Over 30 years of experience, Suzanne has been connecting clients and the architectural, design and construction community with the commercial interior solutions and expertise necessary to turn their aesthetic goals into reality. She offers extensive industry experience that helps to create and develop strategic and long-lasting productive partnerships.

Suzanne’s philosophy on developing business is grounded in building relationships. She knows that success can only be achieved through consistent follow-up and a total investment in helping her clients achieve their project goals. 

In 1996 Suzanne launched into the A/E/C world after working for an Advertising Agency as an Account Executive for 5 years. She accepted an offer to become the Director of Marketing for one of her clients, a regional Architectural/Engineering/Program Management firm. This role quickly evolved into a business development role.

Fueled by an enthusiasm for the industry and a desire to learn more, she moved on to work for a General Contractor where she was given the responsibility of growing the retail side of the company’s business on a regional level. Over her 7-year tenure, she helped the company’s annual revenue increase from $56 million to $240 million in annual revenue.

Ultimately Suzanne realized she preferred to focus on the interiors portion of commercial projects, and joined with a regional FF&E Dealer-Partner as the Vice President of Business Development. In this role she worked with a team of designer/project managers who engaged with architects and interior designers in a design-assist role very early in the design process. By actively engaging with the design team early, she helped create budgets that worked within project programming requirements that achieved tremendous success for everyone involved. While there she focused on helping grow the business from $18 million to $50 million in annual revenue over the course of a 13-year tenure.

Today, Suzanne has launched a new business development venture with Dumez Development Group. She is now an independent, high-level consultant that helps her clients achieve their business development goals. This evolution in her career allows her to maintain a focus on the development side of projects, bringing partners together as a resource for the design team.

Suzanne maintains involvement with several regional organizations and believes in giving back to the community with her time whenever possible. She is the past Board President of Longue Vue House and Gardens, and Past Board President of KidSmART. She is active with the New Orleans Museum of Art, the CAC, GNO, Inc., Impact 100 and JLNO. She is also engaged with multiple industry organizations such as AIA, IFMA and the Urban Land Institute.

Suzanne graduated with honors from Louisiana State University, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications, with a Major in Advertising and a double minor in Economics and Marketing. She currently resides in New Orleans with her husband of over 25 years and her two children Andre’ and Coco.

Leslie-Claire Spillman is an artist and arts professional with over two decades of experience in art sales and curating. A graduate in art from Xavier University with a focus in painting and photography, Spillman was the longtime Director of Soren Christensen Gallery, and curated hundreds of shows for the space in her tenure there. She's honed a curatorial eye that is respected in the New Orleans art community and beyond and has been juror or reviewer for a competitions and prizes both locally and nationally in art and photography including the Unframed Mural Project, PhotoNola Festival, the Individual Artist Fellowship in the Visual Art and Mural Arts for the Tennessee Arts Commission, and exhibitions at the Southeast Center for Photography, among others.

In August 2020, she established SPILLMAN | BLACKWELL Fine Art which operated a brick-and-mortar location in the heart of the New Orleans Arts District for five years, and now as an advisory, assists artists working in a variety of media and processes. A longtime board member of Arts District New Orleans, she concluded her sixth year as President at the end of 2025. Among her many roles within the organization, Spillman was the chief fundraiser and planner for their signature summer event, White Linen Night.

Her photography has been featured in print and in group exhibitions in various venues throughout the city, and her work is in the permanent collection of the New Orleans Museum of Art, The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and the New Orleans African American Museum. Working exclusively in portraiture, she is constantly inspired by the rich and vibrant culture of her city, and the beauty of its people. In addition to being part of the Dumez Development Team, Leslie-Claire has an independent curatorial and artistic practice.