Executive Coach
Executive Director, Oklahoma Department of Commerce · State Director, USDA Rural Development
“The easy answer is always no, because then that problem goes away. The tough thing is to say yes, but maintain ownership of the definition of yes.”
Brent Kisling
Experience
Enid Regional Development Alliance
NexTo LLC
For more than two decades, Brent ran the public bodies that decide where investment lands in Oklahoma, at the federal, regional, and state level. He has steered a state agency through the COVID economic response and rebuilt workforce programs that his agency inherited in poor shape. He administered or created almost all of Oklahoma's public grant and financing programs. He takes the minutes himself, because "the one with the pen is the one that rules the room."
Brent's career is in public-sector economic development in Oklahoma. He spent nearly eight years as state director of USDA Rural Development, about ten years leading the Enid Regional Development Alliance, and four and a half years running the Oklahoma Department of Commerce. He also owned and operated a bed and breakfast in Enid for 13 years.
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Field Director, Office of U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe
If you know you hand it to me and I just say yes and hand it back to you, you better have done your homework before.
As long as you have your true north, you know what direction you're going. And it took me a little bit to figure that out as a twenty-something.
{On work he did during Hurricane Katrina} They showed up off a bus with nothing, 1,500 families. I think Oklahoma had more families retained within the state than any other state where they sent folks.
Tell us about the leader and the situation. If Brent is not the fit, one of the other coaches will be.