An Interview with Mary Wallace Hannon, Operations and Strategic Communications Manager for the Regions Foundation
By Lindsey Benefield, Ecosystem Builder and SSBCI Fund Manager, Innovate Mississippi | Founder & CEO, CoBridge Ventures
As the countdown begins for Innovate Mississippi’s Accelerate 2025 Conference on November 11-12, Mary Wallace Hannon serves as a reminder that regional opportunity is no longer waiting for someone else to deliver it — we’re building it ourselves.
This year, the Regions Foundation is helping power that progress by awarding a grant to Innovate Mississippi which helps support the Scale-Up Pitch Competition, where Mississippi startup founders will take the stage to compete for a $15,000 prize provided by the Regions Foundation. The winning startup will be announced live by John Howie, Region’s Metro Jackson Market Executive, and Hannon presenting the award during Wednesday’s session.
Over the past few years, I’ve had the privilege of witnessing how strategic giving can generate genuine momentum across the Southeast. One of the driving forces is the Regions Foundation, endowed in 2018, where Hannon serves as Operations & Strategic Communications Manager.
From Birmingham to the Mississippi Delta and across the Foundation’s 15-state footprint, Hannon and her team are strengthening communities by investing in, economic & community development, education & workforce readiness, and financial wellness. Their mission is simple but powerful: to create inclusive prosperity where every person and every community has the opportunity to thrive.
As we look ahead to Accelerate 2025, Hannon shared how the Foundation’s focus on collaboration, creativity, and community impact is helping to shape Mississippi’s growing innovation ecosystem.
“Strong communities depend on opportunity for everyone,” Hannon said. “When the Regions Foundation was endowed, it allowed us to take a more strategic, programmatic approach to fostering more opportunity,”
The Foundation supports small businesses, from Main Street to tech startups, under the belief that entrepreneurship drives job creation and vibrancy. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses have created over 60% of the job growth in the last 30 years and account for roughly 44% of U.S. economic activity. Hannon sees that the Foundation’s support is more than grantmaking, but ensuring that every dollar invested is helping entrepreneurs take root and flourish.
Mississippi has historically been underrepresented in small-business support, but this presents a significant opportunity for growth. Hannon notes that the real motion is happening now in places like Mississippi, where the ecosystem is aligning: from Innovate Mississippi to the SBDC to university innovation hubs. That kind of coordination is exactly what the Foundation looks for when it invests—a place where there’s a clear need and organizations are already moving the needle.
Mississippi isn’t waiting anymore. It’s leaning in; Hannon and the Regions Foundation are ready to back that.
Often, economic development has leaned on the “get a factory, bring jobs” mindset. Hannon says today’s model needs to start closer to home. When people have the ability to start a business, build skills for evolving industries, and make smart financial decisions, that’s when real and lasting opportunity emerges.
The Foundation’s focus on small business support, workforce readiness, and financial wellness directly connects to innovation efforts like Accelerate 2025.
What excites Hannon most about Accelerate 2025 is the level of alignment across Mississippi’s innovation ecosystem. “It’s rare to see this kind of coordination—where universities, technical assistance providers, and statewide organizations are all pulling in the same direction.”
With Innovate Mississippi at the helm, she sees strong partnerships forming between groups like the SBDC, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State. “That kind of collaboration means our investment has a multiplying effect. Every dollar we put in helps unlock additional impact across the network.”
For Hannon, collaboration isn’t just a strategy – it’s a philosophy. “No single organization -whether a foundation, corporation, or public agency -can build a sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem alone.”
“We’ve seen firsthand how events like Accelerate or the 3rd Coast Venture Summit create more than just good networking. They curate the right people in the room: founders, funders, and ecosystem leaders who can lean on one another. That’s the secret sauce for growth,” Hannon says.
Hannon and I first met at the Idea Village’s 3rd Coast Venture Summit in New Orleans, another Regions Foundation–supported organization dedicated to fueling the South’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. That initial connection, built around a shared belief in collaboration and access to capital, has since evolved into a growing community partnership between the Regions Foundation and Innovate Mississippi, one that continues to build momentum and connections for founders across the region.
“When the right people meet at the right time, the ripple effects can be powerful,” Hannon adds. “That’s how ecosystems grow: through trust, connection, and a shared commitment to seeing one another succeed.”
For Hannon, the work isn’t just professional, it’s personal. Growing up in Mobile, Ala., she watched her father launch a men’s clothing store, pivot into marketing, open an outdoor/fly-fishing shop—three businesses he built from scratch. Watching his risk-taking, creativity, commitment and later retirement after selling his enterprises gave her a front-row seat to what entrepreneurship really takes.
She says that experience planted her passion for supporting founders in the South, where local businesses are woven into the daily fabric of community life. Hannon had this to say to anyone building in Mississippi right now:
“You’re exactly where you need to be, and what you’re doing matters. Mississippi has incredible momentum right now. There is real collaboration, creativity, and community behind its entrepreneurs. Keep showing up, keep connecting with one another, and know that what you’re building today is shaping the future of this region. The Regions Foundation, Innovate Mississippi, and so many others are cheering for you every step of the way.”
About Regions Foundation
Regions Foundation supports community investments that positively impact the communities served by Regions Bank. The Foundation engages in a grantmaking program focused on priorities including economic and community development; education and workforce readiness; and financial wellness. The Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation funded primarily through contributions from Regions Bank.
