Business

• Local oil technology company Ephraim Oil, LLC Advisory Board Chairman and partner Dr. Raymond Gerald Bailey, Ph.D., P.E. has received the University of Houston Engineering Alumni Association Lifetime Achievement Award for service to the oil industry. According to Ephraim Oil CEO Bill Hamm, Bailey has a long history of innovation and service in the oil industry. “Gerald has extensive experience with big oil companies in the Middle East, becoming President of Exxon in the Arabian Gulf in 1992. Since he returned to the United States in 1997, he has been active as a consultant and on boards of major oil companies here, including our Advisory Board at Ephraim Oil.” Hamm continued, “His partnership is particularly meaningful to me because of his leadership and service within this industry. I’m proud to be associated with him.”

• Blanchard, Walker, O’Quin & Roberts announced that it has been awarded recertification in Meritas, a global alliance of independent business law firms. Blanchard Walker joined Meritas in 1993 and is one of only two law firms in Louisiana to be distinguished with the Meritas honor. Meritas is the only law firm alliance with an established and comprehensive means of monitoring and enhancing the quality of its member firms – a process that saves clients time in validating law firm credentials and experience.

• Citizens National Bank was chosen again as one of the Top 200 Community Banks in the United States by American Banker in their annual rankings. American Banker is a national banking publication that measures the performance of a group of community banks that are selected each year to be in the “Top 200.” American Banker pointed out that it was getting tougher to earn a spot in their annual ranking of publicly traded banks because of the slowly recovering economy that has created a larger return on equity.