News release Public Information Office   SLU 10880   Hammond, LA 70402   phone: 985-549-2341   fax: 985-549-2061 publicinfo@selu.edu     www.selu.edu/news Contact: Rene Abadie Date: 10/10/03   Click on image for publication quality photo CANDIES NAMED SOUTHEASTERN ALUMNUS OF THE YEAR       HAMMOND – Paul Candies, who heads a Louisiana-based marine transportation and offshore services company, has been named Southeastern Louisiana University’s Alumnus of the Year.       President and Chief Operating Officer of Otto Candies, LLC of Des Allemands, Candies is a 1962 graduate of Southeastern with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He will be formally recognized at Southeastern’s Alumni Awards Banquet on Friday, Oct. 17. The following day, he has been invited to reign as Grand Marshall of the university’s Homecoming Parade, which rolls in Hammond at 1:30 p.m.       Earlier this year Candies endowed the Paul Candies Family Endowed Professorship in Business in Southeastern’s College of Business and Technology. The Candies family has also funded the Otto Candies Endowed Chair in Information Systems at Nicholls State University.       As head of Otto Candies – a firm started in 1942 by his father, the late Otto Candies – he oversees a fleet of more than 100 vessels serving the offshore oil and gas industry worldwide. The company, with offices in Mexico and Argentina, is known as the first to transport an oil production platform from Houston to the United Kingdom drilling area in the North Sea and for its emergency response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.        He joined the company shortly after graduating from Southeastern in 1962, holding a number of positions before being named president in 1991. His two brothers and a number of their children also work in the family business.       Candies served on the board of directors of ArgentBank for 30 years. ArgentBank merged with Hiberna National Bank in 1998 and Candies then served on Hibernia’s Thibodaux city board of directors. In 2002, Candies was elected to Hibernia’s board of directors.       A drag racing enthusiast for many years, Candies’ team became the first two-car team to race each other in the final round at the National Hot Rod Association’s U.S. Nationals in 1976. For their accomplishments over 25 years, the team – composed of Paul Candies and Leonard Hughes –  in 1999 was inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame. Return to News Releases