Carroll P. Matherne
November 25, 2008
RoseMary Smith Giron
November 28, 2008
Tony Boudreaux, vice president of the Morgan City employment placement company Superior Labor Services, took the gavel last week as the president of the South Central Industrial Association for 2009 at the organization’s annual banquet ceremony held in Gray.
He replaces outgoing President Don Hingle.
Founded in 1997, the Houma-based SCIA promotes industry in the Tri-parish area. More than 200 businesses and industries belong to the group.
Boudreaux served this year as executive vice president.
“SCIA has been an invaluable experience,” he said. “It’s more about the collective effort.”
Boudreaux listed workforce development, building a lock on the Houma Navigation Canal and finishing the new Louisiana Highway 1 to Port Fourchon as his priorities.
“We need to increase our momentum,” he said.
In particular, Boudreaux wants to develop SCIA’s Work It! program, which aims to recruit more skilled industrial workers for Tri-parish businesses. The program was started this year.
“We’re becoming part of the state’s plan for workforce development,” Hingle said.
SCIA’s Tillman Esteve Outstanding Member Award recipient was Chet Morrison, founder and owner of the Houma oilfield fabrication and services company Chet Morrison Contractors.
Morrison founded the business in 1983, starting with residences before moving into commercial, then industrial contracts. The company has more than one thousand employees.
Morrison, a SCIA board member in 2008, started the organization’s annual golf tournament and helped get funding for the Work It! program.
He is also a board member of the Louisiana Recovery Authority and Blueprint Louisiana.
Morrison said he personally knew Tillman Esteve, a founding SCIA board member who worked for Bollinger Shipyards.
“He was a real cowboy,” Morrison said. “I was proud to know him.”
“Esteve believed in this organization,” he said. “Even when he was dying he said keep SCIA going. We’re all glued together. This is an area of cowboys.”
The President’s Award was given to Benny Cenac, who operates the Houma tugboat company Cenac Towing.
Cenac purchased the company in 1983 when it had 22 boats and 50 barges. Today, the company has 60 tugboats, 120 tank barges and 550 employees.
Though he sold Cenac Towing to Houston’s Teppco Partners this year, the company still operates out of its Houma office.
Cenac sits on the Nicholls State University’s College of Business Administration executive advisory board and supports several organizations in Terrebonne Parish. He has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to various organizations.
“To have people stick by you is God’s blessing,” he said.
The Lifetime Member Award was given to Kerry Chauvin, chief executive officer of Gulf Island Fabrication, and Bobby Barthel, the manager of Gulf Island’s new marine division.
The award was given posthumously to SCIA founding members and past presidents Otis Logue and Leland Robichaux, who both passed away this year.
“Logue and Robichaux played big roles in getting our organization going,” Hingle said.
The keynote speaker for the banquet was New Orleans Hornet majority owner George Shinn, who talked about his struggles as a youth in Kannapolis, North Carolina and his involvement with the Hornets in Charlotte, New Orleans and Oklahoma City.
In 2007, Edison Chouest Offshore executive Gary Chouest and a group of partners purchased 25 percent of the Hornets organization after Shinn bought out former co-owner Ray Wooldridge in 2005.
Other officers inducted last week for 2009 were Tony Alford, executive vice president; Kirk Meche, vice president; Steve Becnel, secretary, and Charles Theriot, treasurer.
SCIA’s 2009 board of directors will be Kenneth Smith, Dionne Chouest, Ted Falgout, Patrick Seely, and Hingle.
The organization will also change the names of two of its committees to shorter titles. Health, Safety, Security, Environment & Workshops will be the Industrial Committee on Education. Workforce Development is the new title for the Human Resources, Workforce Development & Training Committee.
Chet Morrison (center) receives the Tillman Esteve Outstanding Member Award from Gulf Island Fabrication’s Bobby Barthel (left) and outgoing SCIA president Don Hingle. * Photo by KYLE CARRIER
