Q&A with Kenton Tsoodle, new president of The Alliance for Economic Development of Oklahoma City

Photo: Justin Coleman

Earlier this spring, the board of directors of The Alliance for Economic Development of Oklahoma City named Kenton Tsoodle as the organization’s new president and chief executive office. He replaced Cathy O’Connor, who left after 11 years in the position to start her own consulting business. VeloCity recently sat down with Tsoodle for a quick Q&A to learn more about him and his new role with the Alliance.

VeloCityOKC: Let’s start off our interview by learning a little bit about you personally. Where did you grow up? Where did you attend high school? College? Tell us about your family.

Kenton Tsoodle: I was born and raised in Oklahoma City and have been here my entire life. I grew up in the south-central part of town. When I was a little bit older, my parents moved a little farther south and I ended up attending Moore Public Schools, where I graduated from Moore High School. I was an honor student, but also play basketball, track and field, and cross country, and ended up attending Oklahoma Baptist University on an academic and basketball scholarship.

How fun was that?

We had some really great teams back when I played. We were NAIA National Runner Up one year and reached the final eight another year, and won a couple of conference championships. I was also a two-time NAIA Academic All-American. But I was a better student than a player! My father is a full-blooded Native American originally from Fort Cobb, Oklahoma, and he played basketball for Oklahoma City University under famous OCU head coach Abe Lemons. My mother, who has already passed away, was a graduate of Capitol Hill High School. I am a single father of two – a son, who is 14, and a daughter, who will be turning 12 in August. They both play soccer; she is also a cheerleader, and he runs track and cross country.

Please share with us a brief summary of your professional background leading up to this new position with the Alliance.

I graduated from OBU with a Bachelor of Business Administration with a major in international business and also had a Bachelor of the Arts in Spanish. I spent about two and a half years in the private sector working for a bank and then at one of the Big Five accounting firms. My first job with the City of Oklahoma City was as a budget analyst in 2002. And it’s kind of interesting in that Craig Freeman, the current city manager, was the budget director at that time and hired me, actually. Cathy O'Connor, who I succeeded here at the Alliance, was the finance director at the time.

It seemed like everything was lining up for you, don’t you think?

Yes, I do. Eventually, I was put in charge of city's operating budget and then moved over to the city treasurer's office. I actually was the person who invested the city's funds and managed the city's investment portfolio, which was valued at about $750 million at the time. Then I had an opportunity to move over to finance administration as the city’s debt manager where I managed the city debt and bonds, bank loans, and other capital financing programs. And that's where had my first real interactions with economic development. Later on, when I was serving as the interim finance director, Craig Freeman, he took me with him as one of his assistant city managers when he became city manager. I was over the finance department, HR department, IT department, the diversity and inclusion office, which was a new office, as well as economic development. I was also over public safety the last three years – police, fire and court. Leading the city's redistricting effort was probably the last project I brought to conclusion as I went out the door to the Alliance.

Filling the shoes of Cathy O’Connor, who served as Alliance president for the past 11 years and accomplished so much during that span, can be a tough act to follow. Are you ready to take the baton and run with it?

Absolutely. I think coming from a sports background, you are always leery about being the coach who takes over after a legend retires. But this one of those things that we have so many partners and folks from the business community and the public sector who work together to make these things happen. We’re all pulling in the same direction. Cathy has left the Alliance in such great shape, and there are so many other folks, whether from the Chamber, legal team, city officials, that there is still just a great network of people to keep this moving forward. There is a lot of leeway now to kind of help determine what direction, what things we focus on. I think we really have a great opportunity to figure out what's in store the next 10 years, what are the things the city is going to go after, what areas are going to grow and what are the things that need to be done to continue advancing.

What is your vision for the Alliance as you begin your role as its new president? What do you hope to accomplish in the short term? Long term?

When you look at the overarching picture, there are a lot of things we want to maintain and do that we've been doing the last 10, 15 or 20 years. I think that's obviously job creation. Continuing to look at the right mix of employers and jobs that we want to bring here, not just providing jobs but making sure we continue to diversify our economy. Continuing to leverage all these public investments like MAPS; there are a lot of areas that are now primed to begin developing, whether you talk about places around Scissortail Park, between the core of downtown and the First Americans Museum, and other areas. It’s just continuing to focus opportunities to create some of that continued private investment that has followed the public, and really leverage that public investment. I think continuing to support Tinker Air Force Base; there's a lot of potential activity: One, helping to protect what we've got and also continuing to help grow future activities out there and looking at being strategic. That's what I am spending a lot of time learning about and working on trying to continue to work with defense contractors and others that are related to the missions out there. And then the other one is continuing to help spread that economic growth to some of the underserved areas. Continuing some of the work that we've started in northeast Oklahoma City, for example, but also looking at some of the areas on the south side that haven't been served well, that's everything from the Capitol Hill area all the way down to Lariat Landing and other areas around the airport, and looking at those places where there hasn’t been as much investment over the last 10,15 or 20 years. We just have so many wonderful opportunities that that's the real challenge. The vision is trying to keep us focused on the right things and trying to keep us using the right tools, but you have scarce resources sometimes and trying to make sure that we make smart investments that spurs other activity.