Amy Castro has joined IberiaBank as branch manager for the recently opened Settlers Trace location in River Ranch. The Abbeville native has more than a decade of banking experience, most recently serving as branch manager/vice president for Capital One (formerly Hibernia Bank) in Lafayette. Castro is an active member of the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce, has been involved with Junior Achievement of Acadiana and was a team leader for Hibernia in the March of Dimes' annual campaign.
Architect Allen Bacqué of Lafayette was elected to serve on the board of the Louisiana Chapter of the American Institute of Architects at its annual Design Conference held in Shreveport in September. Bacqué, who works with the firm of MBSB Group, will serve as vice president of District C, which includes the southeastern part of Louisiana. Current AIA Louisiana President Steven Oubre of Architects Southwest will continue on the board next year as immediate past president. Since 1947, AIA Louisiana has represented the professional interests of Louisiana's architects.
Dade Behring Inc., the world's largest company solely dedicated to clinical diagnostics, announced that it has awarded $50,000 in scholarships to college students, including Sherry Booker of Lafayette, enrolled in two-year medical laboratory science programs in the United States. Survey data from clinical laboratories around the world indicates that one of the most challenging problems faced by laboratories is a shortage of skilled technologists and technicians. Dade Behring intends to contribute a total of $1.25 million through 2008 toward scholarships related to educating lab personnel.
CPA Ted C. Schoeffler has been promoted to the position of senior auditor for Thibodaux Hebert Deshotels LeBlanc, CPAs. He joined the firm as a courier in 2001 while attending UL Lafayette. After graduating in accounting in 2003 he became a full-time staff auditor. Schoeffler received his CPA designation in 2005. He specializes in performing audits, reviews and compilations of corporations, nonprofit organizations and other various entities as well as the preparation of corporate tax returns.
MidSouth Bank has promoted Linda Terry to vice president for the bank's Central Louisiana Region. A commercial lender at the bank's main office on Versailles Boulevard, Terry handles a portfolio of clients ranging from attorneys and doctors to commercial and residential builders. For the past 15 years, she also has managed the bank's Attorney-Client Line of Credit program ' accounts personal injury attorneys set up to finance their clients' expenses during legal proceedings. Terry has two decades of banking and financial services experience and has been employed by MidSouth for the past 17 years. The bank also has promoted Mike Leatherman to assistant vice president in this region. A commercial lender in the MidSouth Bank's Dulles retail location, Leatherman has been employed by the financial institution for a decade. Before joining MidSouth, he worked for two years as a graduate assistant in the UL Lafayette Accounting Department. A Virginia native, Leatherman graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in economics in 1992 and earned an MBA from UL Lafayette in 1998.
The Lafayette Parish Bayou Vermilion District's board of commissioners has selected Cynthia Trahan as the district's executive director. She has been with the organization for almost eight years, six of those years at the administrative level, having served as executive director of Vermilionville and assistant director of the BVD. Since June, she has served as the district's interim executive director. Prior to her work with the district, Trahan coordinated programs for the University of Louisiana at Lafayette's Department of Continuing Education. Trahan was selected after the board conducted a candidate search throughout southwest Louisiana.
The Planned Giving Council of Acadiana recently honored three individuals and one organization for distinguished service to the community through charitable giving at the 5th annual Philanthropy Day awards ceremony. Those honored were: John T. Landry, outstanding fund development professional; Sharon Moss, outstanding philanthropist; Dawn Cantrell and Susan Slocumb of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Louisiana, outstanding philanthropic organization; and Dr. Francis Boustany, outstanding fund-raising volunteer. The Planned Giving Council of Acadiana, an association of fund development professionals and financial advisers, is committed to advancing the use of charitable gift planning techniques to help donors meet their objectives and to support the work of nonprofit groups, including health and human services agencies and private schools.
KLWB 50, the new CW Television Network, has promoted Layla Mouton to traffic manager for KLWB and KLFT. Mouton had been working with an affiliated company, Lafayette Aero, for six years as office manager. Since 2005, she has played an integral role in the startup of the local KLWB station.
Frank X. Neuner Jr. has been appointed to serve on the Louisiana Indigent Defense Assistance Board. LIDAB is the governing organization responsible for overseeing the state of Louisiana's funding of indigent defense programs. Neuner will work with other board members to promote LIDAB's mission of providing funding for quality legal services to indigent clients charged with criminal offenses. Neuner is the immediate-past president of the Louisiana State Bar Association and the managing partner of the Lafayette law firm Laborde & Neuner.