Contact:    Steve Majors                                                   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

                 smajors@theehrhardtgroup.com 

 GNOEA NAMES MALCOLM EHRHARDT EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR

NEW ORLEANS – May 19, 2008 -  The Greater New Orleans Executives Association (GNOEA) has chosen Malcolm P. Ehrhardt, president of The Ehrhardt Group, Inc., as Executive of the Year. He was selected unanimously by a committee of former Executive of the Year honorees of the organization, which will celebrate its 30^th anniversary next year.

Since 1996, Ehrhardt has been the president of The Ehrhardt Group, one of the top public relations and communications firms in New Orleans. He is an accredited member of the Public Relations Society of America and its Counselors Academy.

He is a past president of the GNOEA.  He also serves on the board of directors of the University of New Orleans Foundation. He has served on the board of directors for the New Orleans Regional Chamber of Commerce and as president of the University of New Orleans Privateer Athletic Foundation.  His programs have won eight PRSA Silver Anvil Awards.  In 1997, he was awarded the Lifetime Service Award from the University of New Orleans National Alumni Association.  He has also worked Super Bowls, NCAA Final Four Championships, the Republican National Convention and the Papal Visit to New Orleans in 1987.

He holds a masters of science in communications management from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. He also received undergraduate and graduate education at the University of New Orleans. 

Ehrhardt served as an infantryman in the United States Army in Vietnam and was later commissioned as an artillery officer in the famed Washington Artillery housed in Jackson Barracks, New Orleans. He was awarded a Bronze Star Medal and Combat Infantry Badge along with Vietnam Service Ribbons for his service with the 1^st Cavalry Division.