Simone Bruni – Reclaiming Our Past
Best in Show – Pup and Purr Magazine, Spring 2023
Simone quickly realized that the demolition business Is a salvage business. The historic beauty of New Orleans needs to be delicately dismantled and repurposed. In 2015, she started her second business, Reclaimed Diva Millworks.
Enterprising Woman: Simone Bruni
Demo Diva: Her Own Force of Nature, Sophisticated Woman Magazine, October 2020
Simone Bruni religiously reflects on how opportunities in the guise of adversity or coincidence have found their way to her and shaped her life, from social service work in early years to creating a local business empire built not on tearing down, but on rebirth.
Simone Bruni Profiled in St. Charles Magazine
Simone Bruni – Founder, Demo Diva, March 2018
Demo Diva’s hot pink dumpsters and excavators have been a part of the New Orleans landscape for years now. Despite her company’s sassy name, founder Simone Bruni is down-to-earth and dedicated to supporting her community.
Prix d’Elegance Luncheon honors those who meld fashion and philanthropy
Prix d’Elegance Luncheon, May 2016
Michael Hecht, Simone Bruni Crouere, Lori Ramsey and Gerry Cvitanovich at Prix d’Elegance Luncheon hosted by the Men and Women of Fashion to benefit the the Ballet Resource and Volunteer Organization, at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside Hotel, Tues. April 19, 2016
Ursulines Alumnae Spotlight
Ursulines Alumnae Spotlight, March 2016
Simone Bruni Crouere, Skip of 1989, started Demo Diva Demolition following Hurricane Katrina. With no construction experience and no family members in construction, she had to sell trust to her customers: trust me to help you, I’m your neighbor, trust me I’m from New Orleans, trust me I’m an Ursuline girl! In a community that was upside down and an influx of outsiders, New Orleanians wanted to work with locals.
Girl Power
Lagniappe Online, November 2015
In the span of a day. Simone Bruni Crouere seemed to have lost everything — everything except for her resilience. A New Orleans native. Simone had been working in the hospitality industry for 10 years. She just purchased her first home in Lakeview a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans. She was loving life. Then Hurricane Katrina hit and changed everything. Her house was destroyed, and she was laid off from her job. But that didn’t stop her. in fact. the tragedy inspired her.
10 Years After Katrina
Simone Bruni, 43, lost her home in Katrina, and her job as a party planner. She also lost neighbors who couldn’t afford to get back home. “They could hardly afford the demo,” she said of one couple who lived four doors down.
But Katrina also made Ms. Bruni. Ten months after it struck, she began to festoon the ruined neighborhood with signs for her new post-storm venture, a company that she had cheekily named the Demo Diva. She played up her femininity, deploying hot-pink Dumpsters and trucks, and built a multimillion-dollar business tearing down ruined homes.
In New Orleans: Becoming the Demo Diva
WNYC Radio: In New Orleans: Becoming the Demo Diva
Simone Bruni never imagined she would someday run a demolition company. “I grew up in a very traditional Latin home,” she says. “My mom did not work. I wanted her life. I wanted to be a stay at home mom.” But when Hurricane Katrina hit, Simone was 32 and single, working in the hospitality industry.
Post-Katrina Biz
POST-KATRINA BIZ: Simone Bruni, owner and founder of Demo Diva Demolition, has Hurricane Katrina to thank for her multi-million dollar, hot pink branded business, and explains how she’s kept it going strong almost a decade after the Storm in this Biz New Orleans Daily Biz Minute.
Demo Diva Dazzles at UNO Entrepreneurship Week
Demo Diva Dazzles at UNO Entrepreneurship Week
Demolition Diva Simone Bruni dazzled marketing students at the University of New Orleans today talking about shoes. The woman whose sustainable start-up demolition business has made the pages of Forbes Magazine gave a speech entitled “Shoe Me Up!” that was designed to inspire.
Simone Bruni: Prosperous In Pink
The Ursu.Lines
Simone Bruni, a graduate of Ursuline’s class of 1989, is “pretty in pink” but using this very feminine color in her business has helped Bruni become prosperous in pink. The color wasn’t part of her life during the two years she tutored in the Desire Project immediately after her graduation from Loyola. Nor did it become part of her daily environment during the ten years she was involved in convention planning with a local company. It was shortly after Hurricane Katrina…
Rebuilding New Orleans Started with Demolition, Cleanup – ‘Demo Diva’ Goes Beyond the Worksite
Simone Bruni, the “diva” of The Demo Diva Demolition Company, knows firsthand that that one person committed to helping their hometown can improve everyone’s quality of life. Before rebuilding New Orleans could start following Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, there had to be demolition and cleanup: that’s where Bruni took the stage.
Demo Diva Founder Simone Bruni Demolishes New Orleans with Purpose
June 2013: In a heavy equipment world full of yellows, browns, dirt, and grime, Demo Diva’s vibrant pink branding stands out. Get to know this New Orleans-based company and its founder, Simone Bruni, and the differences are even more noticeable.
Demolition Diva Proves That the Deconstruction Business Isn’t a Man’s World
NOLA Woman Magazine Online
January 2013: Simone Bruni went from dreaming about being the perfect wife and mother to making a huge impact on the male-dominated world of demolition.
Entrepreneur Spotlight: Simone Bruni, the ‘Demo Diva’
IntheNOLA Online Magazine
January 2013: “This is a man’s world!” the King of Soul, James Brown, famously proclaimed in 1966. While he was certainly right in some regards, there’s no denying that women are doing big things as well.
Changing Course But Swimming Back From Katrina
Forbes Magazine Online
November 2011: While disasters often spawn opportunity in their wake, Katrina’s devastation was so profound that it reshaped the psyche of New Orleans residents, including its entrepreneurs.
Demolition Gets a Makeover
Site Prep Magazine
February 2011: New Orleans owner thinks outside the box with business built from the wreckage of Katrina.
Pink Power
Demolition & Recycling International
January 2011
Demo Diva Makes Cover of Professional Demolition International
Professional Demolition International
January 2011: The Movers & Shakers juggernaut rambles on. But this time it’s painted bright pink and driven by a woman. The woman’s name is Simone Bruni, and she has proved that women can be just as successful as men in the tough business of professional demolition.
Tickled Pink
Minority Business Entrepreneur
June 2010: New Orleans native turns disaster into opportunity. Simone Bruni draws people to her business, the Demo Diva Demolition Company, with her bright smile, compassionate attitude, and bright pink everything.
Queen of Debris
Gumbo Magazine
December 2009: Meet the lady who owns the pink demolition bins and equipment scattered in and around New Orleans. The Demo Diva saw a need for, well, tearing stuff down after Hurricane Katrina.
Small Business Lending
Gulf Coast Bank & Trust Annual Report
December 2009: Demo Diva featured in the annual report for Gulf Coast Bank & Trust, offering SBA (Small Business Administration) Loans in New Orleans, Jefferson Parish and Baton Rouge.
Shop Dog
Gambit
September 2009: Though he favors a bright pink construction helmet, Simon wears many hats, including gourmand, job-site overseer and reality television star.
In the Washington Post
Washington Post Online
August 2006: he address was supposed to be a demolition. It was on the Red Tag list after Hurricane Katrina, but when we finally found Hastings Street, the house was long gone.