David L. Armstrong, Chairman, Kentucky Public Service Commission
 Governor Steve Beshear appointed David L. Armstrong Chairman of the Kentucky Public
Service Commission on June 3, 2008. His term ends on June 30, 2011.
Prior to joining the PSC, Chairman Armstrong was of counsel to the law firm Greenebaum Doll & McDonald in Louisville.
Chairman Armstrong has had a lengthy career in government, beginning as Commonwealth's
Attorney for the 30th Judicial District from 1976 to 1983. He served as mayor of Louisville from
1999 to 2003, Jefferson County Judge-Executive from 1989 to 1999 and Kentucky Attorney
General from 1983 to 1988. Chairman Armstrong has also been a prosecutor and juvenile court
judge and taught urban planning at the University of Louisville.
Chairman Armstrong is a member of the Louisville and Kentucky bar associations and the
Society of Attorneys General Emeritus. He is admitted to the practice of law in Kentucky and
before the Supreme Court of the United States.
Over the course of his career, Chairman Armstrong has served in many leadership positions,
including as president of the National Council of County Executives, chairman of the Southern
Conference of Attorneys General and president of the National District Attorneys of America. He
was named Kentucky's Outstanding Mayor in 2002 and Louisville was twice named a Most
Livable City in America during his tenure. The University of Louisville's Brandeis School of Law
has named him an Outstanding Alumnus and in 2008 he received an honorary Doctor of Laws
degree from Hanover College.
Chairman Armstrong serves on many boards and civic groups. He is a trustee of the University
of Louisville Brandeis School of Law and the University of Kentucky School of Design. He is on
the boards of the Filson Historical Society in Louisville, the Kentucky Opera Board, the
Muhammad Ali Center and the Partners for Livable Communities.
Chairman Armstrong is a member of the board of directors of the National Association of
Regulatory Utility Commissioners, is co-vice chairman of its international relations committee
and serves on its electricity committee and subcommittee on clean coal and carbon
sequestration. He is secretary of the advisory committee to the Midwest Independent System
Operator, a regional transmission organization, and a member of the advisory council for the
Center for Public Utilities at New Mexico State University
Chairman Armstrong attended Hanover College and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in
history from Murray State University. He received his law degree from the University of
Louisville.
Chairman Armstrong and his wife Carol reside in Louisville. They have two grown children and
two granddaughters.
Kent Bohanon, State Farm Insurance
 Kent joined the Telecommunications Systems Management program at its inception as the MSU Program of Distinction, and in 2002 he became one of the program’s inaugural bachelor degree recipients. While continuing his master’s studies, he put his TSM skills right to work with State Farm Insurance by developing network and application security solutions for the company’s agency force. In 2005, Kent received his MBA from Murray State. During his career with State Farm in Bloomington, IL, Kent progressed to lead solution development teams and focus on the creation of the company’s future security architecture. In late 2007, Kent was asked to lead State Farm’s marketing activities in Kentucky. Working with associates and vendors across the state, he grew the State Farm brand in the marketplace. The additional exposure to the daily activities of the company’s agents prompted Kent’s family to make an important decision; In 2009, he will be opening his own business as a State Farm agent in Paducah, KY. This new venture will allow Kent’s family to personally impact the lives of the community members in his hometown, something that has been their dream for many years. Kent has always taken pride in Murray State University and the TSM Program. He continues to support the TSM program through his membership on the TSM Advisory Board and through helping students in the TSM program find opportunities at State Farm.
Dr. Mike Bowman, Associate Professor of Telecommunications System Management, Murray State University
 Mike teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in Telecommunications, Information/Network/Computer Security, and Computer Science. He retired from the United States Army in 2005 at the rank of Colonel after 26 years of service. Dr. Bowman earned a PhD in 2002 from George Mason University with study and research for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) investigating advanced methods in artificial intelligence, knowledge engineering and intelligent agents for real-world problem solving in the military domain. Dr. Bowman was the Chair and project leader for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Information System Technology workgroup investigating Tactical Communications in Urban Operations (IST 067) from 2006 to 2009.
Joshua Hawkins, Director of Interactive Technologies, Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc.
 Joshua Hawkins is the Director of Interactive Technologies at Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc., the leading and only global company that offers an interactive make-your-own stuffed animal retail-entertainment experience. Joshua consults regularly with executives from a variety of fields to help create synergistic solutions and bring interactive technology to the marketplace. Prior to his current position, he led the Enterprise Systems team at Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc.
Joshua Hawkins graduated from Bunker Hill High School in 1996 and earned a BS in Business Administration from Murray State University in 2000. In 2001, Joshua earned a Master of Science in Telecommunications Systems Management from Murray State University. After graduation Joshua began his career in the IT field working for Amdocs, where he held several positions within their IT support staff organization.
In 2005, Joshua moved to Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc., where he began working as International IT Supervisor and received a Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc. Teddy Award for Bearrific International BQ Pawdner. In 2006, Joshua received a Five Paw Teddy Award for leading a team through the acquisition, integration and conversion of two separate internationally based retailers with the US based parent company.
In 2007, Joshua began his Project Management role with Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc., where he provided leadership to various departments and organizations throughout the project life cycle and across multiple enterprise level projects. Joshua now lives with his wife, two children and pet dog Gus in Edwardsville Illinois.
Allen Lind, Vice President of Information and Technology, Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education;
Chief Executive Officer, Kentucky Virtual Campus and the Kentucky Virtual Library
 Allen has served in education and information technology positions at system and state level postsecondary offices in Illinois and Mississippi including the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Board of Governors of State Colleges and Universities. He also worked for IBM as a representative to postsecondary education institutions. Allen has served as the President of netIllinois, an early Internet Service Provider for education and government. He has served as President of EDNET, a Mississippi not-for-profit providing educational content on a wireless statewide network and he has served as Chairman of Mississippi Public Broadcasting, a state agency with public television, radio and interactive videoconferencing networks. He currently serves on the Southern Region Education Board’s Education Technology Cooperative and the ConnectKentucky Advisory Board.
Derek McCallum, Deputy Chief Technology Officer, Grantham University-Kansas City, Missouri
 He has eight years of information technology experience in Higher Education including five years managing successful teams of information technology professionals.
Mr. McCallum started his career with Murray State University where he managed the budget, staff, and technology for student computing. During his career at MSU he was able to grow his division from 12 workers and two campus computer labs to 35 workers, eight campus computer labs, two university libraries, and the Apex Center.
Mr. McCallum left MSU to take a job as IT Project Manager with Grantham University shortly after their campus had been destroyed by hurricane Katrina. He helped Grantham stabilize their IT infrastructure by opening and closing 45 projects in his first year of employment. He was promoted to Director of Information Security & Project management where he was chosen to lead a 4 million dollar SunGard Banner ERP implementation. He led a team of 30+ cross functional employees with no prior Banner experience to successfully implement the ERP in an expedited 14 month schedule. The system went live with less than 15 hours of total down time to University services. Mr. McCallum was recently promoted to Deputy CTO where he will start assuming responsibility for all of Grantham's IT operations while be transitioned into the CTO role.
Mr. McCallum holds a BS in TSM from Murray State University and a MBA in IT Management from Western Governors University.
Derek lives in Kansas City, MO with his wife Kassa and son Luke. When not working, he enjoys spending time with his family, church, and friends.
Chad Price, Sr. Project Manager, Professional Services, Insight Enterprises, Inc.
 Chad Price currently serves as Senior Project Manager in the Professional Services Division of Insight Enterprises Inc. Insight is a leading provider of corporate enterprise technology products, software and advanced IT services and solutions. Insight is headquartered in Tempe, AZ and has approximately 4,900 employees worldwide.
Chad joined Insight in 2007 and has worked for the company in a number of advanced technology areas during his time there. His current responsibilities include management of major projects across the entire spectrum of Insight services, including IP Telephony Implementations, Network Infrastructure and Security Implementations, and Enterprise Network Assessment and Strategy projects.
Earlier in his career, Chad spent five years at SBC Communications/AT&T in Project Management and Technical Sales Support. In addition to his other accomplishments at SBC, Chad achieved his Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification, recognized globally as the leading Project Manager certification.
Chad joined the TSM program at its inception and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Telecommunications Systems Management from Murray State University in 2002. Chad currently lives in St. Peters, MO with his wife Sandra and their 3 children.
Michael Ramage, Executive Director, Connected Tennessee, a division of Connected Nation, Inc.
 Mr. Ramage is responsible for leading the successful implementation of the State of Tennessee’s Trail to Innovation, a comprehensive broadband deployment and adoption plan slated to leverage state, federal and private investment aimed at blanketing Tennessee with high-speed Internet access, as well as improving the use of technology and the Internet.
Mr. Ramage previously served as a Project Manager for ConnectKentucky, Connected Nation’s Kentucky initiative. In this role, he was responsible for facilitating comprehensive GIS-based Inventory Assessment of existing broadband infrastructure and service availability, the community-by-community implementation planning process and ensuring that every county in Kentucky’s western region has an online presence and the ability to improve the quality of life at the local level. Through this effort, communities were empowered to use technology applications and build partnerships that provided real-time budget savings and process efficiencies over the Internet, ensuring their ability to compete within the local and global marketplace.
Prior to joining ConnectKentucky, Mr. Ramage served Murray State University as Special Projects Leader, Lecturer and Network Manager within the Department of Industrial and Engineering Technology and the Center for Telecommunications Systems Management. While at Murray State, he was the recipient of grants from the National Science Foundation, Cisco Systems Inc., the United States Department of Education and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. Other accomplishments include the development of GIS mapping for Calloway County, which was the precursor to the mapping performed by Connected Nation, and the development of the International Telecommunications Education and Research Association. Additionally, Mr. Ramage led the West Kentucky Telehealth Initiative and conducted research on various telecommunications topics. Prior to joining Murray State University, he worked as a Network Specialist for BellSouth Telecommunications in Nashville following his employment as a Computer Technician at Camco Technologies in Paducah, Kentucky.
Paul Suwannarat, Sr. Lecturer, Dept. of International Business, Mahasarakham University
 Pornlapas (Paul) Suwannarat is currently the senior lecturer at Department of International Business, Mahasarakham Business School, Mahasarakham University, one of the fast-growing comprehensive universities in Thailand with the total enrolment more than 30,000 students at present. He received his BA in Economics from Thammasat University, Thailand in 1993, and MSc in Telecommunications Systems Management (TSM) from Murray State University in 2001. Also, Paul earned his MA in Business Economics from the National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA), Thailand in 2002 and PhD in International Business from Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University, UK in 2010.
Before entering academic life, Paul worked as marketing and sales executive at the SCG Group, one of the largest diversified conglomerates in Thailand. At SCG, he was responsible for many products (e.g., cement, building materials, and paper) that he gained various experiences from this company. In 2000, Paul pursued his master’s degree in TSM at Murray State University, where he learned extensively the integration between the telecommunications technology and business management that he has believed that this knowledge has become the world’s growth engine.
Paul has been an active researcher and has had a number of publications that mainly focused on the entry mode of multinational enterprises (MNEs), impacts of foreign direct investment, international joint ventures, the influence of cultural differences on MNEs’ performance, the searching behaviors on the internet of college students, and the impacts of telecommunications technology on the performance of MNEs particularly in the emerging economies in Asia Pacific region.
John & Doug Truitt, Founders, Kalleo Technologies
Kalleo Technologies was founded in 2004 to provide Managed IT Se rvices to the healthcare market.  Kalleo provides comprehensive, flat rate IT management for its customers. At Kalleo we are our customers’ IT department. In 2009 Kalleo expanded into providing support in the local government market. And in late 2010 Kalleo introduced hosting services to furnish cloud-based virtual desktops and servers not only to its core markets but also to the utility market. Today, Kalleo provides IT services for medical facilities, municipalities, and utilities across the US from Hawaii to New England.
Kalleo was founded by John and Doug Truitt in conjunction with Roger and Jean Truitt (their father and step-mother). Roger Truitt retired from a highly successful career in the oil industry in 2000 and moved back to his hometown of Paducah, KY. John and Doug relocated their families from Dallas, Tx to Paducah to start Kalleo. They have worked in the IT industry since the early 1990s. Their background was primarily in the area of deployment and management of large numbers of desktop systems across a wide geographic area for Fortune 500 sized companies such as SBC and Wal-Mart. They founded Kalleo to bring their remote management expertise to the small business world with the idea of providing enterprise level IT management for small business.
James Weatherly, Undergraduate Program Coordinator, Murray State TSM
 Graduated from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville with a BS and MS in electrical engineering
Worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority in the areas of power distribution and telecommunications
Has been on the faculty at Murray State University for 34 years teaching in the programs of Electrical Engineering Technology, Electromechanical Engineering Technology and Telecommunications Systems Management
Chaired the Department of Engineering Technology for six years during which time several programs became ABET/TAC accredited for the first time
Started the student chapter of the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers IEEE) at Murray State University
Has been a member of IEEE for 40 years
Is currently the undergraduate program coordinator for the TSM program
Community-related activities have included Boy Scout Scoutmaster, coaching the Murray High Boys Soccer Team and Church activities. |
