1000 FEET
CREDIT: Charles Breard
NEW DIGS: Construction is well underway on new corporate headquarters for The Advocate on the vacant lot adjacent to the newspaper’s production plant on Rieger Road at Siegen Lane, near Interstate 10. The three-story, 48,500-square-foot building will house the The Advocate‘s newsroom as well as the business offices for all of its community and other publications, and a bridge over a pond on the property will connect the the company’s two facilities. The newspaper plans to relocate its employees from a leased building on the Bluebonnet Boulevard campus of Jimmy Swaggart Ministries in early 2016.
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The following individuals have been named to the Sales and Marketing Executives of Greater Baton Rouge board of directors: Christine Kennedy, Xdesign Inc., president; Brooke Bramlett Coogan, Woman’s Center for Wellness, past president; Gary Littlefield, Gulf Coast Bank & Trust Company, president-elect; Sarah Ganong, Campus Federal Credit Union, treasurer; Ken Champagne, US Agencies, excellence nominations/sponsorship co-chair; David Latona, DEMCO, excellence nominations/sponsorship co-chair; Tiffany Ellis, Visit Baton Rouge, programs co-chair; Julie Domma Russell, Franklin Direct Mail, programs co-chair; Ward Wyatt, LSU Sports Properties, programs co-chair; Joey Papania, Cox Media, marketing co-chair; Stephanie Clarke, Turnkey Accommodations/Turnkey Partners Real Estate, marketing co-chair; Alicia Baron, Downtown Business Association, excellence entertainment/auction co-chair; Maria Roussel, Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa, excellence entertainment/auction co-chair; Virginia Black, Billy Heromans Flowerland & Plant Service, excellence entertainment/auction co-chair; Diana Graff, Hyatt Place Baton Rouge, excellence entertainment/Auction co-chair; Maranda White, Octagon Media, excellence entertainment/auction co-chair; Kristen Hogan, YMCA of the Capital Area, philanthropy chair; Nancy Carter, Carter Companies, executive director and membership/sponsorship chair.
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APPOINTMENTS | MEMBERSHIPS
Jake Delhomme has been elected to the board of directors of MidSouth Bancorp Inc. for a three-year term. Delhomme was first appointed to subsidiary MidSouth Bank’s Board of Directors in 2013 and was reappointed to a second one-year term on the bank’s board in May. The retired NFL Pro Bowl quarterback also serves as a member of the Director’s Loan Committee. MidSouth Bank has four locations in Baton Rouge.
COMPANY NEWS
Welding students at Baton Rouge Community College and SOWELA Technical Community College had an opportunity to showcase their welding skills by participating in the first Louisiana Community and Technical College System/CB&I Welding Competition. The event began July 11. Welding is one of many high-demand, high-wage programs offered at Louisiana’s community and technical colleges. The competition consisted of a written exam, a workforce ready interview, workplace safety and welding skills for beginner, intermediate and advanced welding students.Â
Baton Rouge-based Hydra-Guard will begin its first on-the-road campaign to spread awareness of its product, the “world’s first refillable hydrating mouth guard” engineered to keep athletes replenished and promote peak performance. The product, created by Joseph Tucker, releases liquid when wearers push their tongue against the built-in liquid-filled pouch. The new campaign, Never Thirsty, is designed to spread awareness of the company’s product and work to change the way athletes perceive mouth guards.Â
MasteryTCN is making its Online Training Library available on the ADP Marketplace to help companies develop a competent workforce with a library of over 750 e-learning courses. MasteryTCN’s Online Training Library joins an ever-growing lineup of human capital management and business applications that enable employers to optimize decision-making by seamlessly integrating workforce data across their company through secure ADP application programming interfaces. ADP Marketplace is a new cloud-based app store designed to help employers dynamically manage an ecosystem of enterprise applications from ADP and its partners.
Monsanto, which is located in the Port of South Louisiana district, plans to invest $1 billion in an expansion of its plant in Luling. If the project proceeds as planned, it will be the second expansion project for Monsanto’s St. Charles Parish plant within the last five years. Projections are that the plant expansion will bring 95 new direct jobs, with an average salary of $76,000 per year plus benefits, according to Paul Aucoin, Port of South Louisiana’s executive director.Â
ACCREDITATION | CERTIFICATION
LUBA Workers’ Comp once again received a rating of “A- Excellent” for its financial strength from insurance rating and information service A.M. Best. LUBA has retained the rating with a stable outlook year after year since 2003. LUBA currently services more than 157,000 employees through 4,000 policyholders that generate approximately $80 million in written premiums.Â
AWARDS | HONORS
Baker Donelson has been certified by the Women in Law Empowerment Forum as a Gold Standard Firm. The organization’s Gold Standard Certification emphasizes the leadership roles achieved by equity women partners. Law firms with 300 or more practicing lawyers in the United States are eligible for the 2015 WILEF Gold Standard Certification if they successfully demonstrate that women represent a meaningful percentage of their equity partners, of their highest leadership positions, of their governance and compensation committees and of their most highly compensated partners.
Fifteen new physicians graduated from Baton Rouge General Medical Center’s family and internal medicine residency programs in June. Family and internal medicine residency programs typically require three-year commitments following medical school. Upon completion of residency, physicians take exams to obtain board certification and then begin their medical practice or they may continue on with additional fellowship training in sub-specialties such as cardiology or gastroenterology. Graduates are Matthew Blanchard, Brian Benson, Kristen Ducote, Amanda Watts, Lacy Knowles, Jovana Kakish, Shavaun Cotton, Srikar Mapakshi, Rajasekhar Katuru, Sunil Buddaraju, Sami Mohammed Abdus, Aurash Khoobehi, Shohala Numaira, Anusha Nallaparaju and Thankam Nair.
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Two partners in the Baton Rouge office of Breazeale, Sachse & Wilson—Murphy Foster III and Claude Reynaud Jr.—have been named fellows to the Litigation Counsel of America. Foster is a member of the firm’s management committee. His principal areas of practice include employment and traditional labor law, and construction litigation. He brings more than 30 years of experience representing business in labor and construction matters and has successfully litigated a number of high profile employment and construction cases. Reynaud is also a member of the firm’s management committee. His principal areas of practice include litigation involving antitrust; intellectual property; RICO; unfair competition; fiduciary duties of corporate officers, directors and trustees; securities; contracts; general business or commercial issues; lender liability; and health care.Â
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Darren James has been named as one of America’s top 250 real estate teams by The Wall Street Journal and REAL Trends. Ranking No. 51 nationally for closed team transactions, James and his team moved up 15 spots on the annual list from No. 66 the previous year. James is the broker and owner of Darren James Real Estate Experts, located in Denham Springs. His team achieved a personal best of 456 closed transactions for 2014. The team specializes in residential real estate in several parishes in the Baton Rouge area. Â
The La Capitale Chapter of the American Business Women’s Association recently awarded scholarships to two students. Christian Logarbo graduated from Dutchtown High School and will attend Tulane University. Dominique Thomas is a graduate of Donaldsonville High School and will attend Grambling State University.
Regions Bank has the best reputation among top U.S. banks, according to a newly released survey from advisory firm Reputation Institute and the American Banker Magazine. Regions Bank has an “excellent” reputation ranking, as defined by the Reputation Institute, and received the highest score (83.26 out of 100) among customers as well as the highest combined score among customers and noncustomers in the annual survey. Customers ranked Regions No. 1 in the Performance, Leadership and Workplace categories and among the top five in the Products & Services and Governance categories. The July issue of the American Banker Magazine provides readers with an in-depth look at the Reputation Institute survey and trends among U.S. banks. The cover story examines Regions’ culture and approach to serving its customers and communities.
Leadership Ascension, a program of the Ascension Chamber of Commerce, graduated its 20th Leadership Class on June 18. This year’s participants were Ethan Babin, Pelican Point Golf Course; Craig Beaman, Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office; Lorie Bercegeay, Ascension Parish Clerk of Court; Jason Bonaventure, Bonaventure Law Firm; Jo Broadway, Don’s Seafood; Christy Burnett, Ascension Parish Government; Liz Canfield, BASF; Justin Champlin, Ascension Parish Assessor’s Office; Trey Cline, Five S Construction; Danielle Dawson, Regions Bank; Jeffrey Delaune, Waguespack & Associates Insurance; James Flanagan, BASF; Donna Gaignard, City of Donaldsonville; Garrett Ganucheau, EFCU; Khalli Hagan, River Regions Community College; Jenny Heroman, EATEL; Jaime Malveaux, St. Elizabeth Physicians; Monica Marchand, United Community Bank; Joey Mayeaux, Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office; Brant Mayer, Commerce Title & Abstract Company; Jada Mayon, Hughes Insurance; Kim Melancon, Ascension Parish School Board; Aleaha Morgan, GSA Consulting Engineers, Inc.; Andrew Pecquet, BASF; Yvonne Pellerin, St. Elizabeth Hospital; Edward Prejean, Prejean Computer Consultants; Jane Rabalais, Red River Bank; Shannon Sing, Professional Archive Solutions; Eddie Smallhorn, Cox Business; J.W. Smith, LaQuinta Inn & Suites; Tevora “Tee” Tabor, Primerica; Michelle White, Domain Architecture; Tammy Williams, City of Gonzales; Phillip Wright, Pelican Point Golf Club and Tracey Zimmerman, Kopy Kats Printing.
Louisiana Secretary of State Tom Schedler has been named president of the National Association of Secretary of States. NASS is the oldest nonpartisan professional organization of public officials in the United States. Members include the 50 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa and Puerto Rico. NASS serves as a medium for the exchange of information between states and fosters cooperation in the development of public policy. The association has key initiatives in the areas of elections and voting, state business services and digital archiving, international relations and state securities regulation, as well as several well-established awards programs.
The Baton Rouge area ranks No. 42 among the nation’s top export cities, according to a recent U.S. Department of Commerce report. The International Trade Administration’s 2014 Metropolitan Area Export Overview indicates that the Baton Rouge area exported a record $7.5 billion in goods in 2014, an increase of $1.3 billion, or 20.2%, from 2013 to 2014. Last year, Baton Rouge ranked No. 45 on the list.Â
APPOINTMENTS | MEMBERSHIPS
The Downtown Business Association has elected new board members, who will serve two-year terms. They are Chris Brooks of Launch Media, Margaret Chappuis of Hotel Indigo Baton Rouge Downtown Riverfront, Wade Iversteine of Kean Miller and Rick Volland of Volland Restaurant Group.
PHILANTHROPY | GRANTS
Employees of PacTec Inc. of Clinton celebrated Independence Day by making a $1,202 donation to the Wounded Warrior Project. Funds were raised in $2 increments in exchange for wearing blue jeans on dedicated days. PacTec Inc. then matched dollar-for-dollar what employees contributed. So far this year, PacTec Inc. employees have donated more than $1,800 to the cause.
