Category: Guests (Page 3 of 11)

Chris Benge, Oklahoma Secretary of State
Air Date, February 2, 2014

Chris Benge was appointed as Oklahoma’s 33rd Secretary of State by Governor Mary Fallin on November 8, 2013. In addition to his duties as Secretary of State, Benge serves on the Governor’s Cabinet.

Secretary Benge was elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives in 1998 and left office in November 2010 due to legislative term limits. He served six years in leadership positions, including three years as Chairman of the Appropriations and Budget Committee, which was responsible for negotiating and writing the state budget. He spent his last three years in office as Speaker of the House.

After his legislative service, Benge worked in Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett’s administration as the Director of Intergovernmental and Enterprise Development. His focus was on public policy and special project development, such as river development, transportation, infrastructure needs, and energy leadership. He also concentrated on strengthening working partnerships between Tulsa County and the surrounding communities in the region.

Most recently, Benge served as Senior Vice President of Government Affairs with the Tulsa Regional Chamber, leading the organization’s advocacy efforts at the state and federal level through the OneVoice process, as well as working with city and county officials on local policy issues.

Benge’s legislative service was highlighted by focusing on ways to encourage economic development and job growth for the citizens of Oklahoma. He was committed to funding transportation infrastructure, addressing physician training by stabilizing the OSU Medical Center, and promoting education initiatives.

He also focused on pension reform, government efficiency, and responsible use of excess oil and gas tax collections.

Benge made significant contributions to The Oklahoma Quality Jobs Program and the Closing Fund, which have brought numerous high caliber jobs to the state. He also pushed for incentives that assisted local industry growth in aerospace and energy. He received recognition for his efforts to help the state create a favorable business climate from the Oklahoma State Chamber with the organization’s Defender of Free Enterprise Award for 2009.

Benge also brought particular attention to the use of domestic energy in the state by working to establish a set of energy goals for Oklahoma that included increased use of natural gas for transportation. These efforts led to his testifying before a Congressional Committee on the benefits of using more natural gas for transportation purposes.

A lifetime Tulsa area resident, Benge and his wife, Allison, along with their two children reside in the community of Berryhill. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Oklahoma State University.

Awards:

• Best of Tulsa Community College Distinguished Alumni inductee, 2005
• Legislative Advocate of the Year, Oklahoma Economic Development Council, 2008
• Defender of Free Enterprise, State Chamber of Commerce, 2008
• Distinguished Service Award, Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, 2009
• Jim Close Humanitarian Award, Southwest Tulsa Chamber, 2010
• Natural Gas Vehicles of America Legislator of the Year, 2010
• OSU Tulsa Icon Award, 2013.

Catherine Jayne
Principal, Jayne Communication Strategies
Air Date, January 5, 2013

Jayne Communication Strategies is a consulting agency founded by Catherine Jayne, whose experience with public relations and marketing spans over 10 years.

JCS clients range from investment funds and financial advisors to non-profits and  start-ups, and success with them has spanned a wide variety of areas from crisis management to branding. JCS specializes in targeting niche markets, such as the high-net-worth investor, and bringing fully customized solutions to its unique and varied client base.

After earning her M.A. at Cambridge University and her Ph.D. at the London School of Economics in 1998, she lectured in Applied Economics at the University of Paris and Diplomatic History at UCLA.  She authored Oil, War and Anglo-American Relations, published by Praeger/Greenwood.  Former United States Ambassador to Mexico Julian Nava contributed the foreword.

Catherine started her work in public relations when her expertise in oil led to a job in the Public Relations and Communications Division of Occidental Petroleum.  During her tenure with the Fortune 500 company, she wrote speeches for the Chief Executive Officer, the company’s annual report, sustainability best practices and international marketing materials.  She also taught in the company’s Executive Leadership Development Program.

Catherine served on the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce Leadership LA Foundation.  In her spare time she enjoys giving back to the community through youth mentorship programs, playing classical piano and painting.

John Harper
Vice President, External Affairs, AEP/Public Service Company of Oklahoma
Air Date, December 29, 2013

John Harper serves as Vice President for External Affairs at Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO), an electric utility serving more than 530,000 customers. He is responsible for PSO´s Governmental and Environmental Affairs, Community Relations, Economic Development and Corporate Communications functions.

Harper, who began his career at PSO, has served as vice president of Business Logistics at American Electric Power, vice president and group director for SEEBOARD plc, a Central and South West Corp (CSW) subsidiary in the United Kingdom, executive assistant to the chairman and chief executive officer of CSW, among other positions.

Harper earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and public administration from Evangel University and a master’s degree in business administration from Oral Roberts University.

Specialties:Governmental liaison, community affairs, economic development, corporate communications, business logistics

Vice President, External Affairs
Public Service Company of Oklahoma
July 2010 – Present (3 years 6 months)Tulsa, OK
Provides executive leadership for PSO´s Governmental and Environmental Affairs, Community Relations, Economic Development and Corporate Communications functions.
American Electric PowerVice President, Business Logistics
American Electric Power

February 2005 – June 2010 (5 years 5 months)Columbus, Ohio Area
Provided executive leadership for the fleet services, supply chain, physical security and aviation functions within the AEP System.
American Electric PowerVice President, General Services
American Electric Power

July 2003 – February 2005 (1 year 8 months)Columbus, Ohio Area
Senior executive responsible for providing leadership for the facilities management, land management, fleet services, office services, and aviation functions across the 11-state AEP System.

American Electric PowerVice President, Corporate Technology Department
American Electric Power
August 2000 – July 2003 (3 years)Columbus, Ohio Area
Senior executive responsible for developing and implementing a long-term technology development plan. Directed resources to address key strategic technology initiatives through technology research, development and demonstration projects.

Vice President, Group Director of SEEBOARD
Central and Southwest Corporation – United Kingdom
1998 – 2000 (2 years)Crawley, United Kingdom

SEEBOARD Board Member with statuary and fiduciary responsibilities for SEEBOARD, an electric distribution subsidiary in the UK. Responsible for effective communication with CSW Executives and the SEEBOARD management team, ensuring full understanding and resolution of business issues, including the industry restructuring, transition to competitive markets and merger of SEEBOARD and Yorkshire Electricity.

Gabe Rozsa
Managing Director, Prime Policy Group, Washington, D.C.
Air Date, December 15, 2013

Gabe Rozsa is a Managing Director at Prime Policy Group who specializes in energy, environment and infrastructure issues.

Gabe most recently served as Environmental Counsel on the Republican staff of the House Science Committee and Staff Director of its Energy Subcommittee. In those roles, he assisted members of the Committee with the planning, preparation and staffing of hearings relating to a variety of energy and environmental issues, as well as work on comprehensive energy legislation, energy-related provisions of the 2002 Farm bill, authorizing legislation for the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, and providing counsel on a broad range of environmental, energy and science issues of interest to Committee Chairman Sherwood L. Boehlert (R-NY), a leader of the House Republican moderates.

Gabe previously served as Counsel to Republican Members of the House Public Works and Transportation Committee (renamed the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in 1994). In that capacity, he advised Members on a variety of water related issues tied to Federal environmental and resource development programs.  During his more than nine years with the Committee, he served as a lead Republican counsel to the subcommittee during the last major reauthorizations of the Clean Water Act (1987) the Superfund hazardous waste cleanup program (1986) four major Army Corps of Engineers authorization bills (1986, 1988, 1990 and 1992), the Energy Policy Act (1992), the Oil Pollution Act (1990), the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (1988), as well as issues related to the Tennessee Valley Authority and the National Dam Safety Program.

Gabe also served in several capacities at the headquarters of the Corps of Engineers. During his tenure as the Assistant Counsel for Legislation in the Office of the Chief Counsel, he managed all legislative proposals of the Corps and Department of the Army relating to the agency’s civil works program. Previously, he served in the Directorate of Real Estate, where he was responsible for drafting legislation and assisting with administrative appeals relating to the Corps’ real estate responsibilities.

Gabe also previously served as a Senior Vice President to one of the largest Washington government relations firms. There, he provided a full spectrum of services, from providing comprehensive Washington representation on legislative and regulatory issues of importance to a variety of public and private sector clients.

He holds a Masters of Law in environmental law from the George Washington University, a Juris Doctorate from Washington University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Virginia. Gabe resides in Fairfax, Virginia with his wife, Daphne, and has three grown sons.

Dot Rhyne
Founder & President Brand Talkers & with Chevy Music Showcase

Hugh Aynewsorth
Author of November 22, 1963: Witness to History
Air Date, September 8, 2013

Hugh G. Aynesworth was born in Clarksburg on 2nd August, 1931. After attending Salem College, he started in 1948 as a newspaperman in West Virginia and later worked in Arkansas, Kansas, and Colorado prior to joining the staff of the Dallas Morning News in 1960.

Aynesworth covered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Over the next few years he investigated the links between Lee Harvey Oswald and the Federal Bureau of Investigation and reported on the trial of Jack Ruby. Aynesworth was also one of the first people to interview Marina Oswald.

When Joachim Joesten published his book, Oswald, Assassin or Fall Guy? in 1964, Aynesworth reviewed it for the Editor and Publisher: “If you would listen to this one, he would have you thinking that Lee Harvey Oswald was a polite little misunderstood youth who just got mixed up in the wrong company…Oh how terrible, says Joesten (an ex-German who became a U.S. citizen in 1948 and must wonder why), poor little Lee Harvey was the victim of a ruthless plot headed by Dallas police leaders, District Attorney Henry Wade and his staff and a few “bad guys” from the FBI. Joesten further states that Oswald was an agent of both the FBI and the CIA (how’s that for a 24-year-old who couldn’t spell “wrist”?). It’s the same old tripe with some new flavoring.”

Aynesworth was a strong supporter of the “lone assassin theory” and led the attacks on Mark Lane and his book on the Warren Commission, the pioneering Rush to Judgement (1965). He wrote that “Mark Lane is the troublemaker who spent two days in Dallas in January on his investigation and now pretends to be an expert on all aspects of the weird tragedy.”

In May, 1967 Aynesworth published a critical article of Jim Garrison in Newsweek: “Garrison’s tactics have been even more questionable than his case. I have evidence that one of the strapping D.A.’s investigators offered an unwilling “witness” $3,000 and a job with an airline – if only he would “fill in the facts” of the alleged meeting to plot the death of the President. I also know that when the D.A.’s office learned that this entire bribery attempt had been tape-recorded, two of Garrison’s men returned to the “witness” and, he says, threatened him with physical harm.”

Assassination of John F. Kennedy Encyclopedia

Jim Garrison responded to this article in his book, On The Trail of the Assassins (1988). He argued that: “As for the $3,000 bribe, by the time I came across Aynesworth’s revelation, the witness our office had supposedly offered it to, Alvin Babeouf, had admitted to us that it never happened. Aynesworth, of course, never explained what he did with the “evidence” allegedly in his possession. And the so-called bribery tape recording had not, in fact, ever existed.”

James DiEugenio has argued: “With the work of the Assassination Records Review Board, many more pages of documents have been released showing how tightly bound Aynesworth was with the intelligence community. It has been demonstrated that Aynesworth was – at the minimum – working with the Dallas Police, Shaw’s defense team, and the FBI. He was also an informant to the White House, and had once applied for work with the CIA. As I have noted elsewhere, in the annals of this case, I can think of no reporter who had such extensive contacts with those trying to cover up the facts in the JFK case. And only two come close: Edward Epstein and Gerald Posner.”

As well as the Dallas Morning News Aynesworth has worked for Newsweek and the Washington Times. Books by Hugh Aynesworth include The Only Living Witness (1983), Wanted for Murder (1990), Murderers Among Us: Unsolved Homicides, Mysterious Deaths and Killers at Large (1994), The Vengeful Heart (2000), Ted Bundy: Conversations with a Killer (2000) and JFK: Breaking the News (2003).

Dr. Glen D. Johnson
Chancellor, Oklahoma Higher Education Chancellor

Dr. Glen D. Johnson is the chief executive officer for the Oklahoma State System of Higher Education. Johnson leads a state system comprised of 25 state colleges and universities, 10 constituent agencies, two higher education centers and independent colleges and universities coordinated with the state system. He reports to a constitutional board whose nine members are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate.

Johnson provides leadership on matters relating to standards for Oklahoma higher education, courses and programs of study, budget allocations for institutions, fees and tuition, and strategic planning. He is responsible for an annual higher education budget in excess of $1.9 billion as well as the state endowment fund, with a market value over $400 million. He is responsible for OneNet, the state’s telecommunications network for government and education, as well as the Oklahoma College Assistance Program, which has guaranteed more than one million student loans exceeding $2.5 billion in insured debt.

Johnson directs 20 statewide scholarship programs as well as other programs, including the State Regents’ Summer Academies in Math and Science program and the statewide GEAR UP efforts.

Background
Johnson became eighth chancellor of the Oklahoma State System in January 2007 after a national search. Before assuming the role of chancellor, Johnson served as the 16th president of Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant for 10 years.

During his tenure as president at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Johnson implemented an $85 million capital campaign to build a new student union, residence hall, arena and convention center, biology building, SBDC center and campus security, and a new large classroom building.

Johnson served as director of public policy and adjunct professor of law at the University of Oklahoma College of Law. Prior to his work at OU, Johnson served in the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 1982 to 1996 and was speaker of the House from 1990 to 1996. At the time of his election as speaker, he was the youngest-sitting speaker in the United States.

Johnson has been recognized both statewide and nationally as a strong, untiring advocate for funding for education, both secondary and higher education, in Oklahoma. His powerful political career was a model of success in leadership, as evidenced by the variety of his many major accomplishments not only for his own District 24 (Hughes, Okfuskee and Okmulgee counties), but also in major initiatives, funding and improvements for the entire state of Oklahoma as speaker of the House and chair of important legislative committees.  He was also the principal author of the landmark Quality Jobs Bill.

During his term in the House, Johnson was instrumental in the passage of HB 1017, Oklahoma’s landmark education reform legislation, and served as chair of the Appropriations and Budget Committee and the Appropriations Subcommittee on Education. He authored Senate Bill 180 in 1988 that created the Endowed Chairs Program and spearheaded the opportunity to use $14 million from the proceeds of the higher education bond issue for OneNet. In 1992 he was principal author of HB 2428, the $350 million higher education bond issue.

Academic Credentials and Honors
Johnson is an honors graduate of the University of Oklahoma, with an undergraduate degree in political science and a juris doctorate degree from the OU College of Law. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and currently serves on the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity National Foundation board of directors.

Johnson holds memberships in numerous professional, state and national organizations and has been the recipient of many awards and honors during his career. In 2012 he was elected to the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) and currently serves as vice chairman. In 2013 he was appointed to serve on the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) board of directors.

He was also a founding member of the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence in 1986. He is a member of the Oklahoma Heritage Association’s executive board of directors and was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in November 2006.  He is a member of the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum board of trustees and a member of the Epworth Villa board of directors and the Oklahoma State Fair board of directors. He received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Oklahoma City University in 2009 and has been named as a Life Fellow of The Fellows of the American Bar Foundation.

Personal
Johnson is the son of former U.S. Congressman Glen D. Johnson Sr. and Imogene Johnson and was born in Oklahoma City. He attended grade school in Washington, D.C. and graduated from Muskogee High School in 1972. Johnson and his wife, Melinda, a teacher at Edmond Memorial High School, live in Oklahoma City.

Dr. Tim Coburn
Director of Master of Energy Business Program & Professor of Energy & Operations Management, University of Tulsa
Air Date, November 3, 2013

Matt Stansberry
CEO & creative director, Nominee Design Studio
Air Date, October 27, 2013

As CEO & creative director, Matt leads the overall creative approach, design and development efforts for Nominee.

As a musician and producer, Matt has toured regionally, nationally and internationally (Europe and Japan) and currently performs and records in several bands and various projects. His songs have been featured on MTV’s “Real World”, Nordstrom stores nationwide and have been nominated for an LA Music Award. For more, visit mattstansberry.com.

Matt currently lives in Edmond, OK with his wife Mandy and their three daughters Vivian, Violet and Vera.

Krish Dhanam
Author of the book “Hard Headed and Soft Hearted: Lessons from the Boardroom to the Break Room”
Air Date October, 20, 2013

Krish Dhanam was born in the coastal town of Vizag, in Andhra Pradesh, India .  In 1984 he finished his MBA at the Institute of Management Technology and migrated to the United States in 1986.

As a  proud card carrying member of the sales force of America Krish soon started his corporate climb. Through training, teaching and facilitating seminars all over the
world, Krish launched his professional speaking career. As one of only two executive coaches personally trained by Zig Ziglar, Krish has successfully delivered his message of hope, humor and balance in over fifty countries and throughout the continental United States . His client list is the who’s who of global enterprise and he has received accolades from some of the most distinguished organizations including, The United States Army, Christian Dior, Steelcase Industries, Apollo Hospitals, The Environmental Protection Agency, Weyerhauser and the Florida Department of Revenue.

He is the author of The American Dream from an Indian Heart , From Abstracts to Absolutes and contributing author to the book Top Performance written by Zig Ziglar. His next book titled Hard Headed and Soft Hearted co-authored with Rick Belluzzo (former President of Microsoft) is due for release in early May. Krish sits on the boards of Ravi Zacahrias Life Focus Society and Life Focus Knowledge Ventures Pvt. Ltd in India. As a Managing Partner in SkyLife Success he is constantly developing curriculum for global deployment. He is also actively involved in his church and is the President of Mala Ministeries. He and his bride Anila are the proud parents of Nicolas. Krish and his family make their home in Flower Mound, Texas .