Business briefs

From The Associated Press and staff reports.
Interim CEO named at Franklin hospital
FRANKLIN — Lynn Beasley was welcomed Thursday to the monthly meeting of the Hospital Service District Board of Commissioners as the interim chief executive officer of Franklin Foundation Hospital.
Beasley stepped into the position Monday after arriving in Franklin Saturday from his home in South Carolina.
Beasley said he had been in retirement just three months when he was asked to fill in at the hospital by the Quorum Health Resources management group until a permanent replacement can be found. The position was left vacant earlier this month when then CEO Parker Templeton took another job in New Iberia.
Quorum’s Don Smithburg introduced Beasley to the board as an “extremely seasoned veteran.”
Beasley said he has been in the hospital business for 40 years, and has held hospital administrator positions for 30 of those years.
He added that the decision to come to Louisiana was influenced by the fact that he was born and raised in Tensas Parish and still has family in the Lafayette area. He obtained a bachelor’s degree from Louisiana Tech and a master’s at Louisiana State University.
“I know you’re proud of your community hospital,” Beasley said. “And you should be. It’s been very successful and it’s bucking a lot of national trends. There’s not a lot of hospitals in America today that can tell you that they have a positive bottom line.”
In response to Smithburg’s description, he said, “I’m seasoned — that means I’m old.”
Beasley updated the board on progress on the medical office building being constructed adjacent to the hospital on Northwest Boulevard.
Beasley said the specialty consultant Zero Six, hired to oversee the construction project, has been on site twice in the past month to ensure that the facility is water tight.
In closing, he said Templeton and the senior management staff have been helpful on his transition into the job.
In other discussion, Chief Financial Officer Ron Bailey said there was an almost $68,000 loss in August, the 11th month of the fiscal year. Year-to-date, the bottom line is showing just over a $1.9 million profit.

Loyola gets NASA grant for invention
NEW ORLEANS — A new patent-pending invention that could ultimately allow body heat to power up smart phones is entering the prototype stage thanks to a nearly $75,000 NASA grant awarded by the John C. Stennis Space Center.
Thermoelectric technology — the ability to turn heat into electricity — has been around for years but experts say it’s plagued by inefficient processes. Loyola University New Orleans physics professor Patrick Garrity, however, aims to change that.
The $74,523 grant will allow Garrity to manipulate the inner-workings of a thermoelectric device that resembles a small square chip, called metamaterial. Where the heat enters the chip, Garrity has created paths to guide the heat very specifically, making the process of turning heat into power expeditious.
While researchers in the past tried creating a new super material to absorb heat and turn it into electricity, Garrity said his method uses complex physics to raise the efficiency of the devices by orders of magnitude.
Research groups have been working to try to raise the efficiency for thermoelectrics to make it competitive with other technologies like solar power, he also said.
The grant funds beta tests to be conducted by Garrity and a Loyola undergraduate researcher at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi’s Hancock County. Next summer, he expects to test the prototype device’s ability to power sensors mounted next to a rocket engine at Stennis’ engine testing facility.

Allgood will
lead Jefferson business incubator
AVONDALE — Alan Allgood has been hired as entrepreneurship manager by the Jefferson Parish Economic Development Commission.
Before joining the organization, which is known as JEDCO, Allgood was executive director of Goodwill’s food and technology Incubator in Norco.
JEDCO Executive Director Jerry Bologna says Allgood will work to improve the climate for entrepreneurs in Jefferson Parish and take charge of the Business Innovation Center, JEDCO’s business incubator.

First NBC
gets $19M under state program
NEW ORLEANS — First NBC Bank has been awarded $19.6 million under a new state program that will boost its community development arm.
The grant allocation is part of a $55 million package the state Department of Revenue is awarding to entities statewide under the Louisiana New Markets Jobs Act, which was signed into law in June.
The state program is modeled after the federal New Markets Tax Credit program, which requires private sector, non-government entities to make upfront investment in small business and real estate projects in their community.
In exchange, investors can claim tax credits on the investment over seven years.
The bank said earlier this week it plans to leverage the state tax credits, along with an earlier $50 million allocation of federal credits awarded to the First NBC Community Development Fund.

LSU moves business center
BATON ROUGE — A Louisiana Small Business Development Center location opened in LSU’s Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute.
While the LSBDC used to operate through the Louisiana Business & Technology Center at LSU, officials decided it made more sense to house the center in the entrepreneurship institute. The LSBDC’s goal is to help small businesses grow through individual consulting services, entrepreneurial training programs and business information resources.
Charles D’Agostino, interim director of the entrepreneurship institute, says the LSBDC at LSU will have a full-time business counselor. Staff members at the entrepreneurship institute and the LBTC will serve as additional resources, along with students in the Flores MBA program and undergraduates who are focusing on entrepreneurship.

Company adding to Lafayette complex
LAFAYETE — Lafayette-based Frank’s International plans to build an office and warehouse complex next to its existing headquarters building.
The oil and gas service company is projecting expansion of the industry worldwide and planning to expand internationally.
The 175,000-square-foot facility will be built on 55 acres with completion projected for October 2014. The site is off Beau Pre Road near U.S. Highway 90. It is near the company’s existing complex at Verot School Road and U.S. 90.
Core Construction Group is the primary contractor for the construction project.
“This is the only place we had available land,” Chief Executive Officer Keith Mosing said.
He said Frank’s already has operations in 60 assisting in oil and gas exploration and extraction.
Mosing is a third-generation of the family member that has run the 75-year-old company, started by Frank Mosing in 1938.
The company would not say how much the development will cost.
Frank’s went to the stock market with a public offering in August at $22 a share. The stock recently has been trading around $30.