Author: GTD Group (Page 11 of 23)

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Diana Furchtgott-Roth
Senior Fellow Manhattan Institute, Author of book Regulating Disaster
Air Date, July 7 & 14, 2013

Diana Furchtgott-Roth is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. She is a contributing editor of RealClearMarkets.com, and a columnist for the Washington Examiner, MarketWatch.com, and Tax Notes. From 2003 to 2005, Ms. Furchtgott-Roth was chief economist of the U.S. Department of Labor. From 2001 to 2002 she served as chief of staff of President George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers. Ms. Furchtgott-Roth served as deputy executive director of the Domestic Policy Council and associate director of the Office of Policy Planning in the White House under President George H.W. Bush from 1991 to 1993, and she was an economist on the staff of President Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers from 1986 to 1987.

Ms. Furchtgott-Roth is the author of Regulating to Disaster: How Green Jobs Policies are Damaging America’s Economy (Encounter Books, 2012) and Women’s Figures: An Illustrated Guide to the Economic Progress of Women in America (AEI Press, 2012). She is the editor of Overcoming Barriers to Entrepreneurship in the United States (Rowman and Littlefield, 2008). Her articles have been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, the Los Angeles Times, and Le Figaro, among others.

Ms. Furchtgott-Roth is a frequent guest on FOX Business News, and she has appeared on numerous other TV and radio shows, including CNBC’s Larry Kudlow Show, C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, and PBS’s The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.

Ms. Furchtgott-Roth’s areas of expertise include employment, taxation, education, pensions, unionization, and immigration. Ms. Furchtgott-Roth was assistant to the president and resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute from 1993 to 2001. From 1987 to 1991 she was an economist at the American Petroleum Institute, where she authored papers on energy and taxation.

Ms. Furchtgott-Roth received her B.A. in economics from Swarthmore College and her M.Phil. in economics from Oxford University.

Chuck Mills
President and CEO of Mills Machine Company
Air Date June, 16, 2013

Over 100 years in business indicates that something has been going right along the way. Mills Machine has been doing the correct thing since being founded in 1908. The company is built on a line of strong people and a history of innovation.

At the end of the Civil War, Samuel and Lucinda Mills were making a meager living in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Looking for greener pastures they left in a covered wagon, first for Kansas and then to the Indian territory, when the free land opened. W. H. (Homer) Mills, born in 1890, the youngest of nine, was born in Kansas and raised in the new state of Oklahoma.

One day in 1908, at the age of 18, Homer came in from the fields and told his parents that he was tired of starving and was taking his tools and going to Shawnee to start a business. He founded Mills Repair Shop on Main Street with most of the business coming from the bicycle (the automobile was not readily available to the average person). The mechanically inclined Homer soon gained a reputation for being able to repair almost anything. He added guns to his growing list of things to be repaired while his brother, Frank, joined the business. After a couple of years Frank sold his share to Les Thompson for the grand price of $15.00.

An electric motor driven central shaft powered the lathes, presses and drills. A smithy with a hand driven blower helped create the special shapes needed for repair of the motorcycles, guns and custom machine parts. The picture above shows the shop around 1920.

In 1924 Homer bought out Les and changed the name of the company to Mills Machine Company. Around this time the oil boom hit Oklahoma with one of the worlds largest oil fields in the booming town of Earlsboro, five miles East of Shawnee. Oklahoma Seismograph Company moved into Shawnee and decided that Mills Machine had the technical skills to repair the drilling rigs and bits. As the experience grew, Mills Machine began to manufacture bits and tooling for seismic crews in Oklahoma and beyond.

David Mills, the son of Homer and Edna, was born in 1916, after graduation from Shawnee High School in 1935, he attended Oklahoma A & M (now Oklahoma State University). He had worked for his dad as a teenager and now returned to the business. After serving in the Army Corps of Engineers in the Pacific Theater during W.W.II, he again returned to become a partner with Homer and his brother Oscar.

They started the first building for the current factory in 1946 and after completion in 1947 began soliciting larger jobs. For a brief time they built and mounted water tanks, drilling rigs and other accessories onto their customer’s trucks.

The local oil boom declined in the early 1950’s and the company started moving into the water and irrigation markets. Farmers were switching from dry land farming to irrigation farming and needed lots of wells drilled. Mills Machine sent salesman all over Nebraska, Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma to deliver new bits and tooling and pick up bits to be repaired.

Starting on the ground floor of the water well business allowed Mills Machine to become and remain a leader and innovator of custom manufactured down hole drilling tools. The markets expanded as uses by utilities, mining, construction, and environmental industries appeared.

Homer and David bought out Oscar in 1970 and David bought out his dad, Homer, in 1972. David added large contracts with drill rig manufacturers and in the international markets to expand business to over one million dollars in sales for the first time. He also bought five lots surrounding the business.

In 1979 Charles D. (Chuck) Mills joined the company after graduating from Central State University with a BBA in management. Chuck started working at Mills Machine when he was 11 years old, learning to weld, operate the machines in the shop, shipping and receiving and finally, inside sales.

In 1981, David retired and Chuck bought the stock in the company and became President and CEO of Mills Machine Company. Due to his own ambition and vision, Chuck was able to expand the business into a multi-million dollar concern. In the late 1980’s he led the company in the design and development of a full line of hollow stem augers for the environmental markets. In 1989 he received a patent for the Milclaw, an innovative earth drilling bit.

The company has developed into a full line manufacture of specialty earth boring tools and accessories for water, mining, construction, utility and environmental applications. Products include hollow stem augers, stabilizers, underreamers, pipe handling tools, drilling adapters, soil sampling equipment, claw bits, drag bits, core bits, and miscellaneous drilling accessories.

David Lawler
Exec. VP, COO of Sandridge Energy
Air Date, June 9, 2013

Mr. Lawler joined us as Executive Vice President of Operations in August 2011 and was named Chief Operating Officer in April 2013. Prior to joining SandRidge, Mr. Lawler served as Chief Executive Officer and President of PostRock Energy Corporation and its predecessor entities since August 2008. Prior to his role as Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Lawler served as Chief Operating Officer of PostRock’s predecessor entities from May 2007 through August 2008. Prior to joining PostRock, Mr. Lawler was employed by Shell Exploration & Production Company from May 1997 to May 2007 in roles of increasing responsibility, most recently as Engineering and Operations Manager for multiple assets along the U.S. Gulf Coast. Mr. Lawler graduated from the Colorado School of Mines with a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering and earned his Masters of Business Administration from Tulane University.

Mike Hawkins
President, Alpine Link Corporation, Award-Winning Author, Executive Coach
Air Date, May 26, 2013

Mike Hawkins is president of Alpine Link Corporation and award-winning author ofActivating Your Ambition: A Guide to Coaching the Best Out of Yourself and Others. He is a respected speaker, thought leader, business columnist, and university guest lecturer on leadership, consultative selling, business management, and self-improvement. He is a sought after management consultant who advises mid-size and Fortune 100 clients in a variety of industries including information technology, consulting, construction, and financial services. He is a seasoned executive coach who coaches CxO level executives, mid-level managers, and other coaches.

Mike Hawkins has the distinction of having direct hands-on industry experience throughout the primary activities in the enterprise value chain. He has excelled as a product engineer. He has been a top performing salesman and large account manager. He has been a sales manager and sales executive. He has been an industry segment executive and general manager. He has managed sales, marketing, consulting, support, and product development organizations in multiple industries and in multiple countries.

After working four and a half years full time during college as a product development engineer for Halliburton and then one year for Electrospace, Mike Hawkins joined International Business Machines in 1985. He worked four years as a manufacturing and telecommunications industry account sales representative earning four prestigious annual sales awards. He went on to hold positions as sales manager, global accounts client executive, and global industry segment executive over his fifteen year career with IBM. He was responsible for turning around some of IBM’s largest accounts earning many of IBM’s top awards. In 1999, he was recognized as IBM’s national top performing industry large account executive. Between field assignments, he held marketing positions and led several industry acclaimed internal consulting programs that included reengineering sales processes, developing a global opportunity management system, and institutionalizing a best-of-breed large account planning process.

Following IBM, Mike Hawkins served as global telecommunications and utilities industry general manager for Scient, an eBusiness systems innovator known at the time as the fastest growing public company in American history. He led sales executives, consultants, and program managers in developing cutting edge eBusinesses. He reengineered Scient’s sales process, created industry respected thought leadership, and implemented progressive project governance methodologies.

After leaving Scient, Mike Hawkins was hired as executive vice-president by LogicaCMG, a global software and IT services company, to turn around their financial services business in the Americas. Owning the P/L, he was accountable for business development, sales, marketing, operations, delivery, customer service, and software development. He reengineered their sales process, created a sales culture throughout the organization, changed the organization’s focus from products to solutions, and created compelling new value propositions. He led a complex marketing and development program to roll out a revitalized product portfolio. He integrated consulting into a traditionally product oriented organization and reengineered customer support business processes that dramatically increased profitability and customer satisfaction.

In 2005, Mike Hawkins launched Alpine Link Corporation, a boutique consulting company that provides leadership development, management consulting, and sales performance improvement services. He has since led hundreds of engagements, workshops, boot camps, and seminars. He has coached and trained thousands of people on their journey to reaching their peak potential.

To say Mike likes a challenge is an understatement. He has never been one to shy away from adversity. Throughout his industry and consulting career he has undertaken the toughest assignments and excelled in overcoming challenging issues that prevent organizations and individuals from reaching peak performance. In his experience in leading cross-functional reengineering efforts and turning around under-performing businesses, he has uncovered recurring root cause issues that limit performance. As a result, Mike has developed numerous frameworks and high-impact approaches to management coaching, self-directed development, leadership development, program management, strategic planning, consultative selling, effective communications, and team building. His SCOPE of Leadership™, Peak Potential Selling™,Peak Potential Business Planning™, and Activating Your Ambition™ approaches consistently help organizations and individuals break through their limitations to achieve new levels of performance. For additional information, see The SCOPE of Leadership™ or Activating Your Ambition™.

Mike Hawkins is an expert at helping individuals and organizations improve their performance. He has a unique ability to work at a detailed technical level, in the realm of business and strategy, and in the human psychological domain. He has crafted and led innovative initiatives throughout his career that have transformed businesses, people, processes, systems, and product portfolios. His cross-domain ability combined with his thought leadership, innovative frameworks, talent for simplifying complexity, senior leadership experience, successful track record in turning around underperforming businesses, and cross-functional reengineering program management experience make him a sought after authority.

Mike Hawkins has a Bachelor’s of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington and completed a one year advanced management program in conjunction with the Harvard Business School.

When not working, Mike spends time fitness training, snow skiing, mountain biking, hiking, motorcycle riding, golf, traveling, wine tasting, and wood/metalworking.

To contact Mike Hawkins or for more information on Alpine Link’s services, email: info@alpinelink.com.

Anita Arnold
Executive Director, Black Liberated Arts Center (BLAC), Inc.
Air Date, May 12, 2013

Black Liberated Arts Center (BLAC), Incorporated began as an idea of Dr. John Smith who had moved to Oklahoma to accept a job with the Oklahoma Symphony. After the Symphony failed, Dr. Smith accepted a job at Langston University in the Music Department. During that period, he wrestled with the problem of African Americans expressing themselves about their identity. With the support of a friend, Alfred Cohran, Dr. Smith moved forward with the idea of using the arts as a means of self-expression.

Oklahoma City’s black community responded spontaneously and collectively to affirm itself in a constructive and creative manner. The organization was incorporated as a non-profit organization on April 28, 1971. BLAC, Inc. began with a music component, a literary component, a visual arts component and, finally a theater component. The arts burst forth in festivals, arts education programs, lectures, poetry readings, theater productions and presenting programs, traveling arts programs, and finally dance programs. The Northeast side of Oklahoma City was alive! News traveled fast and soon BLAC, Inc. was capturing headlines in all of the local papers.

BLAC, Inc. earned a reputation of excellence and commanded respect from the larger Oklahoma City and Oklahoma community. BLAC, Inc. earned the coveted Governor’s Arts Award for its theater work and national and international awards it received.

Since the beginning, the organization has always had service to the community as a priority. BLAC, Inc. is known for creating leading edge programs in arts education, in presenting and producing, recognition of legends, preserving African American history in Oklahoma City and in meeting the needs of the community. To this day, BLAC, Inc. continues to receive national recognition for programs of great value to the community.