AppOne, a Baton Rouge-based company that serves as a bridge between used-car dealers and finance companies, has reached a deal with Wachovia Dealer Services, the nation’s fifth-largest auto company. Wachovia Dealer Services will purchase automotive retail installment contracts from AppOne’s growing network of independent auto dealers nationwide. AppOne is part of Wolters Kluwer Financial Services.
Dingo’s, a restaurant with Australian flair, opened last month in the former Semolina building on Coursey Boulevard. Owner Patrick Muller, a native of Australia’s west coast, created dishes accessorized with mango salsa, wasabi ranch sauce and fig spread. Prices range from $5 to $13. The bar features a dozen wines and beers unique to Australia. The décor includes Aboriginal artwork and stained glass windows from an old New England church.
K-fx2, inc. has been awarded the contract to develop the national?Texas Roadhouse 2009 Managing?Partners Conference Web site, trhconference.com. K-fx2 has been designing and hosting for the restaurant chain for the past seven years, including the main site, texasroadhouse.com.
The Louisiana Workforce Commission has hired Wright Feigley Communications to lead its marketing, advertising and public relations efforts. As part of the deal, Baton Rouge-based Wright Feigley will handle a campaign to promote LWC to Louisiana businesses and employees, to help solve the state’s workforce crisis. Wright Feigley has worked with LWC before, helping the agency hold a series of workforce summits across the state last summer and fall. Details of the contract were not released.
The Oaks of Sherwood golf course held its grand opening on April 25. Formerly Sherwood Forest Country Club, the course features numerous enhancements, including improved design, new bunkers, improved irrigation and drainage and landscaping. In addition to the 18-hole, par-72 course, there is a practice range, golf shop, media room and sports bar and grill.
The Shaw Group and Albemarle were the only two Baton Rouge-based companies to make the Fortune 1000 list of America’s largest corporations. Shaw moved up 69 spots from last year to No. 357. The engineering and construction firm had nearly $7 billion in revenue last year. Albemarle moved up 18 spots to No. 788. The chemical company, which moved its headquarters to Baton Rouge last year, had $2.46 billion in revenue.
AWARDS/HONORS
AIA Louisiana has received the 2009 Grassroots Excellence Award for Component Outreach Communications from the American Institute of Architects for its Intern Development Program. The program was designed to strengthen participants’ knowledge base about IDP, explain the path to licensure, exchange ideas and develop momentum for an active support structure for students and interns.
Benjamin R. Bradford of Cockfield Jackson Architects has become a LEED Accredited Professional, a distinction established by the U.S. Green Building Council. Bradford has been with the firm since 2003 and has specialized in library- and financial institution-type project work.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana board member Michael Bruno has received with a Community Leadership Award by the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.
Craig Kliebert, a senior associate financial planner at The Shobe Financial Group, has earned the Certified Financial Planner designation from the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. Kliebert, who has been with the company since 2005, meets experience and ethical requirements and passed an exam covering financial planning, risk management, investments, tax planning and management, retirement and employee benefits and estate planning.
Dr. Denis E. “Chip” Simon III has received the Distinguished Service Award from the Louisiana Dental Association. The honor is the highest given by the LDA and is presented annually to members who have exemplified the highest standards of professional conduct and have made extraordinary contributions in organized dentistry as well as the community.
Jones Walker has been named one of the Top 100 Law Firms for Women by MultiCultural Law Magazine. The list is part of a series related to the top 100 law firms for diversity and is based on statistics from annual surveys the publication sends to law firms with more than 100 attorneys.
Ken Bordelon, CEO of E Federal Credit Union, has been appointed to serve on the Grants Committee of the National Credit Union Foundation. The committee provides critical oversight of NCUF’s annual grant process, and then evaluates applications for Innovation Grants between $25,000 and $100,000.
Louisiana Lottery Corporation has received the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for the 11th consecutive year from the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada. This honor is the highest form of recognition in governmental accounting and financial reporting.
Louisiana Workers’ Compensation Corporation won three ADDY Awards from the Advertising Club of New Orleans. LWCC received gold awards for its “Safer Place to Work” online campaign in the Websites/Online Campaign category and for its “Safer Place to Work” microsite in the category of Online Microsites and Minisites. LWCC won a silver award for its “Safer Place to Work” radio commercial in the Regional/National Radio-30 Seconds category. The winning entries were produced by Keating Magee ad agency of New Orleans in conjunction with LWCC’s Communications Department.
LSU’s E.J. Ourso College of Business’ Department of Finance has been recognized as a CFA Institute Program Partner. CFA Institute is the global association for investment professionals. It administers the Chartered Financial Analyst and Certificate in Investment Performance Measurement curriculum and exam programs worldwide, publishes research, conducts professional development programs and sets voluntary, ethics-based professional and performance-reporting standards for the investment industry.
LSU’s Louisiana Business & Technology Center has been awarded the National Business Incubation Association’s 2009 Incubator Innovation Award for its Business Incubator on Wheels program that offers entrepreneurship training to clients in rural, underserved areas and hurricane disaster recovery areas. The Mobile Classroom visits more than 30 communities annually and, since its inception in September 2005, has assisted more than 1,500 entrepreneurs and business owners.
Our Lady of the Lake College added three members to its Board of Trustees: William E. Balhoff, managing director/CEO, Postlethwaite and Netterville; Steve Nathanson, president, Tessenderlo Davison Companies; and Dr. Michael Lee Rolfsen, chairman, Department of Internal Medicine, Baton Rouge Clinic and director of geriatrics, Earl K. Long Medical Center. Board members Frank R. Campbell, Sister Penny Prophit and Karen Williams were appointed to their third three-year term. The board also elected leadership for 2009: Prophit, chair; Williams, vice chair; Family Court Judge Luke LaVergne, secretary; and Sister Betty Lyons, at large member of the executive committee.
Randy Olson, CEO of Lane Regional Medical Center, has been named 2009 Business Person of the Year by the Zachary Chamber of Commerce. Olson has served as Lane’s CEO since 2003. Also honored were LeBlanc’s Food Stores, Large Business of the Year; Cardiovascular Institute of the South, Mid-sized Business of the Year; Castello Agency, Small Business of the Year; Primary Care of Zachary, New Business of the Year; and Hubie Owen, Volunteer of the Year. The chamber also inducted R.E. Amrhein, Wayne Barnes, Greg McDougall and Laura Stein into its Hall of Distinction, which honors people for their lifelong commitment and work in Zachary.
Shannon Kirkpatrick, a tax managing director for KPMG, has been named as one of 30 Working Mothers of the Year by Working Mother magazine. Kirkpatrick is married with three children.
PHILANTHROPY
Susan and Scott Brodie of Spring, Texas, have donated $200,000 to the Forever LSU campaign to benefit the College of Basic Sciences. The gift includes $140,000 in endowed funds to the Science Honors Scholars Program, which attracts top undergraduate students to LSU, and participants in the program are dually enrolled in the College of Basic Sciences and the Honors College. The remaining $60,000 establishes the Scott and Susan Brodie Professorship in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.
