Speakers' Biographies

Jason Lovell
Director, State of Indiana's Office of Defense Development

Jason Lovell currently directs the State's defense development initiatives through the State of Indiana's Office of Defense Development.  Prior to joining the agency, Mr. Lovell consulted small companies in government contracting.  Previously, he worked at Rolls-Royce Corporation handling export control and other government relations and compliance issues.  

Mr. Lovell served as a senior staff aide to Congressman Dan Burton and as a professional staff member of the House Committee on Government Reform in Washington from 1992 - 2000.

Jason is married to Lisa Lovell and has three children Aidan 5, Ainsley 3 and Addison 1.

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Panel Discussion Speakers

Ron Gifford
President and CEO, Indy Partnership

Ron Gifford serves as President and CEO of the Indy Partnership, an economic development organization that works to bring new businesses, jobs and investment to the greater Indianapolis region.  Since its inception in 2001, the Indy Partnership has helped attract or retain more than 70,000 jobs and has sparked more than $6 billion in new capital investment in the region.  Prior to joining the Indy Partnership in late 2007, Gifford practiced law for twenty-two years at Baker & Daniels LLP.   Gifford served as the lead lobbyist for the coalition that successfully advocated for the creation of the 21st Century Research and Technology Fund, and lobbied on behalf of numerous other economic development and tax reform initiatives. 

Gifford graduated magna cum laude in 1985 from Georgetown University Law Center and received his B.A. with distinction from the University of Michigan in 1981. 

Mark Lawrance
Senior Vice President, Foundation and Operations - Indiana Chamber of commerce

Mark joined the Chamber in October 2000 and advocates at the Statehouse to improve Indiana's local government structure, plus works on general business and economic issues. In addition, he runs the Indiana Chamber Foundation that provides timely and relevant economic development research to improve Indiana's quality of life and economic future.

Mark graduated from the Indiana University School of Public Environmental Affairs with a degree in public affairs and marketing. He is a graduate of the Stanley K. Lacy Executive Leadership Series and serves on the Indianapolis City Market Foundation Board and the Cultural Trail Fundraising Committee. Prior to joining the Chamber, Mark was vice president of MCL Cafeterias

Mark Shublak
Partner, Ice Miller LLP

Mark Shublak represents clients before governments and is dedicated to the ethical conduct of government relations. His legislative practice spans across all industry sectors with a focus on heavily regulated industries. His administrative and regulatory law practice includes administrative rules, compliance, enforcement matters, government contracts, licensing, and regulatory filings.

J.W. (Jim) Wheeler - Moderator
Senior Vice President, Thomas P. Miller and Associates

J.W. (Jim) Wheeler has a diverse background in consulting, strategy and planning, economic analysis, research economic development, public policy, and technology programs.   Since joining  Thomas P. Miller and Associates (TPMA) in July 2005 to head up Economic Competitiveness, Policy and Research, he has served as the lead consultant for the Strategic Economic Development Plan for Indiana, helped to create varius regional economic and workforce strategies, developed Base Realignment and Closure workforce and economic impact analyses for Fort Knox, six sites across Indiana and the San Antonio region, as well as leading multiple energy and energy industry projects. Jim came to TPMA from Electricore (a consortium of companies and universities focused on advanced technology development) where he served as the Director of Midwest operations.  He was primarily focused on capturing federal R&D funding for energy technology commercialization.  Previously, as Executive Vice President for TechPoint, a merger between Indiana Technology Partnership (ITP) and Indiana Information Technology Association (INITA), and President of ITP, he served as one of the leaders of the Indiana technology community's public policy and economic development initiatives. In January 1997, Wheeler joined the Indianapolis office of Arthur Andersen as a Senior Manager to launch the Indiana Strategy, Finance and Economics Consulting practice.  Accepted into the Partnership in September 1999, he took on the newly formed position of Central Region Lead for Government Services.  Prior to joining Andersen, Wheeler spent 19 years with Hudson Institute in progressively more senior positions, ultimately directing both international programs and defense industry research.  Previously Wheeler served as Assistant Professor of Economics at Florida International University and Instructor, Rutgers University.  Mr. Wheeler completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Missouri and his masters and doctoral studies at Rutgers University, all in Economics.  He has an extensive list of publications, is deeply involved on professional and community boards and committees, serves as an advisor to several companies, and serves as a frequent public speaker on economic, business and public policy issues.

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Parallel Sessions' Speakers

Aerospace Technical Advances Session

Michael A. Snyder 
Managing principal, The MEK Group and Columnist for Midwest business

Making History: Facing Down Economic and Policy Challenges for a New Era in Aerospace

A member of the Advisory Council for Discovery Park at Purdue, Michael Snyder has worked in technology-related development issues for more than a quarter of a century, including projects ranging from Edwards Air Force Base in California to the development of the WestGate @ Crane Technology Park in southern Indiana.  A former faculty member at Pepperdine University (Malibu, CA), Snyder heads up The MEK Group, which organized the first NSWC Crane University Engagement Summit and co-led a Congressional briefing for Fort Wayne commercial defense development in 2008. He writes a weekly technology column ("The Hoosier Coefficient") for Midwest Business out of Chicago.

Timothy R. Morris - Session organizer
Technology Acquisition Manager, Raytheon Company

Mr. Morris has over 25 years in conducting, architecting, leading, and developing advanced solution systems and systems for federal, civilian, and international organizations. His current role in developing emergent and disruptive technology based solutions using software intensive systems of systems approaches capitalizes on his broad background in space, air, land, sea, and undersea technology and systems development expertise. One of his recent accomplishments is the establishment of the Networked Urban Operations Test Bed (NUOTB), which allows rapid technology deployment through leveraging of net-centric distributed Federal, Civil, Academic, and Industrial test and training facilities to empirically evaluate and validate systems and solutions against full spectrum, multi-echelon, operational utility oriented urban relevant environments. Mr. Morris was the principle author of the CRADA with USFJCOM for Raytheon and acted as the Principle Investigator for the first spiral period of the relationship during which he lead for the NUOTB endeavor in support of the NorthCom's NUCDET exercise known as Ardent Sentry 2007. He has a patent pending on the enabling infrastructure for the NUOTB environment an has put in place a contract with Space Port Indiana to develop their mission control capabilities using this Operations Evaluation Framework (OEF). He is currently working with the state of Indiana's leadership to explore such concepts as Flexible distributed Emergency Operations Center (EOC) capabilities. Another recent activity is the development of edge user capabilities initially targeted at combat medics and civilian medical first responders. He has a patent pending on this architecture as well."

Donald K. Takehara - Session organizer 
Director - Center for Research & Innovation & Associate Professor, Taylor University

Don Takehara started as the first Director of Taylor University's Center for Research & Innovation (CR&I) in 2004. Under Don's leadership, Taylor University has tripled research grants, launched 12 companies out of Taylor's incubator, increased student and faculty researchers 10-fold and 2-fold respectively, and provided consultant services to 100+ companies. The CR&I has demonstrated its integrated research, entrepreneurship and business assistance program where undergraduates take research experience and capability to the next level by starting new companies and providing assistance to established companies. Through the CR&I, Taylor's space science and sensor technologies are being recognized across Indiana. Key activities include the annual ATAIN/IIN Conference on Aerospace and Space Science, the Defense Asset Study's Grand Challenge in space electronics, the High Altitude Research (balloon) Platform, electron accelerator development, sensor development, and nanosatellite development. Prior to Taylor, Don was at Dow Corning Corp. for 16 years engaging in the research & development of chemical processes and silicon containing products. He led the formation of the Reaction Engineering Expertise Center and led projects in Silicon Biotechnology^TM, thin film silicon technology and novel process development. Don received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University and his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University. Chemical reaction engineering and catalysis are his areas of technical expertise.

Jason Lovell
Director, State of Indiana's Office of Defense Development

Jason Lovell currently directs the State's defense development initiatives through the State of Indiana's Office of Defense Development.  Prior to joining the agency, Mr. Lovell consulted small companies in government contracting.  Previously, he worked at Rolls-Royce Corporation handling export control and other government relations and compliance issues.  

Mr. Lovell served as a senior staff aide to Congressman Dan Burton and as a professional staff member of the House Committee on Government Reform in Washington from 1992 - 2000.

Jason is married to Lisa Lovell and has three children Aidan 5, Ainsley 3 and Addison 1.

K-12 Education Session

Mary Patterson - Session Organizer
Director, Brownsburg Challenger Learning Center

Mary Patterson has been the director of the Brownsburg Challenger Learning Center since 2001, and prior to that, she served in various capacities at the Center since its opening in 1994. A graduate of Milligan College with a degree in Biology, she holds teaching credentials from the state of Indiana and has done additional coursework through Butler University, IUPUI, and Framingham State College. Before joining the BCLC staff, Mrs. Patterson taught eighth grade science for several years. She currently serves as the BCLC affiliate director to the Indiana Space Grant Consortium, a Network Council representative for the international Challenger Learning Center network, and recently was elected to the Challenger Center for Space Science Education Board of Directors. She is married and has two adult children.