Joe Ben Bogle, Support Manager for Ag Connections, Inc., currently supervises the team that is
responsible for the resolution of customer issues. Ag Connections’ customer base is comprised of
growers whose technical skills run the gamut from highly experienced to first time users. Due to this
spectrum, the support team’s activities are highly varied, and require a high level of interaction between all team members. As Support Manager, Joe Ben has implemented a Customer Relationship
Management system and a Remote Support system, which have been key components in developing
customer analytics and resolving customer inquiries in a timely manner. Beyond his customer support
duties, Joe Ben has been involved with many of the Human Resource decisions made at Ag Connections. Joe Ben has represented Ag Connections at several career fairs and has taken the lead in recruiting several recent hires.

Joe Ben graduated from Murray State University with a Bachelors of Agribusiness (’03) and a Masters of Business Administration (’04). While at Murray State, Joe Ben was a Presidential Scholar, a graduate of the Honors Program, a Study Abroad participant, Outstanding Senior in Agribusiness, received the Honors Diploma, and was a Summa Cum Laude graduate. Prior to college, Joe Ben was involved in his family’s farming operation, and was responsible for several aspects of its day‐to‐day operation and was also involved in his own side ventures.

Joe Ben’s previous work experience includes internships with the University of Kentucky Extension
Service and Pioneer Hi‐Bred International (a DuPont company). While at Pioneer, Joe Ben supervised a network of research plots across 5 states, working unsupervised to gather research data. This
experience helped him to see that he had the time management and responsibility skills needed to
handle a heavy workload.

Since coming to Ag Connections, Joe Ben has moved from part time technical support to full time
technical support to managing the support team. At each of these levels Joe Ben has been heavily
involved in working with customers either face to face or remotely. It is this customer interaction that
has taught him the most, and has helped him to develop the skills needed to effectively guide the
support team through the problem solving process.

Trevor R. Bonnstetter serves as CEO, of West Kentucky Rural Telephone that serves counties in western Kentucky and northwest Tennessee.  West Kentucky Telephone provides internet, cellular, long distance services, WildBlue, Direct TV and has a technology store that offers computers, computer repair, cell phones and televisions.  West Kentucky Telephone is also very happy to announce that they have deployed IPTV within the last year.   

In addition to managing West Kentucky Telephone, he serves on the boards of IRIS Networks and is presently serving as Secretary-Treasurer of NRTC.  Trevor Bonnstetter has served as President of the Kentucky Telephone Association and of the Tennessee Telephone Association.  In his spare time, he works with the Kentucky Economic Task Force Committee and the Local Development Corporation along with many other committees and charitable organizations. 

Trevor is a graduate of Mid-Continent University in Mayfield, Kentucky with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and of William Woods University in Fulton, Missouri earning a MBA.  Trevor and his wife, Tami, both grew up in Iowa and are raising their two children, Tristan and Alex, in Mayfield, Kentucky. 

As Policy and Program Development Coordinator, Heather Gate facilitates the development of ConnectKentucky’s technological programs and policy initiatives that support ConnectKentucky’s mission of promoting economic development in Kentucky.  Heather supports the eCommunity Strategies division by working to develop solutions that help local communities integrate technology, particularly in the education sector.  Heather also serves as director of ConnectKentucky’s No Child Left Offline (NCLO) project, launched in October 2005.  She oversees the day-to-day maintenance of the project, development of technology plans for target organizations, project fundraising and the implementation of project goals.

Heather earned a second Masters degree in Computer Science from Kentucky State University (KSU) in Frankfort, KY.  She previously received a Masters in Public Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from KSU. As a graduate assistant at KSU, Heather assisted with several projects at the university including the implementation of the video-based e-learning system designed to help personnel development.

Andrew Lawrence is from Bowling Green, KY and has worked at Hitcents as a Sales Executive for one year. He specializes in custom software ticketing applications for schools in the NCAA, custom website development, ERP software, and Home Automation. Andrew joined the Army National Guard in 2004 and has attended the Army Armor, Airborne, and Leadership schools during his military career. He will be married in September of this year.

Allen Lind is Vice President for Information and Technology at the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education.  He has responsibility for Information Technology, Data Research, Statewide Networks, the Kentucky Virtual Campus and the Kentucky Virtual Library.  

Allen has 36 years experience in education technology positions at IBM and at university system offices in Illinois and Mississippi, including the University of Illinois where he graduated with double bachelors degrees in Engineering and Economics. 

He has served as the President of netIllinois, an early Internet Service Provider for education.  He has also served as President of EDNET, a Mississippi educational broadcasting company.  He has also served as the Chairman of Mississippi Public Broadcasting, the state agency for public television, radio and interactive videoconferencing. 

He currently serves on the Southern Region Education Board’s Education Technology Cooperative and ConnectKentucky’s Advisory Board.

Allen is married, lives in Lexington and has two teenage children.

Bill Magruder is Chief Executive Officer of Duo County Telephone Cooperative in Jamestown, Kentucky.  Duo County Telephone Cooperative provides telephone, video and broadband service to over 15,000 customers in four south central Kentucky counties.  He is a board member and past president of the Kentucky Telephone Association.  Mr. Magruder is also Chairman of the Board of Bluegrass Cellular which provides wireless service to over 160,000 customers in central Kentucky.  Mr. Magruder is a past chairman and member of the board of the National Exchange Carrier Association (NECA) and a past board member of the United States Telecom Association.  He is President and Chairman of the Board of the Bank of Jamestown.

Mr. Magruder graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1973 and holds a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering.

Vince Marletta is the Business Account Manager for Windstream Communications, where he currently handles all Commonwealth of Kentucky State Government and Higher Education actives.  He worked closely on the KyRON project with the Council for Post Secondary Education and the Universities. 

Vince is from Lexington, KY, and is a 1991 graduate of the University of Kentucky, with Bachelors of Business Administration.  He has three children, Sarah (12), Will (11) and Jack (6).  He brings 15 plus years of sales, marketing and management knowledge to Windstream with the last 10 years in data and voice communications. 

He is an avid runner, and enjoys being very active in the community.  He is on the Board of Directors of the Downtown Lexington Corporation, UK Sports Marketing Academy and is a member of the YMCA.

Linda Miller is the Chief Information Officer for Murray State University.
The university is currently in the process of implementing a comprehensive ERP system that is designed to streamline processes, eliminate duplication and information silos, and improve the university's ability to manage information and business processes more efficiently.

Her professional work has revolved around Information Technology. She has worked as a systems analyst in both the private and public sectors. She served as a senior management consultant for Anderson Consulting, which included design, installation and implementation of major computing systems for Fortune 500 companies in Denver, New York and Philadelphia. 

For the past 12 years she has served Murray State  as Director of the Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology (originally Academic Computing and Technology Services), and has recently accepted the position of Chief Information Officer.

Her education includes a BA from Centenary College of Louisiana, and the MACT with a Technology Transfer  focus from Murray State University. She has completed post-graduate work in Educational Policy Studies from the University of Kentucky.

Linda has been both a participant and chair of  numerous state working groups, and has made many presentations to international, national and state organizations. For the past five years she has taught an online research class to students across the country.

Mark Miller is the Director of Information Systems at Owensboro Medical Health System, a full service, 447 bed, acute care hospital in Owensboro, Kentucky.  He is responsible for the computing and networking infrastructure for over 3,000 employees and multiple locations, including both clinical care and business facilities in Western Kentucky and Southern Indiana.

Mark has over 20 years experience using information technology in the hospital environment, serving as Director of Information Systems for health corporations in Kentucky, Illinois and Iowa.  He has designed, planned and implemented Health Information Systems and networks for use in facilities  ranging from small rural hospitals to large multi-facility corporate hospital systems.  He specializes in the integration of technology solutions into everyday work life for health care professionals.

Mark earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Southern Illinois University and a Master's degree in Management from Brescia University. 

Mark lives in Owensboro with his wife, Laurie.  His son Evan will be graduating from Murray this spring with a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science.

Hitcents founders, twin brothers Chris and Clinton Mills, started their technology careers early in life. As children in Arlington, Texas, Chris and Clinton had a knack for taking apart their toys and analyzing them. They had more of a desire to see how things worked than to actually play with them. In 1994, while in fifth grade, they started programming in GW Basic - a command line programming language.

Chris and Clinton moved from Arlington to Bowling Green, Kentucky in 1995 and Chris and Clinton happened to move in next door to an electrical engineer who helped guide their constant pursuit to learn more about technology.

In 1996, and in seventh grade, they went to work at a company designing Visual Basic programs to monitor machinery with optic eye systems and conveyor belts. That year they also created their first webpage working with PERL, a backend web programming language that is still one of the languages Hitcents enlists today.

As high school sophomores, in 1999, Chris and Clinton started Hitcents, which at the time was a company focused in internet advertising. When the company first began, Hitcents paid clients on a cents-per-hit basis, hence the company name. Chris and Clinton were honored by the U.S. Small Business Administration as Kentucky’s 2001 Young Entrepreneurs of the Year, an award given annually to a business founder under the age of 36.

Hitcents was acquired by Houchens Industries in 2003. Since its inception, Hitcents has grown from two founders to over 50 employees and occupies office space in Western Kentucky University’s Center for Research and Development.

Chris and Clinton believe in working hands-on with all employees and can still be found programming code themselves. Step into the Hitcents office and you might find them leaning over any employee’s desk offering advice on the most effective programming language to solve a particular issue.

Hitcents is well known locally for their website development services. The scope of the business includes solutions for website development, technology, online marketing, kiosk development, creative design, software development and much more. Their software development has spawned three subsidiaries of Hitcents: EyeOn Automation, Utopia Self-Scan, and Omniprise ERP. See the Solutions information on this website for more information on each business model.

Chris and Clinton are motivated by helping clients realize their dreams. Hitcents is reinvented with every new client, as they offer truly versatile customization and original services to fulfill each client’s needs.

Hitcents continuously strives for superior customer service. Every client is unique and Hitcents does not simply provide “one-size-fits-all” products. Their success comes from creating innovative and insightful custom solutions for every client.

Richard E. Overby is KETS Field Service Manager for the Department of Education through the Office of Education Technology.  Richard works with the nineteen western most counties in Kentucky and is in contact with the school district’s administration, and more specifically the Chief Information Officers and District Technology Coordinators.  In this position he serves as the primary point of contact for customer relationship and resource management for all school districts as well as KDE. This role supports the instructional, administrative and planning efforts of school districts through direct, face-to-face work with district leadership and district technical staff.  Before assuming this position he enjoyed a thirty year career in education with the Ballard County Schools. The last fifteen years of service included administrative responsibilities in the areas of facilities, transportation, and technology. He is a native of Ballard County Kentucky and a graduate of Murray State University holding a BS in Industrial Arts, MS in Vocational Education, and a Specialist Degree in College Teaching in Vocational Education.  He and his wife Edwina reside in La Center Kentucky.

Will Prible serves as the Director of Marketing and Operations for Kentucky.gov, the Commonwealth’s e-Government partner.  Will worked previously in Virginia and Alabama on digital government initiatives and brings seven years of experience in e-Government from both the public and private sector.  He holds a BA in International Studies from the Virginia Military Institute and an MA in International Commerce and Policy with a focus on electronic commerce from George Mason University.

K. Ann Riggs is the Chief Information Officer at the Kentucky Education Cabinet.  She is responsible for the alignment of business to technology for continued advancement and improvement of the delivery of educational content to every Kentuckian.  She also directs the Cabinet’s Division of Technology Services.  The Division provides technical support to the Cabinet’s nine agencies.

Ann has 29 years experience in the technology field.  She owned and operated Riggs Consulting Group, Inc., a successful technology consulting business for, 14 years prior to coming to the Education Cabinet.  Ann joined the Cabinet in 2004.  Her foresight and vision have been central in the successful implementation of the Kentucky Education Network (KEN). KEN is a seamless education-centric network that equitably supports the whenever, wherever, and whatever lifelong learning for all Kentuckians.

She currently serves on the Kentucky State University Information Technology Advisory Board and the ConnectKentucky’s Advisory Board.

Ann lives in Frankfort with her husband, Gregg.

Sheri Rose resides in Louisville, Kentucky. Her professional experience includes 29 years in the communications industry with BellSouth and now AT&T. She also has 10 years of Regulatory experience with responsibility for tariff filings, special contracts, policy issues and testimony.  Since 1997 Sheri has served as the Kentucky Information Highway (KIH) Director representing the vendor partnership and liaison to the Commonwealth Office of Technology. She holds a  Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of Louisville and a Master of Education degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Louisville.