Baton Rouge, New Orleans area People in Business for Aug. 1, 2021 | Business
Baton Rouge Area
The Dunham School has named Ciara Martin as director of annual giving, overseeing fundraising for The Dunham Fund.
Martin was with Woman’s Hospital, where she served as a philanthropy officer responsible for coordinating employee giving and working with donors for the hospital’s annual giving campaign. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration, with a minor in marketing, from Southeastern Louisiana University.
Investar Bank N.A. has named Elizabeth Adler as its treasury management director/senior vice president, advising clients and prospects on financial systems in collaboration with the commercial banking and retail branch teams.
She was a commercial relationship manager with Wells Fargo Bank and previously executive director for treasury management at JP Morgan Chase Bank for 13 years. She has 35 years of experience in banking. The New Orleans native is a graduate of Loyola University with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in finance.
LUBA Workers’ Comp has named Trey Stone to the newly created position of senior business development underwriter to support the company’s expansion in Alabama and Tennessee.
Stone was assistant vice president, business development, with FCCI Insurance Group in Birmingham, Alabama. The Auburn University alumnus serves as associate member director on the Alabama Independent Insurance Association board of directors and is a past president of the Insurance Marketing Association of Alabama.
The LSU AgCenter has named Ted Gauthier to head the Department of Agricultural Chemistry.
The Avoyelles Parish native received a doctorate in chemistry from LSU in 2000. After spending time private industry, he got back into academia in 2002 at the University of South Florida in Tampa for nearly a decade before returning to the AgCenter.
Lafayette area
The Hospital Service District No. 2 board of directors has appointed Dr. Derek J. Metoyer to serve on the Opelousas General Hospital Trust Authority board of trustees.
Metoyer, a family medicine physician, will replace Dr. Richard Tate, who recently retired. Metoyer is the owner/president of Metoyer Family Medical Corp. Inc., the medical clinic he opened in 1998.
Metoyer was raised in the 7th Ward in New Orleans. He completed his medical training from LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans and completed his internship and residency at Baton Rouge General’s family practitioner program, where he served as chief resident. He is an active medical staff member at Opelousas General Health System and serves as medical director of Elara Caring Home Health Agency. He served as chief of staff at Opelousas General from 2006 to 2010 and is a past chairman of the system medicine committee and past staff physician at Doctors Hospital of Opelousas.
New Orleans area
Jones Walker LLP has named New Orleans partner Richard Cortizas as the firm’s first chief diversity officer, collaborating with the firm’s leadership and the diversity committee on diversity efforts.
Cortizas began his legal career at Jones Walker in 2004. He left the firm in 2010 to serve as executive counsel to New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and as city attorney for the city until 2013. Before practicing law, he served as regional director for then-U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu. Cortizas is working toward a diversity, equity and inclusion certification from Stanford University.
Xavier University of Louisiana has appointed Jeff A. Hale as director of corporate and foundation relations as part of the Office of Institutional Advancement.
He will be responsible for building and expanding collaborations, partnerships and philanthropic relationships with corporations and foundations in support of the university’s academic, student and community relations. Hale graduated from LSU after earning a master’s degree and Ph.D., both in history. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Southern Maine.
Le Méridien New Orleans has promoted Debra Desaulniers to general manager and named Janine Raffray as director of sales.
Desaulniers was assistant general manager. She joined Le Méridien in 2019 and has been part of the team to see the hotel through a management transition and renovation.
Raffray was associate director of sales at Loews Hotel for the past five years and has been in the industry for 30 years.