Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport has been awarded $3.65 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation to improve fire and rescue operations. The money will be used to put facilities and equipment in place to keep the airport safe for passengers and employees. This is the second big grant award for the airport in recent weeks; $4.42 million in federal funds were awarded in February to cover the cost of resurfacing the runway.
The Shaw Group’s energy and chemicals division has been awarded a contract for a front-end engineering design for a Saudi Arabian polymer plant. The value of the company’s contract with Arabian Petrochemical Company was not disclosed. The plant, which will be built in Al-Jubail, will produce 200 kilo tons per year of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, which is used to make products such as pipes, clarinets, Lego bricks and tattoo inks. Meanwhile, Shaw’s energy and chemicals division has been awarded a contract to provide engineering services for a liquefied petroleum gas facility that is being built in Algeria. The company did not disclose the value of the contract with Sonatrach. Shaw had provided a front-end engineering design for the plant near Hassi Messaoud, which is set to open in the first half of 2012.
Cortana Mall has gone back to its original name after calling itself the Mall of Cortana for the past decade. Cortana, which opened in 1976, gave itself a new name to single out the mall from the surrounding shopping district, which includes a Wal-Mart Supercenter, Lowe’s and Old Navy. The new campaign, which launched last month, will run at least through Christmas. Cortana is working with The Daniel Group, a Maryland firm, to shake up the tenant mix in the mall.
Kleinpeter Farms Dairy has unveiled the first of several new flavors of ice cream, sweet potato pie. The dairy has been experimenting with quirky new flavors that embrace Louisiana recipes and ingredients such as café au lait with Community Coffee, bananas foster praline with Aunt Sally’s Pralines and Elmer’s Gold Brick made with the Ponchatoula candy eggs.
The Grillroom Chophouse & Wine Bar, an upscale Chicago eatery, opened March 25 in Perkins Rowe in a 7,500-square-foot space next to California Pizza Kitchen. Menu items include their signature mac and cheese, grilled steaks and oysters on the half shell.
Hollingsworth Richards Mazda held a grand opening on March 25 for its Florida Boulevard dealership. The high-tech, 7,000-square-foot showroom has been open since October.
North Oaks Health System has signed a purchase agreement to acquire Gulf States LTAC of Hammond. Subject to a satisfactory outcome of the due diligence period and other contractual conditions of the agreement, North Oaks plans to close the purchase May 27 and begin operating the 40-bed facility as North Oaks LTAC on May 28. An LTAC is a long-term acute care facility that treats patients with serious and often complex medical conditions that require extended hospital stays.
AWARDS/HONORS
LSU Chancellor Michael Martin has been named to a 15-person Energy Initiative Advisory Committee convened by the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges to maximize and advance the contributions of public research universities to the energy independence effort.
Eli Jones, dean of LSU’s E.J. Ourso College of Business, has been named a 2009 Mays Business School Outstanding Doctoral Alumnus by Texas A&M University. Jones was nominated by Ph.D. coordinators, deans and a research council. Jones has received 10 Excellence in Teaching awards at the college, university, national and international levels, and he has taught sales and sales management at the undergraduate and MBA levels.
Jeff Zehnder, founder and chief executive officer of Zehnder Communications, has been named chair of the Dean’s Advisory Council Marketing and Public Relations Committee at LSU’s E.J. Ourso College of Business. Zehnder, who graduated from LSU in 1989 with a bachelor’s degree in marketing, replaces the outgoing chair, Randy Courtney.
For the second consecutive year, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana has received a 2008 Brand Excellence Award for member retention from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. The honor is given to Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans that retain a high percentage of their members from the previous year.
Liz Betz, executive director of Capital Area CASA Association, received the John W. Barton Sr. Excellence in Nonprofit Management Award from the Baton Rouge Area Foundation. The award recognizes exceptional, longstanding nonprofit leadership that has significantly impacted the Capital Region.
Postlethwaite & Netterville has been named one of the nation’s top 100 accounting firms by Accounting Today magazine. With more than $32 million in net revenue, P&N ranked No. 97 and was the only Louisiana-based firm on the list.
Julia Chan, an associate professor of chemistry at LSU, has been named a Woman of Excellence by the Louisiana Legislative Women’s Caucus Foundation. The honor recognizes extraordinary women of outstanding professional excellence for their achievements and contributions.
Capital Area United Way has elected its 2009 board of directors: Van R. Mayhall Jr., chairman of the board; Jay O’Brien, chairman elect of the board; Keith Short, secretary of the board, Michelle Carriere, treasurer of the board/finance committee chair; Jim Epperson, treasurer of the board elect/finance committee vice chair elect; Tobie Craig, campaign chair; Michael Trufant, campaign chair elect; Les Gatz, community engagement and strategies chair; Bob Barton, community engagement and strategies chair elect; Diane Allen, marketing chair; Christy Reeves, marketing chair elect; Phyllis Coleman Mouton, past chair of the board/governance committee chair; Rose Hudson, personnel committee chair; Alden Andre, parish council chair; Jane Shank, partner agency representative; Gerald Goss, major gifts and planned giving chair; and Danny Montelaro, audit committee chair.
The Advocate [outstanding media award], Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank [community investment award], Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana [standard of excellence award], Edith Wright [Myron Faulk Award] and Christy Reeves [outstanding volunteer award] received Big Five awards from Capital Area United Way. The honor recognizes individuals, companies and organizations who made a significant contribution to CAUW in the past year.
LSU’s Louisiana Business and Technology Center has been named as a finalist for the National Business Incubation Association’s 2009 Incubator Innovation Award for its Business Incubator on Wheels program, which offers entrepreneurship training to clients in rural, underserved areas as well as hurricane recovery areas. The winner will be announced April 21.
Lowell E. Urbatsch, a professor of biological sciences and the director of the LSU Herbarium, has received a grant from the National Science Foundation to develop CyberFlora Louisiana, an effort to catalog more than 1 million species of flora into a single interactive Web site. Urbatsch’s colleagues from the University of Louisiana at Monroe, Tulane University, Nicholls State University and Southeastern Louisiana also were named in the grant.
The Baton Rouge Water Company has elected its board of directors: Eugene H. Owen, chairman; W. Gregory Jones; Patrick J. Kerr; Davis J. Lauve; F. Charles McMains Jr.; Paul W. Murrill; Jake L. Netterville; Newton B. Thomas; and Roland M. Toups. The company increased its board from nine to 12 members with the addition of Teri G. Fontenot, Brett P. Furr and Hays D. Owen.
The Woman’s Hospital Foundation has elected its board of directors: Markham McKnight, chair; Matt McKay; and Mike Wampold. Officers are: Susan Puyau, chair elect; Robert Stuart Jr., secretary-treasurer. Other board members are Teri G. Fontenot; Dore Binder; Robert Greer Jr.; Francis Henderson; Jamar Melton; Amy Phillips; Mike Polito; Edward Schwartzenburg; and Ellis Schwartzenburg.
Stirling Properties awarded year-end production and service awards to members of its Greater Baton Rouge team. Dottie Tarleton [platinum award] was honored by the commercial division. Ginger Maulden [diamond]; Pat Meyer [platinum]; Julie Carlisle, Jill Slicker, Nancy Kemske, Kindra Fletcher, Mel Landry [gold]; Cindy LeBlanc, Vera Whitehead, Cathi Williams, Brandy Christ [silver]; and Dane Daniel, Susan Albus, Ellis Fowler, Kendra Demars, Angela Jordan and David Richardson [bronze] were honored by the residential division of ERA Stirling Properties.
Matt Evans of Armstrong Relocation Company has been honored by United Van Lines as the salesperson of the month in household goods corporate accounts for January.
David Treppendahl of RE/MAX First Commercial has been recognized as the top individual sales associate in Louisiana based on sales volume and total commissions earned. He ranked No. 2 in the Dixie Region, which includes nearly 2,000 agents in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Treppendahl focuses primarily on multi-family and land.
PHILANTHROPY
Art E. Favre, owner and president of Performance Contractors Inc., has pledged $1.2 million to establish an endowed chair for the Department of Construction and Industrial Engineering at LSU’s College of Engineering. Once matched with state funds of $800,000, the chair will total $2 million. The Art E. Favre Industrial Construction Chair will enhance educational quality and research in that field.
