Haley Barbour, Governor, State of Mississippi
Haley Barbour of Yazoo City is the 63rd Governor of Mississippi. He was elected on November 4, 2003, in the largest turnout in a gubernatorial election in state history.
Governor Barbour has moved aggressively to address several immediate state needs. Governor Barbour's top priority for his administration has been to create more and better jobs. The Legislature recently passed his workforce development legislation - the most comprehensive in state history - which will result in a stronger, more skilled workforce. Governor Barbour has also opposed any tax increases and led efforts to end lawsuit abuse - all to aid in job creation.
To control spending and save hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars during a budget crisis, Governor Barbour proposed the largest, most comprehensive state government cost-saving plans in Mississippi history, much of which have been passed into law.
Governor Barbour believes education is our number one economic development issue in Mississippi, and the number one quality of life issue in the state. He has offered solutions for Mississippi's teacher shortage crisis, some of which the Legislature has passed, and he successfully supported full funding of next year's teacher pay raise. He also worked for increased funding for universities and community colleges.
Just months into his term, Governor Barbour has already presided over four major economic development announcements - Textron, Faurecia, FedEx Ground, and the Braves Double A Franchise - that stand to add several thousand new jobs to Mississippi's economy.
Before being elected Governor, Haley Barbour founded and served as Chairman and CEO of Barbour Griffith and Rogers, which Fortune magazine ranked the nation's top lobbying firm.
From 1993 to 1997, he served two terms as Chairman of the Republican National Committee. While he was Chairman, the GOP won control of both Houses of Congress for the first time in 40 years. In the mid-'80's, he advised President Ronald Reagan as Director of the White House Office of Political Affairs.
Barbour received his law degree from Ole Miss in 1973. He and his wife Marsha have been married 32 years and have two adult sons. He is a Deacon in the First Presbyterian Church of Yazoo City, where he taught Sunday School.
Burt Chojnowski, President, Fairfield Entrepreneurs Association
Over the last thirty years, Burt Chojnowski has been a serial entrepreneur, angel investor and investment banker. Chojnowski has experience in the formation and development of successful companies in the telecommunications, computer software, media, alternative energy, government securities, fundraising and oil & gas brokerage industries. He was the founder of CoolCall, an international telecommunications company based in Iowa with venture capital provided by Samsung America, the Band of Angels and Garage.com. He is currently involved in several entrepreneurial ventures as a founder and advisor.
Chojnowski has been innovative leader of the Fairfield Entrepreneurs Association that is considered one of the leading entrepreneurial development organizations of its kind in the U.S. today. The National Council of Small Communities named Fairfield, Iowa the top entrepreneurial city in 2003. Fairfield was named Entrepreneurial Community of the Year in 2004 by the Community Vitality Center. Chojnowski sits is a member of the following boards: Iowa Capital Investment Board, Community Vitality Center, Micoy, Inc. and Iowa Cultural Coalition.
Dennis Cuneo, Senior Vice President, Toyota Motor North America
On December 15, 2003, Dennis C. Cuneo was named Senior Vice President of Toyota Motor North America (TMA), located in New York City. Wholly owned by Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan, TMA is the holding company that owns Toyota's manufacturing and sales subsidiaries in the United States.
Cuneo started his career with Toyota over 20 years ago. He was part of the management team that started up NUMMI, the Toyota-GM joint venture that was Toyota's first assembly plant in North America. Over the years, Cuneo's responsibilities have included strategic and product planning, labor relations, legal, environmental, and external affairs.
Cuneo reports to Harry Otaka, president and CEO of TMA. Cuneo oversees government affairs, public relations, investor and industry relations, philanthropy, legal, and corporate advertising.
Prior to his assignment at TMA, Cuneo was Senior Vice President of Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America (TMMNA), which serves as Toyota's North American manufacturing headquarters. He continues to split his duties between TMA and TMMNA.
Cuneo serves on the Boards of the National Association of Manufacturers, The Committee For Economic Development, Loyola Law School, and the National Underground Railroad and Freedom Center. He recently served as Chair of the Cincinnati Branch of the Federal Reserve.
Cuneo and his wife of 33 years, Bonnie, live in Manhattan. They have 3 children.
Emily DeRocco, Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training, Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor
Emily Stover DeRocco was nominated by President Bush to be Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training on June 21, 2001. After being confirmed by the U.S.Senate, she was sworn in on August 3, 2001.
As Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training, DeRocco is responsible for managing a $11.1 billion budget that funds the country's public workforce investment system, which includes a number of important programs to America's workers and businesses. DeRocco has made it her purpose to develop a "demand driven." workforce investment system, which links employment, education, and economic
development. Her belief is that only by effectively equipping workers with the skills that are needed by employers, and better understanding the workforce needs of business, can we create the highly-skilled workforce needed to be globally competitive in the 21st century.
DeRocco brings a wealth of experience to her position. In addition to high level federal positions serving the Cabinet officers at the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Energy during the Reagan Administration, DeRocco spent over ten years as the Executive Director of the National Association of State Workforce Agencies.
Assistant Secretary DeRocco is a native of Pennsylvania. She graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and received her Juris Doctorate degree from the Georgetown Law Center in 1982. She was admitted to the Bar of the District of Columbia in 1983.
Mark Drabenstott, Vice President and Director, Center for the Study of Rural America, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
Mark Drabenstott is a seasoned observer of the rural economy who has gained national and international recognition for his economic analysis and policy insights. Drabenstott is a native of Markle, Indiana, where he grew up on his family's farm and learned agriculture and basketball firsthand. Drabenstott earned his bachelor's degree from Earlham College and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Iowa State University.
Drabenstott joined the Bank in 1981 and was named a Vice President in 1990. Throughout his career at the bank, Drabenstott has been an ardent observer of the leading issues facing the rural economy and the food and agriculture sector, publishing more than a 150 articles and editing five books. Drabenstott is a frequent speaker before public policy, university, and private sector audiences throughout the nation. On seventeen occasions, he has testified before Congressional committees on rural and agricultural policy issues.
In October of 1998, Drabenstott was named Director of the Center for the Study of Rural America. The Center serves as the Federal Reserve's focal point for research on rural and agricultural issues. It publishes The Main Street Economist, a monthly commentary on the U.S. rural economy, and sponsors an annual conference on rural policy issues.
John Engler, President, National Association of Manufacturers and former Governor of Michigan
John Engler is president of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), the largest industry trade group in America, representing small and large manufacturers in every industrial sector and in all 50 states. Engler became NAM president on Oct. 1, 2004.
As NAM president, Engler is committed to educating the public and policymakers that manufacturing is critical to our future as a nation. Under his leadership, the NAM Campaign for Growth and Manufacturing Renewal will advocate policies that seek to level the international playing field and reduce the cost of doing business at home, with special attention to high health care and litigation costs. The Campaign will continue to emphasize that manufacturers are driving innovation and productivity growth in the economy, providing the bulk of U.S. exports and offering rewarding careers for highly-skilled workers.
Engler has observed that excellent U.S. jobs often go unfilled because too many young people do not have the basic math, science and communications skills needed to succeed in modern manufacturing. He sees the looming shortage of skilled manufacturing employees as a real and growing threat to American competitiveness in the 21st century's high-tech global economy. Engler believes better educating the next generation of manufacturing workers is imperative. He is adamant that we must make innovation and quality as central to our educational system as it is to U.S. manufacturing
Elson S. Floyd, President, University of Missouri
Elson S. Floyd, 49, was selected as the President of the four-campus University of Missouri System on Nov. 11, 2002. Floyd has an exceptionally wide range of administrative experience, as well as valuable system-wide and statewide perspectives on higher education issues and policies.
Prior to his appointment at the University of Missouri, Floyd served as president of Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo for more than four years. While president of Western Michigan University, he also was a tenured faculty member in the Department of Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology and in the Department of Teaching, Learning and Leadership.
Floyd spent from 1995 to 1998 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, one of the nation's leading research institutions, where he served as chief administrative and operating officer and the senior official responsible for business and finance; human resources; auxiliary enterprises; student affairs; information technology; university advancement and development; and enrollment management.
Floyd spent two years as executive director of the Washington State Higher Education Coordinating Board, the agency responsible for statewide coordination, planning, oversight, policy analysis and student financial aid programs for Washington's post-secondary education system. From 1990 to 1993, Floyd served as vice president for student services, vice president for administration, and executive vice president at Eastern Washington University. In the latter capacity, he was the university's chief operating officer.
Randall Kempner, Vice President, Regional Innovation, Council on Competitiveness
Randall Kempner is Vice President, Regional Innovation at the Council on Competitiveness. Kempner brings over a decade of work in the field of national and international development consulting to the Council. In his work leading the Council's regional innovation program area, Kempner has directed regional economic development initiatives in Central New Mexico, Northeast Ohio, St. Louis, Wilmington, Delaware, West Michigan, Rochester, New York and the Inland Northwest region of Washington and Idaho.
Kempner has an extensive international background, having led comprehensive competitiveness projects in Bermuda, Colombia, El Salvador, and Peru for OTF Group and Monitor Group. He is founder of Prosperity Strategies, an economic development-consulting firm based in Washington, DC and Austin, Texas. Kempner graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a M.B.A and an M.P.Aff. He earned his Bachelor's degree in Government from Harvard University. Kempner was a 2004 American Marshall Memorial Fellow.
Greg Main, CEO and President, i2E
Greg Main is CEO and President of i2E, Inc., an Oklahoma company focused on turning innovation into enterprise. During a career that spans both the public and private sector he has been a venture capitalist with two firms and a senior economic development executive in two states. Previously, he was a general partner with Chisholm Private Capital Partners in Oklahoma City. Formerly, he was the Southwest Partner for Intersouth Partners of Durham, NC.
From 1991 to 1994 Main was the Oklahoma Secretary of Commerce. His tenure was highlighted by new initiatives such as the Oklahoma Quality Jobs Program; the Oklahoma Capital Investment Board Venture Investing Program; and the Oklahoma Alliance for Manufacturing Excellence. Earlier, he was Deputy Director for Economic Development at the Michigan Department of Commerce.
Main is a board member of Omniplex, the Oklahoma Academy for State Goals and the Oklahoma Alliance for Manufacturing Excellence. He has been an investor/director in nine early stage private companies in Oklahoma, Texas and Michigan. Main is an honors graduate of Michigan State University. He resides with his family in Oklahoma City.
David Sampson, Deputy Secretary of Commerce, U.S. Department of Commerce
David A. Sampson is the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Commerce Department. Sampson was nominated by President George W. Bush on April 1, 2005 and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, on July 22. He was also designated by President Bush on June 16, 2005 as a Member of the Board of Directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.
Previously, he served as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development and head of the Economic Development Administration, which issues federal grants to help revitalize distressed communities.
As Deputy Secretary, Sampson serves as the Department's chief operating officer, with responsibility for the day-to-day management of its approximately $6.5 billion budget, 13 operating units, and 38,000 employees. In that capacity, Sampson is also a member of the President's Management Council. The Department's portfolio is extremely varied. Its missions include promoting U.S. exports, negotiating and enforcing international trade agreements; and regulating sensitive goods and technologies exports.
Prior to joining the Bush Administration in August 2001, Sampson worked in both the private and public sectors, serving as: President and Chief Executive Officer of the Arlington, Texas Chamber of Commerce; Chairman of the Texas Council on Workforce and Economic Competitiveness; and Vice Chair of the Texas Strategic Economic Development Planning Commission in then-Governor Bush's Administration.
Sampson is a graduate of David Lipscomb University , the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and earned his doctorate at Abilene Christian University. He and his family currently reside in Northern Virginia.
Phillip Singerman, Executive Director, Maryland Technology Development Corporation
Singerman is best known as the founding CEO of the Philadelphia Ben Franklin Technology Center, part of Pennsylvania's Ben Franklin Partnership (1983-1995), which author David Osborne ("Reinventing Government") called the most successful economic development program in the nation. From 1992-1995, Singerman also served as a Planning Consultant to the City for Re-use of the Philadelphia Naval Base.
In 1995, Singerman was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as United States Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development, in which position he directed the Economic Development Administration (EDA). During Singerman's four year tenure, EDA completed an Agency reinvention process - re-engineering its grant-making procedures, reorganizing its structure, initiating comprehensive program evaluation - and reduced its staff by 30%. In 1998, Singerman initiated a bi-partisan effort which successfully reauthorized EDA's programs - the first formal legislative enactment since 1981, and the first overall reform of the Agency's processes since its creation in 1965.
In 1999, Singerman was recruited to be the head of the newly established Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO), a public instrumentality established by the State Legislature to promote economic development through the transfer, commercialization, and deployment of technology. Entrepreneur Magazine has identified TEDCO as the single most active funder of early stage companies in the nation for two consecutive years (2003 and 2004).
Lee T. Todd, Jr., President, University of Kentucky
Lee T. Todd Jr. became the 11th president of the University of Kentucky on July 1, 2001. He is a native of Earlington, Ky. and a graduate of UK and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Todd is the fourth UK alumnus to hold the presidency and the first to earn an undergraduate degree from UK. He is a former UK engineering professor; a successful businessman who launched two worldwide technology companies, both based in Kentucky; and a public advocate for research, technology and an entrepreneurial economy in the Commonwealth.
Todd currently chairs the Southeastern Conference Committee on Academic Initiatives, serves on the American Council of Education Commission on Women in Higher Education, is involved with the Business Higher Education Forum, and is a member of the Council on Competitiveness. He chairs the Commission on Outreach and Technology Transfer for the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC), and is also a member of the Science and Mathematics Education Task Force, a national committee that reports to the Secretary of Energy.
Kathy Brittain White, Founder and President, Rural Sourcing, Inc.
Kathy Brittain White is Founder and President of Rural Sourcing, Inc., an organization providing information technology services and solutions while fostering information technology employment in rural regions of the United States. She founded the Horizon Institute of Technology Foundation in 2002 supporting technology outreach and economic development in the Delta. White currently serves on the board of directors of Mattel, Inc., Novell, Inc., and Certegy, Inc. She is also a technology advisor to Southern Capitol Ventures (a venture capital fund focused on emerging technology companies).
Prior to founding Rural Sourcing, White was executive vice-president and chief information officer at Cardinal Health, Inc., a $65 billion healthcare company. She held executive information technology positions with Baxter Healthcare and Allied-Signal now Honeywell. From 1981-1991, White was an associate professor of information technology in the Bryan School of Business, University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
She was named in Forbes Top 25 American's Businesswomen in 2001; Top 100 CIO's, 2001, Information Week; top 10 CIO's in the United States, 1997 Information Week. Rural Sourcing is the recipient of the 2005 Innovator Award by the Southern Growth Policy Board.
White holds a bachelors and MBA from Arkansas State University and a doctorate in business from University of Memphis.
Erik Pages, Founder and President, EntreWorks Consulting
Erik R. Pages is the Founder and President of EntreWorks Consulting, an economic development consulting and policy development firm focused on helping communities and organizations achieve their entrepreneurial potential. EntreWorks works with a diverse base of clients including state and local governments, Chambers of Commerce, business leaders, educational institutions, and non-profits. These customers all share a commitment to innovative economic development strategies that build wealth and build communities. Since its founding, EntreWorks has worked with customers in twenty states, Europe, and Asia.
Previously, Dr. Pages served as Policy Director for the National Commission on Entrepreneurship (NCOE), where he directed the Commission's research and policy operations. He also led NCOE's programs to assist communities in developing and implementing their own entrepreneurial development initiatives. Before joining NCOE, he served as Vice President for Policy and Programs at Business Executives for National Security (BENS). Dr. Pages has also held several positions in government--- most recently, as the first Director of the Office of Economic Conversion Information (OECI) at the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration (EDA). In this position, he helped lead efforts to assist communities affected by military base closings and defense plant shutdowns. He has also worked on Capitol Hill as a Legislative Director for former US Rep. Gus Yatron and as analyst for the Congressional Research Service.
Dr. Pages speaks across the country on issues of community and economic development. He also serves as a trainer for leading economic development associations, such as the International Economic Development Council, and has provided over 100 workshops on innovative economic development strategies. He has served as an official advisor to the White House Conference on Small Business, and has testified before Congress on numerous occasions. Several foundations have funded his work, and in 1998, the Rockefeller Foundation selected him as one of 24 national "Next Generation Leaders" by the Rockefeller Foundation. He is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness, and he serves on the Advisory Boards for the National Association of Community College Entrepreneurship and the National Center for Rural Entrepreneurship.
He received his Ph.D. from Georgetown University, where he now serves as an Adjunct Professor. He is a graduate of Dickinson College (Phi Beta Kappa) and the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. He has written and published widely on business trends, economic development, technology policy, and national security policy. His publications include the book, Responding to Defense Dependence, and more than fifty reports and journal articles. His work has been featured in national and international media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Inc. Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, USA Today, and National Public Radio.
A native of Reading, PA, he now resides with his family in Arlington, VA. In his spare time, he coaches youth soccer and also attempts to play the game. He enjoys all sports, hiking, cooking, music (especially jazz), history, and travel.