Airport Commission Chairman Trae Welch is native of Baker, Louisiana. Mr. Welch graduated from Baker High School and received his Bachelor of Science Degree at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. Mr. Welch received his Jurist Doctorate Degree from Southern University. Mr. Welch currently serves as Zachary City Prosecutor and practices law in Zachary. In addition to serving on as the BTR Airport Commission Chairman, Democrat Trae Welch was elected to the Metropolitan Council representing District 1 in 2008. He is a former Baker Councilman and former member of the Baker Planning/Zoning Board. He and his wife, Lynn, own and operate the Jack and Jill’s Children Boutique in Zachary. They have a two- year-old son, Quaid.

 

     Commissioner Jim Ellis is a partner in the law firm Taylor, Porter, Brooks & Phillips, L.L.P. in Baton Rouge, LA. He has a B.S. Degree from LSU, and a Law Degree from Tulane School of Law. Mr. Ellis was General Counsel for the Baton Rouge Area Chamber (2005-2007) and served as Chairman of the Board of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber in 2008. He was also selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® in Energy Law for the last ten years. In addition to serving the Chairman of the Airport Commission, Mr. Ellis is active in many civic and economic development organizations.

    

He has been in the industrial and commercial construction business for over 30 years, and is the owner of The Arkel Constructors group of companies which consists of Arkel Constructors, a Baton Rouge based construction company; ACI Facilities Management, a commercial building maintenance company; and Derashnie Enterprises, an intermodal trucking operation.

Mr. Fife is involved in several different civic and charity organizations, primarily in the support of medical and cancer research.

In regards to serving as a Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport Commissioner, Fife stated, "I feel that the success and growth of the Baton Rouge Metro Airport is important to the continued economic development of our city. The airport property encompasses a great resource of real estate with significant development potential that can bring substantial building and employment opportunity to our area. I hope my experience in the construction and development industry can aid in the continued growth of this facility."

            

Mr. Dunn is the CEO/President of Dunn Enterprises which manages a diverse project portfolio including real estate investments, logistics, entertainment, and the arts. Mr. Dunn is a sought-after business and political consultant, providing expertise and analysis to nonprofit organizations, businesses, entrepreneurs, and political candidates.

Dunn has helped to create and expand businesses across Louisiana, while elected officials both local and statewide have relied on his pulse of the community to lead their campaigns to success.

He is a member of the National Association of Parliamentarians and serves on the board for the Angel’s Empowerment Organization and the Baton Rouge Student Learning Center. He also serves on the BREC Golf Advisory Committee. Cleve and his wife Stacy have two daughters.

     Commissioner Alfred Buckley, a life-long resident of East Baton Rouge Parish, is married with grown children. His career in city-parish government has included positions with the East Baton Rouge Parish Clerk of Court’s Office, the Attorney General’s Office and the East Baton Rouge Parish Clerk of Court’s Office, where he is employed as Assistant Chief Deputy under the administration of Doug Wellborn.

Mr. Grigsby has worked for Cajun Industries, LLC his entire adult life, a company  founded by his father in 1973.  His father is the owner and serves as Chairman of the Board.

Currently, Grigsby serves as President & CEO of Cajun Constructors, Inc.  He has held several other positions, including, but not limited to; laborer, mechanic helper, carpenter, Assistant Superintendent, Superintendent, Estimator, Project Manager, Manager of Marketing and Vice President of the Dallas Division.

Cajun Industries, headquartered in Baton Rouge, has annual sales in excess of $300 million.  Cajun is a multi-faceted company that provides a broad range of services to various industries, including Water Quality, Petroleum, Chemical, Power, Pulp and Paper, Manufacturing, Distributing and Food Processing.  As a leader in full-service industrial construction and maintenance, Cajun's expanded capabilities feature mechanical construction including pipe erection, equipment setting, structural steel erection, as well as drill shafts and pile driving to complement a full menu of construction services.

Todd is married to Ainsley Rolfs Grigsby and they have three sons, Lane (11), Crawford (9) and Oliver (5).  In his free time, Grigsby enjoys spending time with his family, spearfishing, hunting, and fishing.

" I am honored to serve as a commissioner of the BTR airport," stated Commissioner Grigsby.  "As a commissioner, I see my role being to help provide direction and leadership to BTR along with my fellow commissioners.  As a newly appointed commissioner, I intend on gathering knowledge on issues as they pertain to the airport.  Once I have a better understanding as to the way the airport operates, I will try and help lead the airport toward measured goals and objectives."

Organizational Memberships: 

St. James Episcopal Church

ABC (Associated Builders and Contractors) Chairman 2013

CIAC (Construction Industry Advisory Council)

Delta Waterfowl

Coastal Conservation Association

Texas Deer Association

Wild Sheep Foundation

Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation

The Boo Grigsby Foundation 

   

     Mr. Andrew McCandless is the Founder and President of the business consulting firm Bascom-Hunter, based in Baton Rouge, LA. Mr. McCandless received his Bachelor’s Degree from LSU in Mechanical Engineering. He is married to Stephanie McCandless and has two small children. Mr. McCandless is originally from Houma, LA.

        Mr. Dalton Honore'

      Airport Commissioner

    

In addition Sharon Broome is the president of Broome Communications.  She is a nationally recognized speaker and consultant.  She is actively involved in a number of community organizations and boards, including the Sankofa Corp; Manship School Board of Visitors, Tyrus Thomas Inc. and Omni Bank Community Advisory Board.

     Valarie Hodges has a proven track record of leadership, professional experience and civic involvement.  She is a passionate leader who serves on the 8-member Executive Committee of the State-wide Republican Party of Louisiana. She is the past president of the Livingston Parish Republican Women's Club, which she helped restart five years ago.  Valarie has been a relentless volunteer in many Republican campaigns to elect conservative leaders to public office. Her civic involvement, professional experience and leadership set her apart.

James co-authored and published two peer reviewed journal articles entitled Environmental Leadership Development: A Framework for Designing and Evaluating a Training Program.  It was published in the European Journal of Social Sciences and Developing Social Entrepreneurs for Developing Pan-African Nations, which was published in the Business Renaissance Quarterly.

Upon completion of his masters degree, James was hired by United States Gypsum Corporation as a Human Resources Supervisor and was later promoted to Human Resources Manager.  In both positions, James managed recruiting and hiring, workforce training and development, safety, and employee relations.

In 2003, James joined Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco’s administration as a Policy Advisor on Social Services, Housing, and Community Development.  His job activities included researching, analyzing, and advising in the areas of temporary assistance to needy families, childcare, foster care, affordable housing, and strategies to reducing poverty.

In 2006, James was appointed Vice-President of the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency.  While there, James assisted the Agency's President in formulating and implementing single-family and multifamily housing policies and programs to help Louisiana increase its supply of safe, decent and affordable housing.  He was also responsible for providing workforce leadership and training, assisted with the direction of the Agency's financial, administrative and business affairs, managing its $12 million operating budget, $2 billion combined Mortgage Revenue Bond portfolio, including Community Development Block Grant, HOME funds and Housing Trust Fund.

James is member of the East Baton Rouge Parish Housing Authority and East Baton Rouge Planning and Zoning Commission.  He is also a founding member of the Mentorship Digital Media Academy and the Mentorship Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Academy.

James is the President of The Bayard Research Group, a government relations, public policy, and strategic planning firm.  His firm specializes in coordinating local, state, and federal campaigns, writing and advocating public policy, and public planning and organizational management for public organizations. 

On his vision for the Airport:

Baton Rouge is a major part of my life and I want nothing more than to see it continue prosper.  The Airport is a vital link to economic development, and my vision is for the Baton Rouge Metro Airport to continue to grow and become an international resource.  This includes more direct flights to other cities, low-cost travel, efficient & valuable contracts with partner airlines, and great customer service.

On his role is as a commissioner:

In three words "Leadership By Example".  As a member of the Commission, I am a servant leader for the Baton Rouge community.  Therefore, my role as a commissioner is to listen and understand the needs of Baton Rouge residents and visitors that utilize (or may not utilize) our airport, while also acting upon their concerns to ensure that we operate in the most efficient and cost effective manner.   

     Senator Yvonne Dorsey appointed Rose Doolittle as her designee.  Doolittle previously served on the Airport Commission from 1995 until 1997.

"The Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport should continue to be a good neighbor to those who live near the facility,” said Doolittle.  The Airport should maintain the aesthetic qualities established on Harding and Veterans Boulevard and other streets leading to the airport.  Doolittle’s other goals include negotiating for low-cost carriers, more nonstop flights to other cities, building a hotel on site and acquiring more long-term tenants.  She feels customer service and safety are very important.

Doolittle is a licensed professional counselor and certified compulsive gambling counselor for senior citizens through the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals Office of Addiction Disorders.  In addition she is a Crisis Line Counselor for the Battered Women’s Program where she has volunteered for more than 13 years.  

Dorsey sits on four major standing Senate committees: Judiciary C, where she is Chairman and controls changes to the criminal and civil codes and all matters relating to law enforcement and the judiciary; Revenue & Fiscal Affairs, where she oversees taxes, tax credits and bond measures; Education, where she protects public education, including LSU, Southern, Louisiana Technical Colleges, School for the Deaf and School for the Visually Impaired, all of which lie within her senatorial district; and Health & Welfare, where she makes crucial decisions helping to provide care for children, the elderly and the economically disadvantaged. She also serves on the Senate Select Committee on Women and Children.

Prior to moving to the Senate, she served in the Louisiana House of Representatives for over fourteen years representing House District 67. Ever since first attaining public office in April of 1993, Yvonne has used her public position to promote community services in the city's poorest neighborhoods. She has provided vital help with grants for after school tutoring services and for inspirational activities for children and the elderly. She sponsors community events at which she gives free school supplies to thousands of children every Fall. Every summer she personally leads groups of disadvantaged youth on two-week summer vacations to places like Disneyland or the Grand Canyon. So far, she has given over two thousand children their first—and sometimes only—vacation trip.

In 2005 the combined membership of the House unanimously elected Yvonne to the position of Speaker Pro Tempore. In this capacity, she assisted in managing House business, steered the Governor's legislative agenda, and served as an ex-officio member of every House standing committee.

For a decade Yvonne stood as the sole voice for all of Baton Rouge in the House budgeting process from her position on the House Appropriations Committee. Yvonne was the driving force behind the capital outlay programs which have revitalized Baton Rouge's downtown and restored the historic old McKinley High School building. She also served as Vice Chair of the Health and Welfare Committee in the House where she had oversight of the state's public hospital system.

Yvonne began developing her expertise in management and public service while employed at the 19th Judicial District Clerk of Court. She rose from an entry level position to Executive Administrator in just a few years, managing a five million dollar budget and supervising 250 employees in eighteen departments. She was instrumental in creating that office's Family Violence Department which gives assistance to victims of spousal abuse.

In 1992 she became Executive Director of the Employment Council at the Louisiana Department of Labor where she was responsible for implementing Louisiana's Federal Jobs Training Program. She resigned that position to run for the Louisiana House.

Every year, Yvonne raises funds to send up to eighty children on an educational vacation. She believes it is important that they know how much larger the world is than what they have seen in their troubled neighborhoods and that it is big enough to accommodate anyone's dreams. In 2009, she took a bus full of children selected by pastors from Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Alexandria, and Lafayette to Washington, D.C. where they witnessed the inauguration of our nation's first African-American President, Barrack Obama.

Currently, Yvonne is Industrial Coordinator at the Louisiana Technical Colleges. She is responsible for identifying the critical job skills needed by Louisiana's businesses and then creating and managing specific training programs designed to meet them.

Yvonne graduated from Capital High School in Baton Rouge and earned a bachelor of science degree in political science from LSU in May 2008. She is presently completing her masters in political science in the LSU graduate school.

She is the mother of two children: a son, Jamar, who is an architect, and a daughter, Darcé, an ordained minister with a masters in education who teaches and ministers to the hearing impaired. Yvonne attends Mount Zion Baptist Church.

     Mr. James Dodds is the owner of The Architectural Studio in Baton Rouge, which he founded in 1968.  A graduate of Louisiana State University with a Bachelor of Architecture degree, he is a registered Architect in Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia and Florida.