Chamber of Commerce ® The Chamber of Commerce of East Baton Rouge ParishEBR

Connie Bernard Tony Boudreau Executive Director Bob Breaux

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARIES • EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

CONNIE BERNARD, President, Bernard Public Relations. She is a public relations consultant, specializ- ing in association and nonprofit management, governmental relations, public relations, event planning, and corporate profile. She is a graduate of LSU where she is currently pursuing the Masters in Public Administra- tion. Connie is an elected member of the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board and Vice Chairman of the Republican Party of East Baton Rouge Parish. She has dedicated most of her life to serving others through such organizations as the American Cancer Society and the Children’s Coalition. She is a member of the Pub- lic Relations Association of . Ms. Bernard also serves on the Republican State Central Committee. She and her husband have one son and are the foster parents of two young children. The Bernards are mem- bers of St. Jude Catholic Church. THOMAS A. (TONY) BOUDREAU, owner, Helen’s Inspirations, which manufactures home decor items. Tony is also a financial advisor with Edward D. Jones & Company, a full-service investment firm offering investments, life and health insurance, and other financial services. He holds a Series 7 general securities license, Series 63 state securities license, and life and health insurance licenses, and is an Accredited Asset Management Specialist. He grew up in Jefferson Parish and earned a B.S. degree from LSU in mechanical engineering. He has been a registered professional engineer. He has been married for 28 years and has two children. His interests are guitar, golf, gardening, and good government. BOB BREAUX, Senior Partner, Total Success Strategies. Bob is former State Chairman of the National Fed- eration of Independent Business Louisina Leadership Council, President of the Central Chamber of Com- merce, and Executive Director of the West Baton Rouge Parish Chamber of Commerce. He also served as chairman of the Small Business Council of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber. He is immediate past chairman of the Ochsner Medical Center of Baton Rouge and currently serves on the Baton Rouge Regional Airport Commission. For 25 years, Bob was President of Total Computers Systems, Inc., a business which he found- ed. He studied accounting at the University of . Bob is married to his high school sweetheart. They have five children and nine grandchildren. J. D. Perry, Bob Burns, Elizabeth Dent, and Tony Boudreau at organizational meeting of new Chamber of Commerce EBR.

BOB BURNS, owner, RAB Enterprises. He earned a B.S. degree in industrial management from LSU in 1969 and entered the United States Air Force, where he was a pilot from August 1969 to February 1975, including combat tours during the Vietnam War. His company specializes in real estate investing, including lease options, mobile home owner financing, rehabs, flips, buys, and holds. He has been married 40 years and has three children and four “extremely attractive and intelligent” grandchildren. CECIL J. CAVANAUGH, President, Cecil J. Cavanaugh MBA, CPA, APAC. He earned a B.S. in account- ing and M.B.A from LSU. He started his accounting career with Seidman & Seidman and was a founding Partner with Bernard, Robbins, & Cavanaugh, CPAs, and he has over 38 years experience. He is former President of the Baton Rouge Chapter of CPAs and past President of the Downtown Kiwanis Club. He is an inactive Deason of the Baptist Church. He served in the U.S. Army from May, 1966 to June, 1969. He is currently a Co-Founder and Director of the Tea Party of Louisiana. ELIZABETH DENT, owner, Elizabeth Dent Consulting. She is a nationally-known management consultant, trainer, and seminar leader. Her clients have ranged from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies. She earned a B.S. degree from LSU in edu- cation. She served as a class- room teacher and has taught from pre-k to university level students. She served as Coordinator of Instructional Television and Supervisor in Teacher Certification for the Louisiana Department Bob Burns Cecil Cavanaugh Elizabeth Dent Richie Edmonds Dr. Karla Doucet Dr. Tommy French of Education. She has written regular columns in Baton Rouge publications and hosted regular radio and television programs. Her ancestors were among the first Baton Rougeans and the first members of St. Joseph Catholic Church. They donated the small parks in front of the cathedral in the 1700’s. Elizabeth and her husband Fred founded Taxbusters, which fights high taxes, and she now serves as Chairman of the organization. She was recently inducted into the Louisiana Center for Women and Government Hall of Fame. She has four children and five grandchildren.

DR. KARLA DOUCET, M.D., practicing physician and anesthesiologist for the past 18 years. Lectures on the U. S. debt crisis. Member, Republican Parish Executive Committee (2012-2016); delegate, State Republican Convention, 2012. She ran first from the 6th Congressional District among more than 100 candidates for state convention delegate in the March 21, 2012, Republican Primary. She enjoys dance, piano, and travelling with her three children, who attend the Baton Rouge International School and speak multiple foreign languages. Every summer she and her children live and attend school for one month in a foreign country.

RICHIE EDMONDS, Realtor, REMAX First in Baton Rouge. He has been a realtor since 2006 and has worked in both commercial and residential real estate. He was an Executive Club member at REMAX in 2011. Before joining REMAX, he was an executive agent at Thornton, Harvison, and Rhodes Commercial Real Estate. Before entering real estate, he has a Youth Minister at Healing Place Church and Parkview Baptist Church. He is an elected member of the East Baton Rouge Republican Parish Ex- ecutive Committee and serves as Chairman of the Monthly Newsmaker Luncheon. He receive his B.A. from LSU in 1998. He and his wife have two children.

DR. TOMMY FRENCH, owner, Holy Lands Tours, LLC. Rev. French served as pastor of Jefferson Baptist Church in Ba- ton Rouge for more than 50 years before retiring. He also served as President of the Louisiana Baptist Convention,which is composed of 1,600 member churches and nearly 900,000 Baptists. He is a member of the Republican State Central Committee and the East Baton Rouge Republican Par- Vice Chairman for Membership Bob Burns Chairman Woody Jenkins Errol Lemoine Craig LeBlanc, Vice Chairman for Entrepreneurship ish Executive Committee. Holy Lands Tours, LLC, has had tours to the Holy Land since 1978. He earned a B.A. from Baylor and a B.D. and M.Div. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has three children and six grandchildren.

WOODY JENKINS, editor and publisher, Central City News. A native of Baton Rouge, he was a radio newsman at WLCS in high school and then an announcer at WAFB-TV, narrating the first live color news- cast in Baton Rouge history in 1966. He started the North Baton Rouge Journal newspaper while at LSU Journalism School and earned a B.A. in journalism and J.D. in law from LSU. He was elected to Louisiana House of Representatives in 1971 at age 24 and served 28 years (1972-2000). He was a Delegate to Louisi- ana Constitutional Convention of 1972-1974 and authored much of the Declaration of Rights of the current Louisiana Constitution. In the legislature, he authored 300 major bills that became law, including the Free Enterprise Education Act, under which more than 1 million Louisiana students have taken a course on free enterprise; the Private Education Deregulation Act of 1980, which made Louisiana the first state to legalize home schooling, and the TOPS scholarship program, under which more than 100,000 Louisiana students have gone to college tuition free. Republican nominee for U. S. Senate, 1996; Chairman, Louisiana Delega- tion to Republican National Convention, 1996, and Member, Republican National Platform Committee, 2008. Founder and general manager, WBTR-TV, 1987-2004, and producer of Baton Rouge Today daily news program on WBTR-TV for 15 years. As editor of Central City News, he was awarded the Louisiana Press Association’s most coveted award, the Freedom of Information Award, for his fight to protect the public’s right to know. He also won LPA first place awards for Best News Reporting, Best Investigative Reporting, and Best Regular Column. He serves as Chairman of the Republican Party of East Baton Rouge Parish. He and his wife have been married for 44 years. They have four children and two grandchildren.

CRAIG L. LeBLANC, President, Palco Services, LLC, an electrical contractor. He also administers the Palco Mentorship Program, which forms young entrepreneurs who will own and operate their own busi- nesses. Married and the father of eight girls and two boys.

ERROL LEMOINE, President, Solid Solutions, Inc., which supplies process additives to the pulping process for making paper. He started in this work 35 years ago and started his own company in 2000. His company supplies products and provides consulting services to his clients. He was born in Avoyelles Parish and came Chamber executive director Bob Burns, Sen. Dan Richary, and J. D. Perry at Executive Committee meeting. to Baton Rouge in 1970 to attend LSU, where he graduated with a B.S. degree in Business Administration in 1974. He is active in the Catholic Church. He and his wife have been married for 41 years and have four children and five grandchildren.

SCOTT McKAY, publisher, TheHayride.com. His popular website covers Louisiana and national news and politics. Originally from , he earned his bachelor’s degree from LSU in 1993. He pub- lished Purple & Gold magazine from 1997 to 2004. He began publishing TheHayride.com in December 2009, and in January 2012 the site reached 550,000 page views. J. D. PERRY, President and Managing Director, JP Global Capital Management, an NFA registered com- modity pool operator, which serves as general manager of The Troika I Fund, a foreign exchange hedge fund. He has served for many years as a financial consultant and has served in numerous executive roles leading new firms and turnarounds, as well as merger and acquisition projects. J.D. holds an MBA as well as several other designations. Early in his career, J.D. served on an asset management team that was twice named the #1 investment team by Times. He has also lectured in Russia on financial markets

Sen. Dan Richey Jeff Pollard, Vice Chairman for Policy Scott McKay, Secretary and Director of Communications Jr. Shelton Alex Velasquez Ralph Washington, Treasurer Harold Williams and was Louis Rukyser’s first interviewee for the Wall Street Week TV show’s newsletter. He was also a fea- ture executive in The Halftime Report in recognition of international leadership and a guest several times on CBS’ Ask the Expert. A native of North Carolina, J. D. has lived in Louisiana for the past 15 years. He and his wife have two children and is an avid chess player. JEFFREY POLLARD, President, Pollard Industries, LLC. His company supplies filtration and water treatment equipment to businesses across the country and around the world. A native of Baton Rouge, he attended Baton Rouge High and LSU. He began working in industrial sales in 1989 and started Pollard Industries in 2001. SENATOR DAN RICHEY, President, Sentinel 21, a political consulting firm which advises pro-life candi- dates and organizations. Dan was International President of Key Club International in high school and an All-State basketball player. He was a member of the LSU basketball team with the legendary Pete Marav- ich. He earned a B.S. degree from McNeese State and a Juris Doctor degree from Loyola Law School. He served in the U.S. Army and attained the rank of 1st Lieutenant. He served in the Louisiana House of Rep- resentatives (1976-1980) and the Louisiana Senate (1980- 1984). He was Chairman of the Louisiana delegation to the White House Conference on Families. He practiced law and served as editor of his com- munity weekly newspaper in Ferriday. After moving to Ba- ton Rouge, he was news direc- tor of WBTR-TV. From 1997 to 2004, he was Chairman of Governor Foster’s Program on Abstinence. He is a member of the Republican State Central Committee and Treasurer of the Republican Parish Execu- tive Committee. He has been married for 36 years and is the father of four children and Roundtable discussion about launching Chamber of Commerce of East Baton Rouge SOME OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBERS of the Chamber of Commerce of East Baton Rouge Parish include (1st row, left to right) Elizabeth Dent, Connie Bernard, Bob Breaux, and Dan Richey and (2nd row, left to right) Craig LeBlanc, Scott McKay, Bob Burns, Jr. Shelton, Ralph Washington, Errol Lemoine, Tony Boudreau, and Jeff Pollard. grandfather of three. JR. SHELTON, Realtor with C. J. Brown. He specializes in residential real estate. An All-State basketball player at Broadmoor High School, he graduated from LSU in 1973. He owned Shel-Boze building supply company until 2009. In 2010, he narrowly lost an election to become Mayor of the City of Central. He is an elected member of the Republican Parish Executive Committee and Chairman of the Republican Party of the City of Central. ALEX VELASQUEZ, President, Legacy Consulting Group. His company specializes in cost reduction consulting and business development. Past President, Baton Rouge Chapter, International Facilities Man- agement Association. Member, Board of Directors, SENSE. Served as Spokesman for Taxbusters during the campaign against the $184 million CATS tax increase. Chairman, Republican Hispanic Council. Na- tive of Colombia. Married with four children. RALPH WASHINGTON, owner, Red Stick Cleaners. He earned a B.S. degree from Southern University in 1975 and was hired as a utility operator at Liquid Carbonics, a chemical plant on the River. He rose to become assistant plant manager. In 1996, a new owner bought the plant and offered Ralph a buy-out. He accepted and decided to go into business for himself. He started Red Stick Cleaners, which he and his wife operate. He has been active in the PTO and an adult leader in the Boy Scouts. For the past seven years, Ralph has served as Mayor Pro-Tem of the City of Central and a member of the City Council. In 2010, he was named Central’s “Man of the Year.” He is the father of two children. HAROLD WILLIAMS, owner and managing agent, 1st Team Insurance Agency. A former Southern University football player and debater, Harold studied mechanical engineering at Southern and LSU He is a licensed insurance agent and a licensed realtor. He served as a Baton Rouge City Policeman from 1993 to 2001. He has served as chief operations officer at Service Plus from 1995 to present. In that capacity, he hired more than 300 employees. He served as Chairman of the Republican Party of East Baton Rouge Par- ish from 2005 to 2011, the first African-American to hold that position since Reconstruction. He currently serves on the Executive Committee of the parish Republican party and on the Republican State Central Committee. NEW CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OFFICERS for the Chamber of East Baton Rouge Parish are (left to right) Woody Jenkins, Chairman; Jeff Pollard, Vice Chairman for Policy; Bob Burns, Vice Chairman for Membership; Bob Breaux, Executive Director; Craig LeBlanc, Vice Chairman for Entrepreneurship; Ralph Washington, Treasurer, and Scott McKay, Secretary and Director of Communications. The officers will serve until December 31, 2012. Chamber of Commerce OFFICERS EBR For Term Ending December 31, 2012 Bob Breaux Executive Director Woody Jenkins Chairman Bob Burns Vice Chairman — Membership Jeff Pollard Vice Chairman — Policy Craig LeBlanc Vice Chairman — Entrepreneurship Scott McKay Secretary & Director of Communications Ralph Washington Treasurer