New gig: Louisiana Economic Development has named Brad Lambert as its new deputy secretary, the agency announced today. Lambert, a senior associate at Harris, DeVille and Associates, will begin his new role on Dec. 30, subject to confirmation by the Louisiana Senate. At LED, Lambert will oversee the business development and workforce operations of the agency, including the LED FastStart workforce training program. Lambert has spent the past 24 years at Harris, DeVille and Associates, where he has worked on policy development and communications and has partnered with the Louisiana Legislature, the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry and the Louisiana Chemical Association, LED says in a news release. “This is a key leadership role that has remained vacant for nearly two years while we’ve worked to re-establish a sound fiscal posture statewide,” Gov. John Bel Edwards says in a statement. “Now is the time to accelerate our efforts in creating a more vibrant Louisiana economy, and LED Secretary Don Pierson and I are convinced that Brad Lambert can make a great contribution in that regard.”
Payback: Some customers of a major Louisiana utility will see a refund in their January electricity bills. As The Associated Press reports, Entergy Louisiana says in a news release that refunds totaling $70 million will go to customers in 40 parishes. It’s the result of an agreement approved today by the Louisiana Public Service Commission allocating costs for replacing steam generators at the Waterford 3 nuclear plant. The agreement also includes a $9.4 million rate reduction. It affects customers who were served by Entergy Louisiana prior to its being combined with the Entergy Gulf States utility in 2015. Entergy says the typical residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours per month will see a refund of $37.73 on the January bill, with a 43-cent monthly rate reduction.
It’s good to be king: GPS Hospitality, an Atlanta-based franchisee group of Burger King, says it has purchased 194 Burger King locations, including some in Louisiana. The firm says in a news release that the locations are in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas and Florida. The release doesn’t say how many of those restaurants are in Louisiana. The deal gives the growing group some 424 Burger King locations nationwide, making it among the top three largest Burger King franchisees in the United States. “This is a tremendous opportunity for us and takes us a huge step closer on our journey to achieving $1 billion in sales by 2022,” says Tom Garrett, CEO of GPS Hospitality, in a prepared statement. Read the full announcement.
