Delta Kappa Epsilon International

Board of Directors Bios

Born in 1948, a lifetime resident of New Orleans, Louisiana, Al is married to his life long sweetheart, Elizabeth (“Betty”) Viguerie, also of New Orleans. They have four children Al, Jean-Pierre, Elizabeth and Andre and six grandchildren. Their sons are all Dekes, Al, ZZ 1992, Jean-Pierre ZZ 1996, and Andre, X 2009; daughter Elizabeth is a Delta Gamma.

He was graduated in 1970 from LSU with a BA degree and in 1973 with a JD. Since 1973 he has practiced law in New Orleans and is a member/manager of Bienvenu, Foster, Ryan & O’Bannon, L.L.C. and is admitted to practice before all state and federal courts in Louisiana and the U.S. Supreme Court. He is a litigator and negotiator in matters concerning various contracts, mineral interests, condemnation/eminent domain, land regulatory matters, and contamination, various tort based disputes, arson and fraud. He is past president of the New Orleans Association of Defense Counsel, is a volunteer arbitrator for the Louisiana State Bar Association fee dispute resolution program, is a fellow of Louisiana Bar Foundation and is member of the Louisiana, American, federal and New Orleans bar associations.

In the early 1980's, Al undertook and led a fund raising effort which refinanced and provided new capital for renovation of the 1923 ZZ chapter house which he oversaw. Since the early 1980's through the present, Al has been involved in numerous and varied dealings with university officials on behalf of the Zeta Zeta, Tau Lambda and Chi chapters. He has recently assisted with the re-formation of the Chi alumni association and its charter as a legal entity. He has and continues to render legal counseling to those chapters and their alumni associations. In the 1990's he and Betty organized the ZZ chapter mothers and alumni for assisting the ZZ chapter with putting on rush parties, homecoming parties and she helped with decorations for the chapter house. In 1992 he and Betty hosted a cocktail party and dinner at their home for approximately 600 actives, alumni and their guests from all parts of the U. S. and Canada as part of the DKE 150th anniversary celebration. He was the recipient in 1992 of the Bill Henderson Alumni Award of DKE International. He joined the board of directors of DKE International as southern regional director in 1986 and has been continually re-elected to that position. In June of 2008 he was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Rampant Lion Foundation and in 2009 was elected secretary of the foundation.

His leisure interests include boating/sailing, hunting and firearms, tinkering (woodwork, metal work, mechanics) classic automobiles, hiking, cooking, reading, music, sitting on the beach and enjoying many of these leisure activities with his family.

Andrew Bird currently serves as an at large member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon Board of Directors. He is an alumnus of the Sigma Kappa chapter of DKE at Michigan State. Previously Andrew served five years with DKE International Headquarters staff, first as a Travelling Consultant, then as Director of Chapter Services. In that role Andrew expanded DKE to several campuses, including operating the re-activation of the Chi chapter. He was also responsible for planning three international conventions.

Andrew currently resides in Washington, DC and works for the United States Chamber of Commerce. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business federation representing and lobbying for more than 3 million global businesses of all sizes and sectors.

Andrew currently also serves on the board of So Others Might Eat’s junior gala, a DC based charity benefit aiding the local homeless population. He is also active with other DC based charities such as, The Capital Club, A Taste of the South, WVSA Charter School for Arts in Learning and Virginia Gold Cup.

One of his most prized possessions is the lifelong bond he has to Deke from the five years he worked for the organization. Having visited nearly every chapter, he has formed bonds with Dekes nationwide that will never be broken.

Doug also owns a direct marketing services company in the Chicago suburbs called Direct Response Marketing.

His involvement with DKE has been at the international and local level. He re-started the Gamma Alumni Association in 2003, and is currently its President. Brother Lanpher served on the DKE Board of Directors until his appointment as Interim Executive Director.

On a personal level, Doug is married and has two children ages 23 and 21; is an avid runner (16 marathons) and officiates high school baseball as an umpire and basketball as a referee.

Mason is a Lambda/Kenyon Deke who graduated in 1988. At Kenyon, he served as secretary and vice president of the chapter. While an undergrad, he also was awarded varsity letters in soccer each of his four years before graduating with a B.A. in economics in 1988.

Moving to New York City, Mason has worked in sales since his active chapter days, including a five-year stint with a 50-year-old family business, A. Morjikian & Co., where he helped expand the decorative floor covering company before engineering a merger with a larger competitor.

Mason was elected to the DKE Club board in 1996 and then elected president of the board in 2005. He continues to serve as a director.

Today he is vice president and general manager of the floor covering division of F. Schumacher & Co., a firm he has been with since 2004. Mason and his wife, Livia, have an eight-year-old son, Henry, and in addition to serving as an assistant soccer coach for Henry’s team, Mason enjoys skiing, fly fishing and hiking.