On February 14th 2008, the Moody College of Business Administration hosted the inaugural quarterly meeting of the newly founded “Acadiana Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Roundtable” at the Lafayette Economic Development Authority (LEDA) facility in Lafayette. Twenty six CFOs representing a cross-section of the largest public organizations and private companies in the greater Acadiana region attended the meeting. In his opening remarks, Mr. Gregg Gothreaux, Executive Director of LEDA, spoke about the status and trends of the economy in the region. The discussion at the meeting, facilitated by Dr. Joby John, Dean of the Moody College, highlighted the changing role of the CFO and the key issues facing the larger companies in the region. From the discussion, the top three priorities and issues confronting CFOs in Acadiana appeared to center around the following themes: changing role of CFOs; unique characteristics of the local economy, and workforce needs.

CFOs are seeing their roles as requiring a comprehensive grasp of all functions and areas of the company and a more prominent contribution to corporate strategy. They find themselves “multi-tasking” in a dynamic work environment, balancing their team-player role with a sometimes adversarial role as the ethics watchdog for the company. Today’s CFO works in an information technology-rich environment that touches every aspect of the job.

The current economic environment of the region forces Acadiana CFOs and their companies to contend with some difficult challenges related to workforce and infrastructure. With the continuing rapid economic growth in region, it has become harder and harder to meet the workforce needs of growing companies. Similarly, it is the opinion of the Roundtable that the physical infrastructure of our region is inadequate to keep up with the current and future needs that continually change due to the area’s rapid economic growth. To a great degree, technology and the internet have offset some of this strain by enhancing the ability to more efficiently communicate and/or transact with vendors, clients and company personnel without having to move across the geography of the region.

The second meeting in May 2008 featured Mr. Tim Barfield, Louisiana Secretary of Labor, as the speaker. Mr. Barfield spoke about the workforce development plans for the state. The third meeting in August 2008 featured Mr. Rusty Cloutier as the speaker. Mr. Cloutier, CEO and President of MidSouth Bank and a former Federal Reserve board member, spoke about the mortgage crisis.

The current membership of the Acadiana CFO Roundtable is at forty members. These are the largest employers in the Greater Lafayette region. The roundtable meets every quarter.

In 2009, Moody College Finance Professor, Dr. Linus Wilson, designed a survey to gauge CFO sentiment regarding the local economy. The survey is indexed at 50, meaning that a number below 50 indicates a negative sentiment and one above 50 indicates a positive sentiment about the local economy. The reading for the first quarter of 2009 came in at 45 indicating a slightly negative sentiment about our economy. Questions in the survey pertain to things like availability of credit and labor, production and inventory levels, sales and growth prospects, etc. This survey is being conducted each quarter by Dr. Wilson.