GET DAILY REPORT FREE
While in her senior year at LSU, one of Alicia Vidrine’s professors posed a simple question to her during an encounter at the student union.
Had she secured a job after graduation?
The conversation quickly turned to an internship opportunity at the Tiger Athletic Foundation. Now, 20 years later, Vidrine is vice president and chief financial officer of the organization. Since that day in the student union, she has overseen the finances of several facility upgrades and capital improvements, including the storied south end zone addition to Tiger Stadium and the Football Operations and Performance Nutrition Center renovation project.
Originally from the town of Vidrine, Louisiana, she received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting from LSU. She started at the foundation in 2004 as an accounting intern before moving up to an accountant role the following year. She continued to work her way up through the organization, and was named CFO at the age of 34.
It meant a lot, she says, seeing herself “surrounded by people who had the confidence in me to be placed in that position at such a young age.”
She counts her first boss as a formative mentor, teaching her the value of perseverance and the will “to strive to do better and improve things.” Vidrine also notes the importance of being willing to listen and learn from others.
A key aspect of her job at the nonprofit foundation is working closely with the board’s finance committee.
“It’s filled with business-savvy people from Baton Rouge and across the country,” she says. “They have a lot of knowledge of business, and it is an opportunity to learn from people I think of as mentors and to continue improving what TAF does.”
During her time with the foundation, Vidrine has played a major role in its fundraising success, leading to the construction and improvement of a variety of facilities and programs for the university’s athletics portfolio, including an indoor tennis facility, a gymnastics practice facility, and a nutrition center for student athletes.
Vidrine was part of the foundation team that was awarded the PACnet Star of the Year Award, which is given to organizations that exceed expectations and achieve extraordinary results in marketing, ticketing, or fundraising.
Outside of work, Vidrine has been an active volunteer with St. Aloysius Church and St. Aloysius School. She also helps raise funds for Catholic High School.
This year promises to be momentous for her family. Vidrine and her husband, Kirk, whom she calls her best friend and greatest supporter, will celebrate their three children’s graduations later this spring.
In reflecting on her 20 years at TAF, Vidrine appreciates the importance of that serendipitous encounter in the student union.
“I love that my job is never the same,” she says. “There is always some new project process, or something new going on in athletics we must learn to deal with. There are always new challenges that pop up. It’s exciting.”
THE INFLUENCE
Alicia Vidrine has played a key role in the Tiger Athletic Foundation’s record-breaking fundraising success. She oversees the finances of constructing its capital improvement projects, which have included the south end zone addition at Tiger Stadium and the LSU Football Operations and Performance Nutrition Center renovation, among others.
