Economic Club of Oklahoma

For more than sixty years, The Economic Club of Oklahoma (ECoO) has been a cornerstone for meaningful dialogue and thought leadership within the business community. The ECoO is an assembly of Oklahoma’s top influencers meeting to discuss important economic and social issues. Members not only benefit from access to local experts, but national speakers purposefully selected for their industry knowledge, relevancy and timeliness.

Club objective: To aid in the creation and expression of an enlightened public opinion of the important economic and social questions of the day.

In the winter of 1955, at the suggestion of Hardin W. Masters, a group of businessmen met to discuss forming a club. The principle purpose was a forum for public discussion of current economic and social subjects.

Twelve notable businessmen were selected to form the organization modeled after the well-respected Chicago and New York clubs, and tentatively adopted a constitution and by-laws. Each member suggested five distinguished persons for the original charter membership and began building the organization now known as the Economic Club of Oklahoma.

The ECoO exceeded expectations in its first full year and grew in membership, stature and importance, just as its founders had anticipated.

October 28, 2024: Toby Baldwin, Executive Associate A.D., The University of Oklahoma - NIL

Toby Baldwin (“Baldwin”) began his career in NCAA compliance in 1990, while working for the University of Oklahoma as a compliance assistant in the Athletics Department, with an emphasis in rules education. Following his five (5) years with the University, Baldwin served as the Assistant Athletic Director at Oral Roberts University for four (4) years where he supervised all aspects of compliance, student-athlete academics, initial and continuing eligibility and financial aid. He also managed personnel, budgets, travel and scheduling for twelve (12) sports, while completing his law degree.

Baldwin has an extensive educational and legal background. Baldwin’s accomplishments include a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Tulsa (1999) as well as a Master’s degree in Sports Administration from United States Sports Academy (1991). Prior to accepting the Director of Compliance position with the University of Oklahoma, Baldwin practiced law for nine (9) years and was the principal partner in his law firm, Baldwin & Associates, PLLC, specializing in sports law, oil and gas law, and real estate law. He has represented numerous institutions, coaches and student-athletes who were under investigation by the NCAA, including appearances before the NCAA Committee on Infractions and has also assisted with eligibility appeals. Baldwin has been back with OU since 2008 and served as the Director of Compliance until the summer of 2022 when he was appointed Executive Associate Athletic Director for Name, Image, Likeness and Operational Advancement.

November 18, 2024: Morgan Bazilian, Director, Payne Institute, Colorado School of Mines

Morgan D. Bazilian is Director of the Payne Institute and Professor of Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines.

Previously, he was Lead Energy Specialist at the World Bank. He has over two decades of experience in energy, natural resources, and environmental policy and international affairs. He holds a Ph.D. in energy analysis and was a Fulbright Fellow.

He is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and Ireland’s National Climate Council. He is a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, and an adjunct professor of thermal physics at University College Cork.

He has published over 180 papers in learned journals, and his 2008 book: “Analytical Methods for Energy Diversity and Security” is a seminal work in the field. His work has appeared in Nature, Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, WSJ, Washington Post, New York Times, FT, and Foreign Affairs.

Dr. Bazilian was a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Advisory Council on Energy, and served as an advisor to the International Energy’s World Energy Outlook, for many years, as well as Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s Global Energy Outlook.

He holds (or has held) academic affiliations at The Royal Institute of Technology of Sweden, Columbia University, Cambridge University, Oxford University, and IIASA.

Dr. Bazilian was the European Union’s lead negotiator on technology issues at the UN’s climate change negotiations, and a member of the UN Expert Group on Technology. He was the first Chair of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership Programme Board, and a founder of the UNEP Public Finance Alliance steering group. He was a contributing author to the IPCC and the Global Energy Assessment, and served as an advisor to a €200M cleantech venture capital fund.

Previously he was a Deputy Director at NREL. Prior to that, Morgan worked as a senior diplomat in the UN. Prior to this post, he worked in the Irish Government as Chief Advisor for the Energy Minister, and was the Deputy CEO of the Irish National Energy Agency.

January 27, 2025: Senator James Lankford

James Lankford serves Oklahomans. He served four years in the US House of Representatives for central Oklahoma, until he was overwhelmingly elected to the US Senate in 2014.

Before his service in Congress, James served students and families for more than 20 years in ministry, including 15 years as the Director of Student Ministry for the Baptist Convention of Oklahoma and Director of the Falls Creek Youth Camp, the largest youth camp in the United States, with more than 51,000 individuals attending each summer.

James and his staff enjoy serving people from all backgrounds across Oklahoma. As Ranking Member of the Government Operations and Border Management Subcommittee, which covers border security, management, and operations; regulatory reform; and the federal workforce. He demands we have a secure, more fiscally responsible, and transparent federal government, and our nation remains the world leader. He believes that the federal government has an important role in our nation, but empowered families, individual people, and private businesses grow our economy and pass down our values.

James was recognized as the Senate’s top-ranked “Taxpayers Friend” by the National Taxpayers Union for his strong record in support of lower taxes, limited government, and economic freedom. His annual Federal Fumbles report is a must-read in Washington, DC, because of its commonsense solutions to the problems our federal government faces. He has also been recognized by many other organizations for his work toward increased personal freedom, economic growth, and religious liberty.

James lives in Oklahoma City with his wife Cindy. They have been married more than 30 years and have two daughters, Hannah and Jordan. He enjoys spending time with his family, working in his yard, and reading.

February 24, 2025: Brent Ragsdale, EVP & CFO, Chick-fil-A

March 24, 2025: Poppy MacDonald, President, USAFacts

Poppy MacDonald is the President of USAFacts, the non-partisan, non-profit civic initiative and source for well-visualized data on the American people and how we are doing as a nation – leading an effort to help Americans ground their democratic debate in facts. MacDonald served as president and chief operating officer of POLITICO USA, National Journal’s publisher and president, as well as chief revenue officer, POLITICO Pro’s executive director of business development, overseeing the launch of Politico’s first paid subscription model, and as a partner at Gallup Inc., where she launched the World Poll and led the health care practice. MacDonald began her career serving members of Congress representing her Pacific Northwest hometown on both the Senate and House sides of Capitol Hill – and is happy to be back, enjoying Seattle and surrounds with her husband and two children.

April 28, 2025: Jennifer Hillman, Senior Fellow for Trade and International Political Economy, Council on Foreign Relations

Jennifer A. Hillman is currently a professor of practice at the Georgetown University Law Center, teaching the lead courses in international business and international trade, while serving as a fellow of Georgetown’s Institute of International Economic Law (IIEL). She is also co-director of the Center for Inclusive Trade and Development and served as a panelist for the second dispute under the USMCA (updated NAFTA)–a dispute between the United States and Canada over the application of US safeguard measures to imports of solar panels. She recently published Legal Aspects of Brexit:Implications of the United Kingdom’s Decision to Withdraw from the European Union (IIEL 2017), drawn from a seminar she co-taught in the fall of 2016.She has also written extensively about international trade law and the WTO, including a 2017 IIEL Policy Brief on the WTO consistency of the Ryan-Brady “A Better Way” tax proposal, co-authoring the leading casebook on trade, International Trade Law, 3^rd ed., Wolters Kluwer (2016), papers on recent WTO cases on sanitary and phytosanitary measures (World Trade Review) and “Changing Climate for Carbon Taxes” (GMFUS.org).

Hillman has had a distinguished career in public service, both nationally and internationally. She recently completed her term as one of seven members from around the world serving on the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Appellate Body. Prior to that, she served for nine years as a commissioner at the United States International Trade Commission (USITC), rendering decisions in more than six hundred investigations regarding injury to U.S. industries caused by imports that were dumped or subsidized, along with making numerous decisions in cases involving alleged patent or trademark infringement. Before her appointment to the USITC, Hillman served as general counsel at the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), where she had previously been an ambassador and chief textiles negotiator. She also served as legislative director and counsel to U.S. Senator Terry Sanford of North Carolina.

Hillman formerly served as a partner in the law firm of Cassidy Levy Kent, a senior transatlantic fellow for the German Marshall Fund of the United States, as president of the Trade Policy Forum and on the selection panel for the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation.She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the board of visitors at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.She is a graduate of the Harvard Law School and Duke University.

PEER ENGAGEMENT

This non-competitive environment is a platform for discussing the economic and social health of the state, as well as the nation.

SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM

The ECoO provides, on an annual basis, scholarship awards based in the fields of economics and finance to graduating students from nine universities in and around central Oklahoma.

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

The ECoO is an assembly of Oklahoma’s top influencers meeting to discuss important economic and social issues through a series of local and national speakers.