NEWS RELEASE

Contact: David West (west@nsula.edu )
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466

10/17/2003

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATCHITOCHES- The College of Business at Northwestern State University will sponsor the 37th Annual J. Walter Porter Forum Wednesday, Oct. 22 beginning at 10 a.m. in Magale Recital Hall.

The theme for this year's Forum is "Exploring the World of Business." Speakers for the Forum are Glen Parker of Cleco, Michael Allain, vice president of Sandel Medical Industries, Ed Antie, owner and chief executive officer of Central Telephone Corporation, and Dr. Ralph Kaufman of the University of Houston ­ Downtown.

Allain manages Sandel Medical Industries' sales efforts. This sales effort includes two of the largest specialty dealers comprised of 44 sales representatives. He received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and a Master of Business Administration from Northwestern.

Antie is an NSU graduate, earning a bachelor's in electronic engineering with a minor in aviation science. He founded Louisiana Communications, a support facility to Motorola Communications and Electronics. Antie later sold Louisiana Communications and established Central Telephone Corporation.

While operating Central Telephone he organized Network USA, a provider of specialized transmission facilities and digital communications circuits to major corporations throughout the southern states. Antie along with other investors recently purchased Sun America Communications, a provider of high capacity digital communication fiber circuits.

Antie and his affiliates have two full power television stations under construction, which aggressively involves them in both telecommunications and broadcast. He is an active member of IEEE (Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and lives in Lafayette.

Kauffman is an associate professor of management and coordinator of the Purchasing and Supply Management Program at the University of Houston-Downtown. He received his Ph.D. in management science from the University of Texas at Dallas. Prior to entering academia, he had more than 27 years of purchasing and supply management experience with Oryx Energy Company, Sunoco, and Monsanto

Kauffman is chair of the Non-Manufacturing Business Survey Committee of the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) and prepares the monthly Non-Manufacturing ISM Report on Business. In 2002 he was the recipient of the J. Shipman Gold Medal, the most distinguished award presented by ISM.

Parker has earned two certifications--Certified Purchasing Manager and Accredited Purchasing Practitioner--from the Institute for Supply Management. Recently, he completed a two-year term on the ISM Regional Leadership Training Committee. He holds membership in the local ISM affiliate, NAPM-Northwest Louisiana, based in Shreveport. Parker received his M.B.A. and bachelors in business administration from Louisiana State University at Shreveport. He has been as an adjunct instructor at NSU campuses in Alexandria and Leesville-Fort Polk.

The J. Walter Porter Forum is sponsored by the College of Business and made
possible by the endowment established by the family and friends of the late J. Walter Porter in recognition of his interest in improving the image of business as a career field for college students and of his concern for moral and ethical standards as expressed in his philosophy of business. The forum is an effort to translate the textbook into practice by bringing capable, successful business executives to the campus to speak on selected topics in their area of expertise.

Porter was a native of Kaufman County, Texas. He graduated from Texas A&M and earned a Master's in Civil Engineering from Harvard. In 1931, he helped organize the Gifford-Hill Pipe Company at Grand Prairie, Texas. Porter saw the need to sell business to the college and to bridge the gap between the college campus and industry. He felt many people in the academic, professional, governmental and even in the business world, fail to understand the workings of the competitive system and the motivating force behind it.

Porter was determined to contribute to a better understanding of that system among his own employees, associates, and, where he could, on college campuses. His death came on the eve of a scheduled three-day lecture program at Southwestern College in Winfield, Kan. The J. Walter Porter Forum is a continuation of that effort.

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