Brad Carson Named Director of NEPI
ENERGIZED APPOINTMENT: Brad Carson speaks at the Summit Club in downtown Tulsa Jan. 25 to a group of Tulsa business leaders at a reception announcing his appointment as director of the National Energy Policy Institute. Pictured in background is TU President Steadman Upham.
Courtesy University of Tulsa
Business leader and former two-term U.S. Congressman Brad Carson has been appointed the director of the National Energy Policy Institute ().
Established in 2009, the Tulsa-based is dedicated to identifying economically and environmentally sound solutions to the challenge of reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil, as well as building new businesses based on those solutions. is housed on The University of Tulsa campus and funded through a comprehensive multi-year grant from the George Kaiser Family Foundation.
As an extension of NEPI’s partnership with the university, Carson also will serve as an associate professor of entrepreneurship and business law in the Collins College of Business at TU. He began serving in both positions earlier this month.
is operated as two coordinated entities: a non-profit organization and a research institute established and operated by TU. Former Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles serves as president of the non-profit organization, and Carson will serve as the resident director overseeing the research institute.
Carson represented Oklahoma’s 2nd District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2001-2005 where he served on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Resources Committee and Small Business Committee.
After leaving the House in 2004, he became president and of , L.L.C., which is the Cherokee Nation’s economic engine. Among Oklahoma’s largest employers, employs more than 4,000 people in the gaming, hospitality, personnel services, distribution, manufacturing, telecommunications and environmental services industries.
Carson stepped down from in December 2008 when he was called into active military service in Iraq. An officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve, he headed a team that gathered intelligence on tactics used for improvised explosive devices. He returned home from Iraq in fall 2009. Upon his return, he was named to the board.
“The George Kaiser Family Foundation is very pleased that Brad Carson will lead the Energy Policy Institute that we launched with The University of Tulsa,” says Ken Levit, executive director of the George Kaiser Family Foundation. “Under Brad Carson’s leadership, and with the support of the university, I am confident that the National Energy Policy Institute at TU will play a vital role in promoting energy security for our country and also in securing a place for Tulsa at the forefront of innovation in the energy sector in the decades ahead.”
Prior to holding elected office, Carson served as an antitrust attorney for Crowe & Dunlevy in Tulsa. Carson also has taught at the Harvard University Institute of Politics and worked for the Department of Defense as a special assistant to the secretary of defense for special projects as a White House Fellow. He also has served as an adjunct faculty member for the TU College of Law.
Carson earned his bachelor’s degree from Baylor University, where he graduated with highest honors. Named a Rhodes Scholar in 1989, he earned a master’s degree in politics, philosophy and economics from Trinity College, Oxford University in England. He later earned his law degree from the University of Oklahoma, also graduating with honors.
He has served on the board of directors for the National Job Corps Association and Legal Services of Eastern Oklahoma. He was named one of 10 outstanding young Americans by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 2002.
“The University of Tulsa is very fortunate to find a leader whose credentials are well matched to this appointment and to a teaching role within our Collins College of Business,” says TU President Steadman Upham.
About the National Energy Policy Institute ()
The mission of the Institute is to provide an unbiased framework for developing a rational national energy policy that reduces the need for imported oil and reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and thereby to provide national decision-makers with a quantifiable basis for identifying and pursuing the optimum portfolio of energy strategies for achieving this goal. The establishment of was funded through support from the George Kaiser Family Foundation. For more information, visit http://nepinstitute.org or call (918) 631-6374.
The University of Tulsa is a private university providing a comprehensive educational experience to more than 4,200 students. With outstanding facilities, a vibrant residential campus and a student-faculty ratio of 10 to 1, TU has been recognized as one of the best value universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine and ranked 88th among doctoral institutions and 50th among private universities on U.S. News & World Report’s 2010 survey.
Updated 02-22-2010
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- — Jack Carson Feb 25, 06:27 PM #
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