MoxieTalk with Kirt Jacobs

Rowan Claypool is a social entrepreneur who believes that young knowledge economy workers are the future of prosperous communities. He is the founder of two organizations that have had a transformative effect on the city of Louisville and Commonwealth of Kentucky. In 1999, Claypool founded Bulldogs in the Bluegrass. a program that provides summer internships in Louisville, Kentucky for Yale underg...

Billy Reed believes in the power of the written word and its ability to influence people and events. Reed is a native of Mt. Sterling, Ky., a graduate of Transylvania University and a veteran of the US Army Reserves. He is a nationally renowned sports writer and journalist and is the author of twelve books. He has worked for some of the top news organizations in the country. Reed was writer and sp...

Joe Regan is motivated by seeing lives changed through improved education and expanded employment opportunities. Regan is president and CEO of Greater Louisville, Inc. (GLI), the metro chamber of commerce. He began his tenure at GLI in 1998 as chief operating officer after a term as executive vice president with the Rockford, IL chamber of commerce. Before his career in economic development, Regan...

Kimberly Bunton is a strategic thinker and planner driven by the pursuit of excellence and personal best. She is the director of Louisville Metro Government's Policy & Strategic Planning Department and also the interim director of Louisville Metro Government's Community Action Partnership. Previously Bunton was an attorney with Frost Brown Todd, LLC in their business litigation department. She rec...

Jonathan Blue loves finding new opportunities and growing them into successful enterprises. Blue is chairman and managing director of Blue Equity, LLC. As chairman, he oversees the acquisition and management of all Blue Equity businesses and was responsible for the development and sale of the nation's largest Spanish directory publications to Telmex International. In 2005, Blue formed BEST (Blue E...

Joan Riehm has dedicated her life to making Louisville a better place to live and work. She has spent most of her career in the public sector, first with the city of Louisville, then for the state of Kentucky and currently with Louisville Metro government as deputy mayor. Riehm is also vice chair of the Alliance for Regional Stewardship. Riehm assisted in several of Louisville's largest government...

Making a difference is what drives Jack Guthrie. He began his career with Phillip Morris in public relations and became director of communications in their New York City office. Guthrie returned home to Louisville and served as president of Kentucky Derby Festival from 1971–1977. Under his leadership, the Kentucky Derby Festival grew ten-fold becoming the nation's largest civic celebration. Guthri...

Craig Greenberg has a passion for making Louisville a better community. He is an attorney with Frost Brown Todd, LLC and directs the firm's ancillary business initiatives. He oversees tax credit investment programs that have invested over $100 million into low-income communities in Kentucky and across the country. Greenberg graduated from University of Michigan in 1995 and received his J.D. from H...

Raoul Cunningham has always been passionate about equality and making our system work. Cunningham is currently president of Louisville's NAACP chapter, the same organization where he started his civil rights career at age 14 in the mid-1950s. Cunningham went from helping with voter registration to taking part in the nonviolent direct action, picketing a Louisville theater on behalf of black studen...

J. Bruce Miller pursues excellence in everything he does. He graduated from Vanderbilt University with a B.A. and J.D. receiving cum laude honors. In 1965, Miller founded the J. Bruce Miller Law Group which specializes in corporate litigation. He has also served four terms as Jefferson County attorney with responsibility to represent the local government in all civil matters. Miller is also known...

Rebecca Jackson was the first woman ever elected Jefferson County, Ky. judge-executive, the county's highest-ranking elected official. Before that election, Jackson had been active in international relations. She served on a delegation fostering relationships with local governments in China and with the International Republican Institute, observing Russian parliamentary elections and the selection...

From an early age, Trey Grayson has been motivated to serve his community. Grayson is a northern Kentucky native. He earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard University in 1994 and his J.D./M.B.A. from the University of Kentucky in 1998. Grayson was elected to the office of Kentucky secretary of state in 2003, which at age 31 made him the youngest secretary of state in the country. He later be...

Barbara Sexton Smith's personal mission is to leave the earth better than she found it. Sexton Smith has a storied professional background that includes time in corporate America where she rose to become the second highest ranking woman at Wendy's International. She also is a successful entrepreneur. She founded Quick Think, Inc., a leadership development company in 1996 and was nominated for the...

At age 22, Bob Russell became the pastor of a small congregation of 120 people called Southeast Christian Church. By the time he retired from Southeast 40 years later, it would become one of the largest in the United States, with 18,000 people attending services every weekend. Growing up, Russell intended to become a high-school basketball coach in his Philadelphia hometown. His plans changed duri...

Debbie Scoppechio is the founder of Kentucky's largest advertising agency. After 15 years in the business, Scoppechio decided to take her considerable energy, vision and determination and start her own agency. Creative Alliance has grown from a three-person company to a Top 100 national agency employing over 150 people with annual billing of $200 million. Scoppechio was the second woman inducted i...

Christopher 2X is driven by the plight of the poor and wants to help them transform their mindset. After serving a seven-year prison sentence for drug trafficking in the 1990s, 2X become both an anti-violence advocate and a community spokesperson on issues of violence and at-risk youth. 2X has become a trusted face and voice for the poor and disenfranchised. After a police shooting in Louisville l...

David Armstrong is an achiever who looks to maximize everything he can do in a day. He is a graduate of Murray State University and received his J.D. from the University of Louisville school of law in 1969. Armstrong has a long and distinguished career as a public servant. He spent time as a family court judge, Jefferson County commonwealth attorney, and in 1983 became attorney general of Kentucky...

Stan Curtis wants to inspire and empower people to help those who can't help themselves. In December of 1986, Curtis experienced a life changing moment. While standing in a cafeteria line, he imagined workers delivering food that would otherwise go to waste and delivering it to those in need. Curtis founded Kentucky Harvest and USA Harvest to collect leftover food from restaurants and groceries an...