It’s Acadiana: Out To Lunch

Hosted ByChristiaan Mader

OUT TO LUNCH finds journalist Christiaan Mader conducting business Acadiana style: over lunch. Each week Christiaan invites guests from Acadiana's business community to join him. Beyond the foundations of the Acadiana economy - oil, cuisine, music - there is a vast network of entrepreneurs, small businesses, and even some of the country's largest companies who call Acadiana home. Out to Lunch is the cafeteria of the wider Acadiana business community. You can also hear the show on KRVS 88.7FM.

Friends and Family – Out to Lunch – It’s Acadiana

Typically, on Out to Lunch, Aileen invites people who don’t know each other to have lunch with her, hopes they’ll have something in common, and that they’ll get along. She doesn’t have to worry about any of that today. Aileen’s lunch guests have a lot in common. And they’re friends.

Charles Fenstermaker

Charles Fenstermaker is Chief Financial Officer at C.H. Fenstermaker & Associates – a consulting firm that specializes in surveying, mapping, engineering, environmental services and advanced technology. Even if you don’t know what the company actually does, you probably know it simply as “Fenstermaker” – because you’ve seen the name around here since 1950. That’s the year another Charles Fenstermaker founded the company. The Charles is the 4th generation Fenstermaker to be a part of the family business.

Blaise Zuschlag

Blaise Zuschlag is Chief of Staff at Acadian Companies, which you probably know from their flagship business, Acadian Ambulance. The company was founded in 1971 by Richard Zuschlag – Blaise’s father – with two ambulances. Today the company has 4,400 employees in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas and has six divisions that include air ambulance helicopters, an executive aircraft charter service, and a safety management system for the oil and gas industry. Acadian Companies is consistently one the highest revenue producers in Louisiana.

Blaise Zuschlag, Charles Fenstermaker, Aileen Bennett

Over the course of a lifetime we can change a lot of things – about ourselves, and our surroundings. One of the things we can’t change is our family. Navigating a family business comes with its own specific challenges.

Photos at Cafe Vermilionville  by Lucius Fontenot.