As first reported by Daily Report, Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Stephen Moret was named this week as the next president and CEO of the LSU Foundation in May. The foundation announced his selection on Monday, capping a months-long national search to fill the position. Moret will oversee fundraising and philanthropic activities for all campuses in the LSU system.
For Moret, an LSU graduate and former Student Government Association president, returning to the university to spearhead institutional advancement—particularly at a time when LSU is facing deep state budget cuts—is both a challenge and the fulfillment of a goal. He succeeds retiring president and CEO G. Lee Griffin, who became interim president and CEO of the foundation in 2011 and continued to serve at the request of the foundation board.
Moret comes to the position after seven years at LED, where he is widely credited with attracting more than $62 billion in investment and about 91,000 new jobs to the state. In a statement, Gov. Bobby Jindal, who appointed Moret to LED in January 2008, credits him with helping to transform LED into one of the nation’s most respected state economic development agencies. Jindal is expected to announce a replacement for Moret at LED in the coming weeks.
Also this week, Mayor Kip Holden set off a flurry of speculation when he submitted an agenda space request to the Metro Council asking for funding to be allocated for the Miss USA pageant. Though a number of local media outlets immediately reported the pageant would return for a second straight year, a spokesman for the mayor told Daily Report no deal has been finalized to bring the pageant back.
Scott Dyer says in an email to Daily Report that “it is still very much a work in progress.” He adds the agenda space request—which asks the council to appropriate $230,000 for expenses related to the 2015 pageant and give Holden authority to execute any agreements associated with the event—has been submitted “to help bring the pageant to Baton Rouge.”
Here’s a rundown of other top local stories making headlines in Daily Report this week:
- The Baton Rouge Area Chamber cleared a hurdle toward getting a 382-acre tract at 15696 Old Scenic Highway certified as ready for industrial development through Louisiana Economic Development’s Certified Sites program. It’s one of eight local properties BRAC is eyeing for certification this year.
- Total nonfarm, non-seasonally adjusted employment in the nine-parish Capital Region fell by an estimated 6,800 jobs from December, pushing the unemployment rate for January to 6.3% in January. Unemployment registered as 5.9% in December and 5.4% in January 2014.
- The owners of the Time Out Lounge, which was displaced after a fire gutted its Old Hammond Highway location in December 2013, signed a long-term lease with the owner of the long-vacant Game Day Daiquiris building at 4619 Bennington Ave. and plan to reopen their lounge in the space after an extensive renovation.
- Though a spokesman for the popular New Orleans eatery stresses a final agreement has yet to be inked, Drago’s Seafood is looking to bring a restaurant to Baton Rouge and has verbally expressed interest in a recently sold Highland Road site.
- With its first local restaurant scheduled to open next week and a second location under construction, Newk’s Eatery announced that it has plans for a third Baton Rouge restaurant—this one in Perkins Rowe.
- The former Oscar’s Pizza and Ice Cream at 6251 Perkins Road has new owners and a new name. Businessman Trey Matassa and his fiancée, Holly Hatzis, acquired the restaurant and recipes earlier this year from chef Elton Hyndman and are rebranding the eatery as Souga.
- American Gateway shareholders approved the bank’s previously announced merger with Business First Bank, clearing the final hurdle for a deal that will create what is expected to be the largest locally headquartered community bank. The combined entity will operate under the Business First brand and include 16 branch locations, more than $1 billion in assets, $867 million in deposits, $711 million in loans and $100 million in equity.
—Steve Sanoski
