NSU Forum Examines Global Economics

Eric Zhang, founder and managing partner of Access China Trade Services Company

Barry Clark, director of Global Business Services at the Oklahoma Department of Commerce

Bob Hogrefe, co-founder and president of Access Optics LLC

BROKEN ARROW With the continued growth of trade with emerging markets around the world, Northeastern State University will be hosting the forum Global Business and Economic Development on Monday, April 27 at 7 p.m. on the Broken Arrow campus, 3100 E. New Orleans, Building A Auditorium.

The forum, featuring a panel discussion on the state of international business and education, challenges and opportunities in Green Country, is part of NSU Inauguration Week Activities for the institutions 17th President Dr. Don Betz.

Panelists for the evening include Eric Zhang, founder and managing partner of Access China Trade Services Company, Barry Clark, director of Global Business Services at the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, Mike Lybarger, president of Total Valve Systems Inc., Mary Philpott, dean of Workforce Development and Career Programs at Tulsa Community College, Bob Hogrefe, co-founder and president of Access Optics LLC, and Dessie Apostolova, director of International Trade Offices for the Oklahoma Department of Commerce. The forum will be moderated by Dr. Jon Shapiro, professor of marketing.

Eric Zhang is a native of China who started one of the first private sector consulting companies in China. He moved to Oklahoma in 2000 and has extensive experience in helping American and Chinese companies do business with each other. His international trading service and consulting company is based in Tulsa, which offices in Shanghai and Beijing. He earned his masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology, and went through management and marketing training from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwest University.

Overseeing all of the Oklahoma Department of Commerce international programs and services, Barry Clark is focused on the mission of growing Oklahomas economy through international trade and global awareness. Prior to joining the department, Clark worked as an investment broker of Prudential Securities and Merrill Lynch Securities for a total of 12 years. His functions included institutional and retail investment services, as well as capital formation and in-house corporate seminars for Fortune 500 companies. He also lived in Vietnam in the 1990s, where he built a successful consumer goods and consulting business in the countrys newly emerging market. A former U.S. Marine, Clarks post took him on numerous assignments throughout Asia. He hold a bachelors degree in business communications from Phillips University in Oklahoma.

An engineering veteran, Mike Lybarger recently acquired Broken Arrow-based Total Valve Systems, an unique company that sells and services both normal safety valves and line valves. The company has been in business over 25 years and recently opened an office in Shanghai to accommodate growth in the international markets. Prior to acquiring Total Valve Systems, Lybarger spent 15 years working for General Electric. Lybarger earned his MBA from Vanderbilt University and holds a masters degree in engineering.

A native Tulsan, Mary Philpott earned her bachelors degree in business and masters in adult and occupation education from Oklahoma State University. She currently serves on a number of committees focused on education and economics, including the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education Economic Development Council, Governors Council for Workforce and Economic Development Youth Council and Communications Team, and Tulsa Mayors Champions for Education Workforce Readiness Council, among others.

The president of an award-winning technology company, Bob Hogrefe brings extensive technology and business experience to Access Optics, with notable achievements in international business development, mergers and acquisitions and supply chain solutions. His work has included sophisticated nanoscale films addressing optical applications, magnetic and optical recording media, and requirements for novel physical properties. He is a graduate of the Haas School of Business at the University of California Berkeley, and began his career at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in a Nobel Prize-winning subatomic particle physics group.

Focused on international trade with China, Israel, Mexico and Vietnam, Dessie Apostolova is responsible for coordinating opportunities for over 400 Oklahoma companies and organization in these respective markets. Prior to joining the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, Apostolova worked in her home country of Bulgaria on USAID, IMF, World Band and other international development projects involving legislative, political, economic and civic initiatives advancing the democratic and market economy transition throughout Central and Eastern Europe. She holds a bachelors degree in international relations and business administration from the American University in Bulgaria and a masters degree in International Relations from the University of Oklahoma.

Inauguration Week forums continue Tuesday, April 28 with Health Care Challenges in Eastern Oklahoma, at NSU Muskogee in the Conference Center Auditorium at 7 p.m. and on Wednesday, April 29 with Building Sustainable Communities in Eastern Oklahoma, at NSU Tahlequah in the NET Building Auditorium at 7 p.m. A Student Community Picnic will be held Thursday, April 30 at 5 p.m. in the Culver Courtyard next to the University Center in Tahlequah.

The week will finish with the inauguration ceremony of Dr. Don Betz as the 17th president of Northeastern State University on Friday, May 1 at 2 p.m. on the Seminary Hall Lawn.

4/22/2009

Published: 2009-04-22 00:00:00