Welcome to the Table:

Please welcome the following members to the Business Roundtable:

AAA Oklahoma

The American Automobile Association is dedicated to making travel affordable and as safe as possible for the 334,000 AAA members across Oklahoma. AAA began in 1902 and has been the motorist advocate, working to promote adequate highway funding, life-saving traffic laws and safer vehicles. Looking to the future, AAA Oklahoma is now building a new 147,000 sf regional operations center in Oklahoma City. Neal Krueger is President and CEO of AAA Oklahoma.

Oklahoma State Fair, Inc.
Oklahoma State Fair, Inc. is a non profit organization that conducts the annual Oklahoma State Fair each September and handles business, entertainment and economic development operations for State Fair Park. On an annual basis, State Fair Park generates over $325 million in direct spending into the Oklahoma economy. Timothy J. O’Toole is President and General Manager.

AT&T Chairman Addresses Roundtable

AT&T Chairman Randall Stephenson

TULSA – AT & T Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson spoke to the Oklahoma Business Roundtable on June 16 about how Oklahomans can successfully achieve economic growth through increased “connectivity”.

The Moore, Oklahoma native spoke to over 100 Roundtable members at the biannual membership meeting held at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa.

“The simple key to prospering commerce, “ Stephenson suggests, “ is getting everyone connected and AT&T is certainly an important partner in a new generation of economic growth.”

The CEO touched on the history of communication and how fast the industry has progressed. He discussed key issues regarding the future of communications, saying that AT&T’s goal is to achieve faster commerce.

Stephenson used his own success with AT&T as an example of how Oklahomans can foster prosperity and productivity.

“At AT&T, we are in the business of making business faster,” Stephenson said. “We connect people, better connectivity means better productivity.” AT &T makes business faster by connecting people, which achieves economic growth. Economic growth and prosperity go hand in hand.”

He cited the highly successful iPhone as a great example of “marrying broadband with mobile technology to increase business productivity.”

Stephenson said AT&T invested over $20 billion last year in developing new technology and that in the future “the world will be wirelessly untethered.”

“The next wave of mobile broadband will be more revolutionary, including new teleconferencing capability options,” he said.

He also predicted that in the next five years everything will be inter-connected with wireless networks (your refrigerator, camera, TV, even special reminders for you to take your medicine).
Stephenson said AT& T would continue to push broadband technology to the rural areas and continue to be a leader in efforts to mentor students.

“This is critical to our nation being competitive and viable”, he said.

Tom Walker, i2e, Governor Henry, Don Paulsen	Paulsen Scholarship winners, Timothy Harlin and Nicholas Harrison are joined by Randall Stephenson, AT&T Chairman, Tom Walker, i2e and Bryan Gonterman, AT&T Oklahoma

Retiring Roundtable President Donald Paulsen Honored

Don Paulsen, President of the Oklahoma Business Roundtable for the past 18 years, received special recognition at the June Roundtable meeting. Paulsen, who will retire July 1, was lauded for outstanding leadership and support of Oklahoma’s economic development program. Roundtable Chairman Al Dearmon presented Don with a special leadership commendation issued by Past Roundtable Chairmen and Governor Henry proclaimed June 16 as “Don Paulsen Day” in the State of Oklahoma. Tom Walker of i2e recognized Paulsen for his support of the Don Reynolds Governor’s Cup Competition and Oklahoma’s collegiate entrepreneurs. The Governor’s Cup program has now instituted two annual “Paulsen Scholarships” in honor of Don and the Business Roundtable.

“Don Paulsen has been a dedicated leader of Oklahoma’s business development efforts and we are truly appreciative of his vision, integrity and longtime service to this important support organization”, said Al Dearmon, Roundtable chairman.

Don Paulsen is honored by Governor Henry and incoming Roundtable President, Blake Wade.

Oklahoma Teams Fare Well In Governor’s Cup Competition

Oklahoma teams took second place in both the graduate and undergraduate divisions at the annual Donald W. Reynolds Tri-State Collegiate Business Plan competition held in Las Vegas last month.

Claiming second place in the graduate division was Hexakit from Oklahoma City University and 2nd place in the undergraduate division went to Renephron Pharmaceuticals from the University of Oklahoma.

The Oklahoma teams won $15,000 each from an awards pool that totaled $90,000.

The competition Wednesday was underwritten by the Las Vegas-based Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, which also underwrites collegiate business plan competitions in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Nevada. The Oklahoma Business Roundtable is a major supporter of the state competition. Incoming Roundtable President Blake Wade helped lead a state delegation to the competition and was on hand to congratulate the winners.

The Oklahoma Governor’s Cup competition is managed by i2E, the not-for-profit corporation that mentors many of the state’s technology-based start-up companies through a contract with the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology.

BIO Conference A Major Success

Nearly 70 delegates from Oklahoma’s bioscience industry attended the world’s largest industry networking event, the BIO (Biotechnology Industry Organization) 2009 trade show in Atlanta in May.

The delegation included scientists, business leaders, educators and economic development officers from Oklahoma City, Claremore, Sapulpa, Stillwater, Ardmore, Tulsa and Norman.

The goal: to showcase Oklahoma’s flourishing life sciences community in front of a vast industry audience of over 14,000.

For the second year, The Oklahoma Business Roundtable sponsored a fellowship program to help early stage companies and researchers cover expenses to attend the BIO conference. Companies chosen were Otologic Pharmecuetics, DormaTarg, Inc., Altheus Therapeutics, JKA Autoimmunity and HealthAide.

During the week, the group helped staff a 1,600-square-foot Oklahoma Bioscience Pavilion with touch-screen monitors showing presentations about Oklahoma’s bioscience companies.

The Oklahoma group also hosted more than 200 targeted business guests at a special networking event sponsored by the Oklahoma Department of Commerce and the Oklahoma Business Roundtable.

The Good News:

Special thanks to the Commerce Department and Governor Henry for enacting the following new incentives to support new investment and grow “quality” jobs in Oklahoma.

Senate Bill 909 offers enhanced incentives for job creation in Oklahoma. The new legislation allows existing and new businesses in Oklahoma to take advantage of both tax rebates and tax credits, as long as they meet the criteria for payroll and job creation. Previously employers had to choose one program or the other — Quality Jobs tax rebates if they create new jobs with a minimum payroll of $2.5 million OR tax credits if they invest $40 million in the state.

Senate Bill 938, also known as the “21st Century Quality Jobs” program, expands the existing Quality Jobs program to offer incentives for higher paying, knowledge-based jobs. Under this new legislation, companies creating the jobs specified in Senate Bill 938 would be eligible to receive a quarterly cash rebate of up to 10 percent of new taxable payroll if they achieve wage and performance job creation targets.

Also approved by the state legislature were House Bill 1953 and House Bill 1468. Under HB 1953, companies that support, repair, and maintain service for wind energy companies are now eligible for the state’s Quality Jobs Act. The legislation would seek to attract companies to Oklahoma that are involved in all aspects of the wind energy industry. HB 1468 makes federal contractors eligible for the state’s Quality Jobs Act.