Bryan and Yolanda Holmes have opened the local franchise Get A Grip Acadiana at 112 Donovan Drive in Scott, serving south Louisiana for the resurfacing and restoration of multiple surfaces like countertops, bathtubs and showers. Get A Grip Acadiana is a franchise based out of Albuquerque, NM.
Michael Normand, an in-home care giver with A First Name Basis, has been promoted to director of client care. Normand has a degree in health care administration. Emily Stutes, who has a bachelor’s degree from UL Lafayette in public relations and has served as the Lafayette office’s director of sales and marketing, has been promoted to director of operations for the company’s new office in Metairie.
Lafayette architects Mark Lalande and Norbert L. Langlinais have been named to the American Institute of Architects’ Louisiana board of directors. Lalande was elected vice president of the board, and Langlinais was elected secretary/treasurer.
Wendy Howell was appointed Louisiana Realtors co-chair for the professional development team. Howell has been active in the Realtor Association of Acadiana and the Louisiana Realtor Association since 2004. She is an associate broker with Coldwell Banker Pelican and is the president–elect of the Realtor Association of Acadiana. She currently holds numerous NAR designations including Certified Real Estate Specialist and Senior Real Estate Specialist and is studying to achieve her CCIM designation in commercial real estate.
Bruce Navarre has been hired as installation manager for Innovative Intelligent Design. Prior to joining IDI, Navarre worked in construction/service for the past 20 years. IDI is a full service commercial interior design firm and contract furnishings provider.
Karen Hardy has joined Teche Federal Bank as vice president and business development officer. She is located at the downtown Lafayette office at 1001 Johnston St. Hardy has 25 years of banking experience in Lafayette and joined Teche Federal from Capital One Bank. She is active in and a former board member of the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce and is a United Way of Acadiana leadership committee member. She is also a former board member of Goodwill of Acadiana, Stuller Place and the American Cancer Society. Teche also announced that Jason Kennemer has joined its mortgage lending team as assistant lending sales manager. Kennemer is a graduate of the UL Lafayette where he was also assistant basketball coach, team recruiter and team travel coordinator from 2004-2006. He has four years of banking experience.
Longtime Community Foundation of Acadiana board member Dave Calhoun will serve as president in 2009 and 2010. Calhoun is the retired chairman of the board of the Jacob North Printing Companies in Lincoln, Neb., and is active in the Acadiana community, serving as the treasurer of the board of directors of Lafayette General Medical Center and a member of its executive committee. Nationally, he is a member of the Chief Executives Organization, Louisiana Chapter, having served on its board of directors from 2006-2008. Other board officers include Hank Perret of Moreno Energy as vice-president and Kevin Moody as secretary-treasurer. Elaine Durbin Abell is the immediate past president. New board members include Al Lippman of Lippman, Mahfouz, Tranchina & Thorguson of Morgan City, Paula Phillips Carson of UL Lafayette, and Jane Guidry of Onebane Law Firm.
For the first time in Lafayette Bar Association history, the Lafayette Bar Association and the Lafayette Young Lawyers Association held a joint installation of officers in December at the new Lafayette Bar building at 2607 Johnston Street. The event was sponsored by IberiaBank, Barczyk Chiropractic Group, Glenn Armentor Law Corporation, Thomson West, Lowry’s Printing, Theresa deBeche & Associates, McNabb Rehabilitation Services, Gilsbar and City Bar Catering. Newly elected Lafayette Bar Association officers include president Rebekah Huggins of the Glenn Armentor Law Corporation, president-elect Charles Ziegler, secretary/treasurer André Doguet and immediate past president Miles A. Matt.
Renee Pettersen, a 25-year employee of McDonald’s, has been recognized for her work in restaurant operations with the U.S. Outstanding Operations Contributor Award. An employee of owner/operator Ajay Patel, she is the only person in the Great Southern Region selected to receive the award. The region includes more than 650 restaurants in the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. Pettersen, a mother of two, began her career at McDonald’s in 1984 as an assistant manager. She now serves as director of operations for restaurants in Jennings, Eunice, Oakdale, Kinder, DeRidder, Leesville and Fort Polk. She was honored for key business accomplishments, her development of excellent employee relations and her outstanding leadership skills.
Bizzuka’s new video series, “Nine Ways to Maximize Your Marketing Dollars during the Recession,” has been picked up by Dell for syndication on its small business blog. “News of this came as a pleasant surprise,” says Bizzuka CEO John Munsell. “While we hoped the series, which is designed to help small businesses utilize the Web as a cost-effective marketing channel, would receive wide distribution, we never anticipated it getting the attention of a company the size of Dell.” Each video is only four to five minutes in length and contains information on how to use the Web as a cost-effective marketing tool during the recession. The video series includes interviews with some of the brightest minds in marketing today, including popular authors David Meerman Scott, Paul Gillin and Ben McConnell. Topics cover using the Web as a marketing tool, search engine optimization, customer service, niche marketing, word of mouth, content marketing, measuring ROI, content management and social media. In its second day of distribution, the series had already been seen hundreds of times by users across the U.S. and beyond. To view the video series, go to: www.bizzuka.com/recessionmarketing.
Foster Marketing Communications won eight awards at the recent Houston Chapter of the Business Marketing Association’s Lantern Awards of Texas, including top honors in three categories and five Awards of Excellence. There were more than 330 entries in 65-plus categories, with 172 awards, including just 40 Lantern Awards, presented to the top entry in each category. Foster Marketing received Lantern Awards for VAM Drilling’s product catalog; a fractional-page, four-color ad for Ellis Williams Engineering Co.’s Quintuplex mud pump; and for its collaboration on BJ Services’ bus advertisements for SPE. Its five Awards of Excellence included its LAGCOE party invitation. The competition is open to all marketers and producers of business-to-business communications for industry or professional audiences, and entries are judged based on creativity and effectiveness in generating awareness, interest, desire and action.
Teche Holding Co. has adopted a plan to repurchase up to 3 percent, or approximately an additional 63,000 shares, of the company’s common stock. Under a recent repurchase program, Teche repurchased 15,645 shares of its common stock at an average cost of $31.96 per share. In addition, in March 2008, in a single, privately negotiated transaction, the company purchased 99,800 shares of its common stock. As a result, the company currently has approximately 2.1 million shares issued and outstanding. Teche President and CEO Patrick Little says the bank was able to adopt this new repurchase program because it elected not to participate in the U.S. Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program. “Had [we] chosen to participate in TARP, we would not have been permitted to repurchase additional shares at this time,” Little says.
The Center for Entrepreneurial Development (a division of the Acadiana Regional Development District) is holding business seminars primarily directed at assisting small and emerging businesses throughout Acadiana. Special emphasis is being placed on assisting those businesses impacted by hurricanes Katrina and Rita and women-owned businesses throughout the district. Technical assistance will be provided to these businesses by ARDD staff and contracted business consultants to provide services such as business plan development, marketing assistance, accounting services, and Web site development as well as QuickBooks training and loan application development. Upcoming seminars are as follows: Managing The Small Business with instructor Ed Dauphin, March 3, North Regional Library, 5101 N. University Ave. in Carencro from 5-8 p.m.; Introduction To Starting or Expanding Your Business with instructor Mike Morris, March 18 at South Louisiana Community College, 320 Devalcourt St. Room 123 (library) from 5-8 p.m.; Six “C” Rules In Banking with instructor Carrie Curet, March 14 at Iberia Bank Towers 200 W. Congress St. (4th floor conference room) 10 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.; Accounting For Small Business with instructors Mike Morris and Jessica Romero, a certified QuickBooks Pro advisor, March 25 at South Louisiana Community College from 5-8 p.m. Registration is required to attend these seminars, and seating is limited. Contact Donna Villemarette (337) 886-7782 or [email protected].
IberiaBank has partnered with the Senior Housing Crime Prevention Foundation. As part of a $5 million investment in the foundation, the bank is funding important safety programs for five nursing and retirement homes across the state of Louisiana, including Magnolia Estates in Lafayette. The Senior Housing Crimestoppers Program works much like a neighborhood watch where senior facilities with a strong commitment to crime prevention implement increased awareness and a zero tolerance policy. The program will provide ongoing crime prevention programs to these facilities designed to deter incidents of crime in long-term care and senior housing facilities. Since its inception in 1994, the program has proven to cut crime, such as abuse, neglect, fraud, theft and vandalism by more than 90.5 percent at sponsored senior housing facilities across the country.