MoxieTalk with Kirt Jacobs

Sam Swope has had a historic 60 years in the automobile dealership business. He began his company with a dealership in Elizabethtown in 1951 and expanded into Louisville in 1956. After two unfortunate incidents, causing two separate locations to burn down, Swope persevered and continued to grow his business. Today, Swope operates over 20 dealerships throughout Kentucky. Swope has a long list of li...

Mandy Connell is a talk radio host who credits her competitive nature as a driver to be her best. Connell was working as a flight attendant when her quick wit and fun personality made a stranger take notice. The stranger happened to be Dick Robinson, founder of the Connecticut School of Broadcasting, and it led him to offer Connell a scholarship to attend school there. In 2010, Connell was hired t...

Troy Burden taps his inner drive to help others as the executive director of Highlands Community Ministries. Burden has lead this non-profit and its multiple outreach programs since 2011. The organization currently has a board of directors from 24 local Highland churches. Burden is from Kentucky and moved to Louisville in 1995, devoting his career to the non-profit sector. From 1995 to 2007, he wo...

Esslinger serves as the vice president of community relations and development for the Greater Kentucky and Southern Indiana Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association. She brought her background of events management, accounts management, and membership development to help this local non-profit to grow and develop. The University of Louisville graduate joined the association in 2004, overseeing employe...

David Easterling is a software entrepreneur engaged in a labor of love to bring back an iconic Louisville beer brand. He began in sales and management in the paper industry and moved on to a career in information technology consulting. As the software executive for Everest Technologies, he grew the operation and eventually bought it. Now called Prosoft, Easterling has become a leader in the Louisv...

Pat Gallagher creates visual art based on the connection he feels when talking with people. Gallagher was a corporate employee in 2006 when an unnamed man in a New York hotel bar in Times Square saw him doodling on a napkin and declared him an artist. He decided to veer away from his life path at the time and embrace his natural talents. With innate talent and no formal training, Gallagher has an...

Lora Tucker loves leadership responsibility – and making a difference – and has used that love from childhood through her military career and as CEO of the Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana. Tucker is a retired US Army colonel. She led troops in Operation Desert Storm, jumped out of airplanes as part of the Airborne Corps, directed public affairs officers in the US Army Reserve, and commanded a joint pre...

Angela McCormick Bisig is a Jefferson County district court judge who is driven to get out into the community and make a difference. She has been a Jefferson County district court judge since 2002 and is a strong supporter for foreign language education for court personnel. As judge, Bisig introduced the enhanced family supervision docket to review domestic violence cases. She is also an advocate...

Growing up Derek Anderson listened to the positives around him. This drove him through his NBA career and the founding of a successful business and charitable foundation. Anderson played for the championship-winning men's basketball team at the University of Kentucky. He then went on to be the 13th overall pick in the NBA Draft, selected by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Anderson played with five other...

Gerald Neal credits his parents' commitment to the community as laying the foundation for his career in politics. Neal advocates for economic development, education, health, welfare, and safe communities. He is a powerful voice for those who need it most. In his five years as Kentucky state senator of Louisville's 33rd district, Neal has been included in the Kentucky Civil Rights Hall of Fame and...

Jeff Van Note played football eighteen years for the NFL Atlanta Falcons, the second longest for any player on one team. After attending grade school in Louisville and college at the University of Kentucky, Van Note established himself as one of the finest centers in the NFL, playing for the Atlanta Falcons. He was voted by fans as their favorite Falcons player, inducted into the Falcons Ring of H...

Carol Haddad is driven by a desire to be a participant, not a spectator, in improving education for children. At the critical juncture of the education merger and a federal judge's order for busing, Haddad ran for the JCPS school board. She felt strongly that her voice could make a difference to improve education standards. Haddad's motivation to advocate for children and their education came from...

Inspired by creativity, Bruce Simpson credits the joy of life for what drives him and fuels his career in ballet. Simpson came to the Louisville Ballet as artistic director in 2002, bringing over 30 years of experience in the ballet world with him. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Simpson mastered the art of ballet. He danced for South Africa's State Theatre Ballet for 30 years and experienced many perf...

Major General Donald Storm dedicated 37½ years to serving his country with the U.S. Army. Storm first enlisted in the Army in 1970. He served in the MACV, or Military Assistance Command in Vietnam. Storm later transferred to full-time service with the Kentucky Army National Guard. He was then commissioned as an infantry officer. Storm commanded and served in staff officer positions at the Company...

A consistent love for sports and entertainment drives Lynn Abramson-Saltzman in her career. Abramson-Saltzman is the general manager of the Louisville Arena Sports and Entertainment Properties, the exclusive marketer for the KFC Yum! Center. In 2007, Abramson-Saltzman hit the ground running, and during her first year she assisted in securing sponsorship commitments exceeding $50 million over the n...

A passion for the arts and to make things better by introducing new generations to the art drives Stephen Klein in his career. Since 2005, Klein has been president of the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts. He has spearheaded a comprehensive and ongoing strategic plan, served as the chair of the Arts and Cultural Attractions Council, and successfully organized a $9 million request for deferre...

Over the years, Kent Oyler has started 19 different business ventures and created over 1,000 jobs. Oyler is currently CEO of OPM Services, a financial services and investment firm. In 1996, Oyler and a friend formed high-speed access (or HSA) that delivers broadband Internet over cable television wires, attracting over $90 million in significant, well-known investors. In 1999, at age 41, Lehman Br...

Berk Bryant is fueled by a desire to bring bluegrass and traditional country music to the world to enjoy. Bryant was born in Virginia and grew up listening to bluegrass music while helping on his grandparents' farm. After attending Polytechnic Institute, he went on to serve in the Army, spending time in Korea, Vietnam, and Fort Knox, Ky. During his years in the Army, Bryant managed to work on vari...

Madeline Abramson served as Louisville's first lady for 21 years and is a tireless community volunteer. As the wife of the longest serving mayor in Louisville history, Mayor Jerry Abramson, Abramson has selflessly devoted a great deal of her efforts to volunteerism. Her passion for public service has placed her as the board chair for the Kentucky Center for Performing Arts and the Red Cross, and l...

Hal Heiner served as a vice chairman of Greater Louisville, Inc., and in 2002, he was elected to the Louisville Metro Council. On the Council, he spent eight years focusing on finding efficiencies in services, shedding light on the inner dealings of Metro Government, and finding smart ways for the community to grow and prosper. After receiving a master's degree in engineering from the University o...

Louisville-born Greg Fischer is an entrepreneur and community leader. In 2008, Fischer ran for the Kentucky Democratic Primary for the U.S. Senate and finished second among the seven candidates. Fischer co-invented and holds the patent for a combination ice and beverage dispenser. This invention led to forming SerVend, a family business with his father and brother. Under his leadership the small b...

Jackie Green, write-in candidate for mayor of Louisville, focuses on the local economy, central neighborhoods, education, energy, quality affordable housing, local food, safety, health, downtown, and transportation. Green originally moved to Louisville in 1975, and has lived in several places around the U.S. and world. He bought and renovated four historic buildings on East Market Street (now the...

Living with a core of gratitude and an attitude of caring and sharing, Bernard Trager founded and built Republic Bank, always with a heart to serve. In 1958, Trager co-founded and became CEO of Union Trust. Almost 20 years later, Union Trust and its seven subsidiaries became part of Commercial Credit of Baltimore, where Trager worked as president and CEO. In 1980, he founded Republic Bank and Trus...

Ramona Johnson is driven by the desire to help those with mental illness. She leads Bridgehaven Mental Health Services, which provides the highest quality psychiatric rehabilitation and recovery services for adults with severe and persistent mental illness. Johnson served as Clinical Director at Bridgehaven for four years, before taking the role as president and CEO. In 1976, Johnson earned her nu...

John Y. Brown, Jr. credits his father as the prime motivator and confidence builder in his life, driving his later successes. Brown began working at age 16 selling Electrolux vacuum cleaners and encyclopedias door to door. He made his way to the University of Kentucky, where he earned a J.D. In 1962, his partner and he purchased Kentucky Fried Chicken from its founder, Colonel Sanders for $2 milli...