People in Business for July 1, 2012

Larry Dents Jr. has joined American Gateway Bank as branch manager and business development officer at the Perkins Road location. He previously worked at Capital One Bank.

Lafayette-based MidSouth Bank has named Naomi Colomb banking center manager and assistant vice president at the bank’s St. Martinville location and named Karen L. Melancon vice president and commercial lender. Colomb was banking center manager at the Super 1 Foods location in New Iberia. Melancon was with First Louisiana National Bank.

Gregory M. Grandy has been named senior environmental manager for the Coastal Engineering Consultants Louisiana office in Baton Rouge. He was director of conservation for BREC.

Metropolitan Councilwoman Ronnie Edwards has been selected to serve on the board of directors of NCBA Housing Management Corp. for a three-year term.

The National Caucus and Center on Black Aged is the largest nonprofit minority organization headquartered in the nation’s capital. NCBA advocates on issues affecting the lives of older black Americans and develops programs to further the interests of the black elderly in education and training, research, health and wellness promotion, employment, information development and dissemination, and organization outreach. It also offers housing sponsorship, development and management for lower-income and disabled seniors and field development to strengthen and broaden organizations that assist the black elderly.

Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain was chosen to serve as president of the Southern Association of State Departments of Agriculture. The post is a one-year term.

The Water Institute of the Gulf has named Denise Reed as its chief scientist.

Reed will provide guidance and oversight in the development of the Water Institute’s science and engineering research programs while seeking opportunities for research projects. She also will collaborate with outside organizations with similar goals and interests. Previously, she served as interim director of the Pontchartrain Institute for Environmental Sciences at the University of New Orleans. Reed has worked closely with state government in developing coastal restoration plans and helped monitor natural resources in the Pontchartrain Basin following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.

The American Association of Drilling Engineers’ Lafayette chapter has selected its officers for 2012 to 2013: Derrick Daigle, of Phalanx Petroleum, president; Gene Guidry, of Stokes & Spiehler, second vice president; Sharon Moore,of Halliburton, treasurer/chapter representative; and Peggy Meynard, of IntegriCert, secretary.

Board members are: Andre Arceneaux, director emeritus; Jamie Crosby, of Chevron; Jeffery Svendson, of Advanced Logistics; Kaylor Frederick, of Smith Services-Schlumberger; Kristy Bonner, of Foster Marketing; Brad Bertrand, of Cameron; Bobby West, of Chevron; Lindsay Longman, of Phalanx Petroleum; John Lee, of Baker Hughes; Rick Voth, of Blueline Manufacturing; Greg Drury, of Chevron; Ryan Haigle, of Procor Chemicals Inc.; Sid Breaux, of Breaux Engineering; Bruce Jordan, of Stokes & Spiehler; Al Wambsgans, of DC International; Nick Rezvani, of Marlin Energy; and Doug Keller, of Knight Oil Tools.

The AADE Lafayette Chapter holds its general meetings the third Monday of each month at 11:30 a.m. at the Petroleum Club. For more information on upcoming events and AADE membership, visit www.aade.org/Lafayette.

Robert Twilley has been named executive director of the LSU-based Louisiana Sea Grant College Program and will begin his duties in mid-August. Twilley comes to Sea Grant from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where he served as vice president for research for the past two years.

He previously served as associate vice chancellor for research and economic development at LSU, where he also held the rank of professor in the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, or DOCS.

Hector Zapata, professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, has been named interim associate vice chancellor for International Programs, a joint appointment between the LSU AgCenter and LSU A&M. A native of Honduras, Zapata has been in LSU’s agricultural economics department since 1987.