People in Business for Sept. 30, 2012

BATON ROUGE

Penny Clement has joined American Gateway Bank as a senior vice president and commercial lender. She was a relationship manager and senior vice president of business banking at Chase Bank in Baton Rouge.

Heather Herman has been named director of strategic partnerships in LSU’s College of Engineering. She was a program coordinator in the Reilly Center for Media and Public Affairs at the Manship School of Mass Communication at LSU.

Kit Marye, senior vice president with Hub International Gulf South, has been given additional responsibilities as the firm’s director of client services and stewardship. Marye is based in Hub Gulf South’s Baton Rouge office.

Ann Wise, director of Louisiana’s Division of Administrative Law, presided over Administrative Law Central Panel Directors conference after being selected as its national chair for 2012.

She was also appointed by the American Bar Association’s Judicial Division as its liaison with the Central Panel Directors Conference.

Robert “Bobby” Fahey has been named market president in Baton Rouge for Britton & Koontz Bank. He was vice president and private banking officer at Whitney Bank.

Matthew Stefan has been named manager of Launch Media’s new experiential event design and messaging strategy product. The company is a video and media production company with offices in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Stefan was vice president of relationship development at Capital Area United Way.

NEW ORLEANS

Stephen E. Wessel has been named regional president of the Investar Bank’s new franchise serving the New Orleans-area market and Kevin J. Dobson as chief lending officer.

Wessel was senior vice president and New Orleans market president for Home Bank and previously was president, chief executive officer and a director at Guaranty Savings Bank in Metairie.

Dobson was first vice president and senior commercial relationship manager and previously served in senior commercial banking roles at Guaranty Savings Bank, AmSouth Bank and Whitney Bank.

Investar has a location in Metairie and will complete a branch in Mandeville next year.

John Van Wart has been named vice president of sales and marketing at Peoples Health in Metairie. He was national vice president of sales for Healthspring Inc.

Blake Steger has been hired to lead business development efforts in New Orleans for Launch Media, a Baton Rouge-based video, media and experiential event production company. Steger was territory manager for Southwest Louisiana Applied Medical.

Karen Leathem, of New Orleans, a museum historian for the Louisiana State Museum, has been reappointed to serve as a member of the Louisiana Folklife Commission by Gov. Bobby Jindal.

Bill Bynum, CEO of Hope Enterprise Corp./Hope Credit Union in New Orleans, has named by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as vice chairman of the federal agency’s inaugural Consumer Advisory Board.