UCO: Dean's Advisory Board

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The UCO College of Business Advisory Board serves as the professional advisory group to the Dean of College of Business in strategic planning efforts, advocates for the College, provides business expertise, supports college events and development, and promotes the interests of the College in the regional, national and global communities.

If you are interested in becoming involved in this invaluable group of advocates and supporters, contact Jeremy Oller, Ph.D.

Dean's Advisory Board Members

Brian Wiesner
President and Chief Operating Officer, Downing Wellhead Equipment

Chris Sorrells
Chief Financial Officer, 4AM Midstream

Diana Wall
Director of Business Development, Accel Financial Staffing Solutions

Jim Duncan
President, Benchmark Financial Services, LLC and Benchmark Financial Group

John Armitage
Chief Executive Officer, Oklahoma Blood Institute

Mark Nance
Vice President and Chief Data Officer, American Fidelity

Mark Snead
President, RegionTrack, Inc.

Nedhi Panse
Director of Business Analytics, Naipunya, Inc.

Penny Voss
Vice President of Development, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF)

Rex Smitherman
Senior Vice President, i2E, Inc.

Robin Waters
Vice President of Finance, Petra Industries

Stephen Ellis
Executive Vice President and Director of Personal Banking, MidFirst Bank

Steve Guerrero
Vice President, Bank of Commerce

Steve Potts
Chief Information Officer and 1st Senior Vice President, MidFirst Bank

T.J. Liles-Tims
Co-Founder, BVFF Partners, LLC

Traci Cook
Chief Accounting Officer, Ascent Resources

Board Members

Brian Wiesner

President and Chief Operating Officer, Downing Wellhead Equipment

Chris Sorrells

Chief Financial Officer, 4AM Midstream

Chris Sorrells joined 4AM Midstream as chief financial officer in 2018. 4AM Midstream is a new and growing oil & gas midstream company with a focus on Oklahoma opportunities. He previously spent more than 16 years with Chesapeake Energy, where he was most recently the assistant controller responsible for Chesapeake’s marketing and midstream accounting departments. He helped lead and build the organization as Chesapeake grew to become one of the largest independent energy companies in the United States. Chris holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Central Oklahoma. During his time at UCO, he was a four year member of the track & field team as a discus, shot and hammer thrower. He is a graduate of Leadership Oklahoma City’s LOYAL Class I. Chris and his wife Paola, who is an account manager at Tyler Media, are proud to call Oklahoma City home with their two daughters.

Diana Wall

Director of Business Development, Accel Financial Staffing Solutions

Diana is one of the founding members of Accel Financial Staffing and helped open the office in 1995. She enjoys developing relationships with clients and helping Oklahoma City companies grow their staff. Diana currently serves on the Oklahoma Human Resource State Council as the district director-west and is the 2019 OKHR State Conference co-chair. In 2018, Diana was awarded the Volunteer of the Year Award chosen by the OKHR executive committee and honored during the 2018 OKHR State Conference. She is the past president of the Sooner Human Resource Society (SHRS) representing the Moore-Norman area, as well as the past college relations director and certification director for OKHR. In November 2013, Diana led the SHRS chapter to earn its first national Pinnacle Award, the highest honor given to a SHRM (Society of Human Resource Management) chapter. Diana is the past treasurer of the Oklahoma Ethics Consortium and is a graduate of Leadership Oklahoma City, Class XXVI. She currently serves as a team leader for the Oklahoma City Chamber Total Resource Development Campaign and serves on the OKC Greater Grads committee since its inception in 2007. Diana also enjoys serving on the University of Central Oklahoma College of Business Advisory Board. Diana maintains both her SHRM-SCP and SPHR certification credentials. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, with an emphasis in management science and computer systems from Oklahoma State University.

Jim Duncan

President, Benchmark Financial Services, LLC and Benchmark Financial Group

Jim D. Duncan is the president of Benchmark Financial Services, LLC and Benchmark Financial Group, Inc. Together these companies provide holistic financial services offering choices with wealth accumulation, wealth management and wealth protection for Oklahoma individuals, business owners and their employees. The benchmark companies are independent agencies that offer products and services from many investment companies, money managers and major health insurance carriers. Jim is an investment advisor representative, with over 30 years of experience helping Oklahomans with their insurance needs and wealth accumulation needs. Jim is a graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University with health care and business administration degrees. Jim is an active member of Village Baptist Church and is devoted to his wife of 39 years.

John Armitage

Chief Executive Officer, Oklahoma Blood Institute

Dr. John Armitage serves as the chief executive officer for Oklahoma Blood Institute, the sixth largest non-profit blood collector in America. Prior to joining OBI in 2007, Dr. John Armitage led blood center operations in Roanoke, Virginia, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and New Brunswick, New Jersey. He began his blood banking career as a medical officer for the American Red Cross in Charlotte, North Carolina. He holds a medical doctorate from Duke University School of Medicine and a Bachelor of Arts in history from Yale University. He received his training in transfusion medicine from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and [Carter] BloodCare in Dallas, Texas. He is the founder and chairman of the board for the Global Blood Fund and is a member of the executive committee of the board of directors for America’s Blood Centers. Locally, he is a member of the board of trustees for the Oklahoma School of Science and Math and the advisory boards of United Way of Central Oklahoma and LifeShare of Oklahoma. He is a donor of whole blood and platelet pheresis units, coordinator for All Souls’ Episcopal Church’s blood drives, and co-creator of the Thank-the-Donor web app that harnesses expressions of gratitude.

Mark Nance

Vice President and Chief Data Officer, American Fidelity

Mark Nance, a native Oklahoman, serves as a Vice President and Chief Data Officer for American Fidelity. As CDO, he has primary responsibility for ensuring that data is leveraged as an asset, delivering both business value and competitive advantage. Focusing on grass roots data initiatives centered on colleague engagement, actionable insight and using data to fuel the journey, he has championed successful legacy data conversions and Data Governance implementations as well as Business Intelligence and Big Data initiatives. Mark holds a BS in Accounting from the University of Central Oklahoma. Mark is a founding member of the International Society of Chief Data Officers, a member of the Gartner CDO Circle Program, a governing body chair of the Evanta CDO Inner Circle and the Oklahoma State University MADM Advisory Board.

Mark Snead

President, RegionTrack, Inc.

Dr. Mark Snead is the president and founder of RegionTrack, Inc., a research firm specializing in regional economic forecasting and analysis in Oklahoma City. Prior to forming RegionTrack, Inc. in 2012, he served as the vice president, branch executive and economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City – Denver Branch, where he was the Reserve Bank’s regional economist and lead bank officer in Colorado, Wyoming and northern New Mexico. Prior to joining the Federal Reserve Bank, Mark was the founding director of OSU's Center for Applied Economic Research and a research economist on the Oklahoma State Econometric Model. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in economics from the University of Georgia, a Master of Science in management with concentrations in economics and finance from Georgia Institute of Technology and a doctorate in economics from Oklahoma State University. His research interests primarily lie in regional economic modeling and forecasting, local area economic development and the economic role of the nation’s energy-producing regions.

Nedhi Panse

Director of Business Analytics, Naipunya, Inc.

Nedhi Panse holds a Master of Business Administration specialized in marketing and finance from Pune University in India. Her professional qualifications include Certified Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified SAP HANA Professional, and Certified in SAP Sales and Distribution Module. Her I.T. expertise is in business intelligence solution architecture, end-to-end SAP BI/BO implementation, full life-cycle I.T. project execution in significant onshore and offshore global systems, data warehousing ETL development, technology assessment, C-level information management, Informatica, Tableau, Qlikview, and others. Her industrial work experiences include Naipunya Inc., Tuthill, Omonova Solutions, Chamberain, PepsiCo, General Mills, GATX, Advansoft International, KPMG, among others.

Penny Voss

Vice President of Development, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF)

Rex Smitherman

Senior Vice President, i2E, Inc.

Rex Smitherman serves as the senior vice president for i2E, Inc. Prior to joining i2E, Inc. in 2008, he was regional director of Fannie Mae, a mortgage loan company, for nine years. In 1989, he joined the Oklahoma Department of Commerce as the chief operating officer. He holds a Bachelor of Science in accounting and a Master of Business Administration from Oklahoma State University.

Robin Waters

Vice President of Finance, Petra Industries

Ms. Waters has held positions across a wide range of industries and has an extensive financial background. She was most recently with Paycom Software as chief accounting officer/controller, where she guided the company through an Initial Public Offering.

Waters is tasked with handling the financial leadership of Petra and Petra’s affiliated companies. She has a strong track record of building high-functioning teams and working across departments. Her leadership has resulted in streamlined processes, tighter internal controls and improved budget insights across departments.

She holds a Bachelor of Science in accounting from East Central University, a Master of Business Administration in finance from Oklahoma City University and is a Certified Public Accountant. She is a lifelong resident of Oklahoma and currently lives in Edmond, Oklahoma.

Stephen Ellis

Executive Vice President and Director of Personal Banking, MidFirst Bank

Stephen Ellis serves as the executive vice president and director of personal banking for MidFirst Bank. Stephen joined MidFirst in 1996 as a financial analyst and has served in several roles at the bank since. Stephen currently manages over seventy branches in Oklahoma along with MidFirst’s contact center and consumer mortgage lending groups. Stephen has worked in the financial industry for over thirty years. Stephen is a graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University and participated in Leadership Oklahoma Class XXIV. Stephen serves on advisory boards for the College of Business at Oklahoma Baptist University and the University of Central Oklahoma. Stephen and his wife Kristen, who teaches in the Edmond Public Schools, reside in Edmond with their two daughters.

Steve Guerrero

Vice President, Liberty National Bank

Steve Potts

Chief Information Officer and 1st Senior Vice President, MidFirst Bank

Steve Potts serves as the executive vice president and chief information officer for MidFirst Bank. Steve joined MidFirst in 2006 and has served in several roles at the bank since. Steve is responsible for technology and security, as well as disaster recovery/business continuity and supplier management operations. Prior to joining MidFirst, he was the manager of field systems for The Hertz Corporation, an American car rental company. Steve is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma with a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance and management information systems (MIS), as well as a Master of Business Administration with an emphasis in finance, MIS and human resources. In addition to the University of Central Oklahoma College of Business Advisory Board, Steve currently serves on the advisory board of the Redbud Classic and the American Bankers Association core platforms committee.

T.J. Liles-Tims

Co-Founder, BVFF Partners, LLC

T. J. Liles-Tims is the president of LilesTims, Inc., a business valuation and financial forensics firm in Oklahoma City. He has provided consulting and financial management services for a variety of industries. These services have included business valuations, financial fraud examinations and financial consulting to distressed companies. T. J. holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Master of Business Administration in finance from the University of Central Oklahoma, where his field of graduate study was financial management and investment analysis focusing on valuation models and financial analysis. Additionally, he has earned his designation as a Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA) and Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE).

He is a contributor, author and subject matter expert for NACVA in the areas of business valuation, litigation consulting, expert witness, financial forensics and various consulting disciplines. He is a member of the around the valuation world team and was a co-chair for the 2014 NACVA’s Annual Consultants Conference in Las Vegas. He has also taught continuing legal education classes in the areas of business valuations and financial forensics.

When not working on engagements, T. J. enjoys playing golf, hunting and snow skiing. He is married to his junior high and high school sweetheart, Macie. They live in Oklahoma City with their two dogs.

Traci Cook

Chief Accounting Officer, Ascent Resources

Traci Cook joined Ascent in 2015 as the senior vice president and chief accounting officer from American Energy Partners where she served as the chief accounting officer. Cook previously served for 19 years at Chesapeake Energy Corporation, most recently as vice president and division controller – financial analysis and reporting since 2006. During her tenure at Chesapeake, she played a significant role in its filing of over 70 public debt or equity offerings and the initial public offerings of Chesapeake Midstream Partners, LP (later Access Midstream Partners, LP) and the Chesapeake Granite Wash Trust. At Chesapeake, Cook was also responsible for corporate financial reporting, including SEC reporting, accounting process and data management, tax and budgeting and forecasting. Prior to joining Chesapeake, she worked as an audit manager for Deloitte & Touche LLP, for six years. Cook earned a Bachelor of Science in accounting from the University of Central Oklahoma and is a Certified Public Accountant. She is also a member of the Oklahoma Society of Public Accountants and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.