Shreveport Business Leader Mike Woods to Assume UL System Board Chair

Shreveport Business Leader Mike Woods to Assume UL System Board Chair – Jan 9, 2004

BATON ROUGE, La. – Shreveport business leader and attorney Mike Woods will assume the Chair of the Board of Supervisors for the University of Louisiana System tomorrow at the Board’s regular meeting.

A 6-year Board member, Woods was appointed to the panel by Governor Mike Foster in 1997. He has served as Vice-Chair and replaces Baton Rouge attorney Gordon Pugh, who led the Board since 2001.

Woods has served two terms as Board Finance Chair, from 1999-2000 and 2002 to present, and was influential in the Board’s increasing oversight of its universities’ financial management. He played a key role in the drive to achieve unqualified legislative audits and accreditation stability at Grambling State University and the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

Woods will be sworn in along with the new Vice-Chair, Baton Rouge business leader Bob Davidge. Davidge is CEO of Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge.

“Mike has an intense commitment to improving the quality of life for Louisiana residents, and for him that means increasing opportunities for the pursuit of higher education. He has been an invaluable source of guidance for our universities, and I know that he will be a terrific Board Chair,” UL System President Sally Clausen said.

Woods attained a Masters degree in Environmental Science from Louisiana State University and a Juris Doctorate from LSU Law Center. He received his bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Oklahoma and bachelor of general studies degree from LSU-Shreveport.

He is president of Woods Operating Co., an independent oil and gas exploration company in Shreveport and serves as an adjunct professor of environmental law and non-profit governance and decision-making at LSU-Shreveport.

Besides his leadership of the UL System, Woods serves as vice chair of the LSU-Shreveport Foundation Board of Directors, and is a member of the LSU Alumni Association Board of Directors, the LSU-Shreveport Alumni Board and the Board of Trustees of Centenary College in Shreveport.

He is active in the Boy Scouts of America and has been awarded the Silver Antelope and Silver Beaver awards. He was LSU-Shreveport’s Distinguished Alumnus in 2001.

Woods and his wife, Tracie, have four children.

Note: Woods’ resume and headshot are attached to this press release on the UL System website (www.ulsystem.net).

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Michael Woods Resume (.PDF)

For More Information Contact:
Catherine Heitman
225-342-6950
cheitman@uls.state.la.us