of experience in commercial banking, corporate finance, management of high-growth companies, and turnaround management of troubled companies. The firm advises middle-market companies along the Gulf Coast on mergers and acquisitions, turnaround management, and specialty finance, and participates across the full investment cycle, including angel investing in start-ups.

• Invests and advises across the entire investment cycle of a company: angel investing for start-ups, growth capital for expanding companies, turnaround management for under-performing companies, and acquisition advisory.
• Angel/seed activity is one arm of a broader investment-banking and financial-advisory practice rather than a dedicated venture fund.
• Focus on middle-market companies along the Gulf Coast, reflecting a New Orleans / Louisiana base.
• Underwriting lens shaped by the team's backgrounds in commercial banking, corporate finance, and turnaround/restructuring — a bias toward financial fundamentals, capital structure, and management quality.