Paul D. Cordes, Jr.

Mr. Cordes was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on June 29, 1953. Mr. Cordes obtained a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Finance from the University of Notre Dame in 1975. Mr. Cordes received his law degree from Loyola University in 1978. He was a member of the Loyola Law Review from 1976 to 1978 when he published two articles including one entitled “Tax Consequences of an Interest Free Loan.” Mr. Cordes received his Master of Laws in Taxation degree from New York University in 1981. Throughout his career, Mr. Cordes has limited his practice to tax and tax related matters involving individuals, corporations, and partnerships, including mergers, acquisitions, liquidations, and corporate reorganizations; tax credit enhanced and exempt financing; estate planning and administration; compensation planning; tax exempt operating institutions and other organizations; and federal, state, and local tax planning and disputes.

Mr. Cordes is a Board Certified Tax Attorney and is a member of the Tax Sections of the Louisiana and American Bar Associations and the Corporate and Business Law Section of the American Bar Association. Mr. Cordes was a tax consulting partner at the international accounting firm of Ernst & Young from 2000-2002. He has served in various positions of the Tax Section of the Louisiana Bar Association. He has lectured on tax and estate planning matters to various bar associations, the Louisiana Society of CPAs, and various other professional and civic groups. In 1981 Mr. Cordes was an adjunct professor at the University of New Orleans where he taught a course on the fundamentals of income taxation in the business administration department. He has been recognized as one of a distinguished group of attorneys who have been listed in The Best Lawyers in America for several years.

Since 1992 Mr. Cordes has served as a director of Royal Coatings, Inc. a privately held company that manufactures industrial coatings in Belle Chasse, LA. In June, 2012 Mr. Cordes was elected to the Board of Directors of Microbiome Therapeutics, LLC (formerly NuMe Health, LLC), a New Orleans based start-up with an office in Boulder, CO that is developing products designed to alter bacterial populations in the gastrointestinal tract to prevent and manage serious health conditions. He also serves as a member of the valuation advisory committee of the venture capital firm, Masthead Venture Partners, in Cambridge, MA. From February 2010 until July of 2011, Mr. Cordes was a member of the Board of Directors of GS Financial Corp., a publicly traded company that was the holding company parent of Guaranty Savings Bank, based in Metairie, LA, until it was acquired in July 2011 by Home Bancorp, Inc., the parent of Home Bank.

Mr. Cordes is a member of the New Orleans Estate Planning Council. From 1994 to 2002, he was a member of the Board of Trustees of the St. George’s Episcopal School serving as Secretary from 1995 to 1997 and Treasurer from 1997 to 1999, and he has served as the chairman of St. George’s Endowment Fund. He is also a past President of the Notre Dame Club of New Orleans and is a former member of the Board of Directors of the St. Paul’s School Foundation in Covington, LA.