U-Haul signs on neighborhood dealer
U-Haul Company of Louisiana has signed on Clark Construction & Maintenance LLC at 6956 Cezanne Ave., Suite 2, in Baton Rouge as a U-Haul neighborhood dealer.
Clark Construction is owned by Rogee Clark and will offer U-Haul trucks, trailers, towing equipment, moving supplies and in-store pickup for boxes.
Business hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday. The phone number is (225) 612-0030 and website is www.uhaul.com/Locations/Truck-Rentals-near-Baton-Rouge-LA-70806/033464.
The Plant Studio opens in downtown BR
The Plant Studio has opened at 207 Florida St. in downtown Baton Rouge.
The store sells a variety of indoor house plants for offices and home spaces. It is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Vitality Medical opens on Baringer Foreman
Vitality Medical Center of Baton Rouge, a concierge medical practice specializing in age management and hormone replacement therapies, has opened a clinic at 9373 Baringer Foreman Road, Suite E, in Baton Rouge.
The clinic has multiple treatment rooms, in-house phlebotomy and lab services, and an area for patient consultations. Services include bioidentical hormone replacement, testosterone optimization, thyroid management, facial aesthetic treatments, including Botox, Juvederm and Kybella, growth hormone supplementation treatment, nutritional and weight management counseling, sexual health and dysfunction options, and medical-grade supplements Vitality Nutritionals.
Vitality Medical was founded in 2019 by Dr. Thomas K. Bond and Andrew Dow.
The clinic is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Information and appointments are at (225) 256-6036 or vitalitymedicalcenters.com.
La. Dental Center opens clinic in Addis
Louisiana Dental Center has opened at 6572 La. 1 South in Addis.
The 20-chair, 8,000-square-foot clinic is equipped to provide specialized dental services, such as sedation dentistry, wisdom teeth and implants and more conventional dental needs. It will employ 25 people. The clinic is next to the Westside YMCA and in front of the Sugar Mill subdivision.
Hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.. Saturday. The phone is (225) 320-3434.
State program hosting IBM job fair
IBM will hold a job fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Feb. 1 at the Baton Rouge Community College for 35 open jobs at the company’s Baton Rouge offices in partnership with the Louisiana Economic Development department’s FastStart program.
IBM will have representatives at the community college’s Bienvenue Student Center at 201 Community College Drive.
The technology company is looking for experienced and emerging information technology professionals and expects to conduct interviews on-site. IBM has two client innovation centers in Louisiana — one in Baton Rouge and the other near CenturyLink’s headquarters in Monroe.
IBM is looking for applicants with experience in analytics, enterprise software applications, interactive experience, mobile application development in addition to experience with Python, JavaScript, SAP, SQL, Oracle and big data.
In recent years, IBM has experienced issues hiring and retaining enough workers for its Baton Rouge office to meet economic development agreement requirements. In June 2019, IBM finally hit the 800-job mark requirement but was still forced to pay a $1.4 million penalty to the state because it was 144 employees short on average during the contract period.
IBM officials previously projected that they expected to hire dozens of more workers each quarter in Louisiana. Average starting salaries range from the mid-$40,000s to the mid-$60,000s for new professional jobs, according to IBM.
MasteryPrep completes $2.3M funding round
MasteryPrep, a Baton Rouge-based technology company that sells standardized testing software and training material to schools, completed a $2.3 million fundraising round from a group of investors.
The financing came from the new Red Stick Angel Network; Jennifer and Sean Reilly of CEO of Lamar Advertising; and the William C. Schumacher Family Foundation, created by William Schumacher founder of Lafayette-based SCP-Health; and Carolyn Doerle, chief executive officer of Doerle Food Services LLC in Acadiana. The Red Stick Angel Network is led by Bill Ellison, who also leads Innovation Catalyst. MasteryPrep is its first investment.
“We will be using these funds to hire more staff, release our new SAT Mastery product and triple the number of students served by 2022,” said Craig Gehring, chief executive officer of MasteryPrep.
MasteryPrep expects to hire 15 more employees in the coming months as it expands to SAT testing this month. It hired a new chief technology officer, Chris Jones, who will be overseeing more educational software development at the company. The company expects to hire 25 employees by 2021 in addition to 75 part-time workers.
MasteryPrep, founded in 2010, has seen demand for its products grow from its roots in Louisiana to serving schools in more than 25 states, though it is most active across the Southeast.
