Newtron Group founder and CEO Newton Thomas got a surprise visit at his Baton Rouge office today from LSU President F. King Alexander, who popped in to tell Thomas that he’d been selected as the 2015 LSU Alumnus of the Year.
“The staff will be amazed when I say this,” Thomas said upon getting the news, according to a release from LSU, “but I’m speechless.”
Thomas, a Baton Rouge native and graduate of University Laboratory School, will formally be inducted into the LSU Alumni Association’s Hall of Distinction at a ceremony next March.
“The Hall of Distinction is our most prestigious event of the year, and in 2015 we have plans to make the event more spectacular than ever to recognize Thomas and his fellow inductees,” says Cliff Vannoy, association president and CEO.
Thomas earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from LSU in 1967. He began his career as a project estimator with Southern Instruments and eventually served a two-year term as president. He left Southern Instruments to start Newtron Inc. The Newtron Group was formed in 1983 as the parent company of Newtron Inc. and Triad Electric & Controls Inc. He credits the University Laboratory School and LSU for his success.
“My entire educational experience was at LSU,” he says. “LSU prepared me for life.”
Track Olympian Lori “Lolo” Jones of Prairieville will also be honored at the ceremony in March as Young Alumnus of the Year, while several other alumni will also be inducted into the Hall of Distinction, including Celtic Studios executive Patrick Mulhearn, of Baton Rouge; John Tinsley Oden, vice president of research at the University of Texas at Austin, who lives in Austin; Atlantic Company of America President David M. Suarez, of Washington, D.C.; and SEC Associate Commissioner of Communications Herb Vincent Jr., of Birmingham, Alabama. Read a 2012 Business Report feature story about Thomas. —Steve Sanoski
