Ken Ardoin was recently appointed interim Vice President for University Advancement at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He joined the administration on May 1, 2007.
As vice president, he is responsible for administering Advancement Services, Alumni Affairs, Development, Governmental Affairs, and Public Relations and News Services.
Ardoin is also the university’s liaison to the UL Lafayette Alumni Association and the UL Lafayette Foundation.
His connections to campus date back to 1982 when he founded the UL Lafayette Ragin Cajun Alumni Chapter in Dallas. Later, Ardoin served as president of UL Lafayette’s national Alumni Association.
He is a recipient of the UL Lafayette Distinguished Service Award and the UL Lafayette Outstanding Alumni Award. He was inducted into the national honor society of Phi Kappa Phi in the late 1990s.
Ardoin worked at Pfizer from February 1965 thru April 2007. The first 18 years, he was in sales and sales management while located in Little Rock, New Orleans, Chicago and Dallas. The last 25 years, he worked as Pfizer’s Corporate Lobbyist and managed their legislative and public affairs initiatives for more than half of the United States.
Ardoin was elected and served as state chairman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association of America and served on numerous boards in Louisiana like the Louisiana Department of Health & Hospitals Interdisciplinary Committee on Pharmacy and Medicine; Louisiana Drug Utilization Review Board; Louisiana Drug Advisory Committee on Pharmacy and Medicine.
In Texas, he served on the Board of Directors of the Texas Civil Justice League and the Texas Healthcare and Bioscience Institute. On the national scene, Ardoin was elected to the Executive Board of Directors for the American Legislative Exchange Council in Washington, D.C.
He received national recognition as the American Legislative Exchange Council, Private Sector Member of the Year in 2007.
In 1985, Ardoin was a candidate for the Texas State House of Representatives and served as Vice Chairman of the Civil Service Board for the City of Dallas.
He holds a Master of Liberal Arts from Southern Methodist University and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the UL Lafayette. He has four children.