Guest speaker for Thursday’s noon meeting of the Minden Lions Club will be John E. Atkins, Caddo Parish commissioner. John serves as a principal and partner in Atco Investment Company LLC, a diversified asset management company located in Shreveport.

While John shares responsibility for all aspects of the Atco investment portfolio, his primary areas of focus include oil and gas, timberland, and other alternative assets. In addition to his responsibilities at Atco, John is also a co-founder and partner in Louisiana Timber Partners LLC, a timberland investment management organization with timberland holdings in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas. Furthermore, John serves on the board of directors of Aeropres Corporation.

John is involved in a number of civic organizations. In January of 2016 he was elected to serve a four-year term as a Commissioner on the Caddo Parish Commission. He is a past-president of the Committee of One Hundred, a civic leader for the Air Force Global Strike Command, treasurer of Barksdale Forward, and serves on the board of trustees of Centenary College of Louisiana. In addition, in 2011 Mayor Cedric Glover appointed John to the Municipal Fire and Police Civil Service Board on which he served until 2015, and in 2008, Gov. Bobby Jindal appointed John to the Tobacco Settlement Finance Corporation Board for the State of Louisiana, where he served until 2011.

Prior to occupying his current positions, John worked as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company, focusing primarily on multinational energy companies. Earlier in his career, he was employed as a geophysicist for the Exploration & Production Division of Conoco, Inc. John earned a B.S. (Magna Cum Laude) in geology from Washington & Lee University, an M.A. in geological sciences from the University of Texas at Austin, and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.  Finally, John was awarded an honorary degree from Centenary College in recognition of his contributions to the college.

John lives in Shreveport with his wife Lindsay and their Doberman Pinscher, Vesuvius.

He will be introduced by Lion Phillip McInnis.