Leadership Summit
Speaker Bios
Congressman Barry and Desiree Loudermilk, GA-11
Congressman Barry Loudermilk, a Constitutional Conservative, represents northwest Georgia’s 11th Congressional District.
In the 117th Congress, Congressman Loudermilk serves as a member of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, the Committee on House Administration, and the Joint Committee on the Library. He also serves as a member of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), a conservative caucus of House Republicans.
Before being elected to Congress in 2014, he was a small business owner for over 20 years. He also served in the Georgia State legislature for nine years.
A Georgia native, Congressman Loudermilk holds an Associate Degree in Telecommunications Technology, and a Bachelor of Science in Occupational Education and Information Systems Technology. And he proudly served in the U.S. Air Force for eight years in the intelligence and technology fields.
He is the former owner of an information technology services business, and is an author, historian, and motivational speaker.
He and his wife Desiree have been married since 1983. They reside in northwest Georgia and have three grown children and four grandchildren.
Ford Taylor of FSH Strategy Consultants and Transformational Leadership
Ford Taylor is a leadership solutions trainer, strategist and speaker. With a primary emphasis on the people that serve an organization while simultaneously maintaining a clear focus of the business or organization itself, Ford shares straight-forward practical solutions through authentic leadership training and individualized leadership consulting. With an empathetic intelligence derived from decades of experience with an array of people, personalities and companies both large and small, Ford helps to both define and navigate leadership in the business culture of today.
His trainings and talks are centered on removing constraints, equipping leaders and empowering people to become happy, successful, high performing individuals with healthy relationships both inside and outside of the workplace.
As a keynote speaker, Ford Taylor identifies and shares the tools and tactics to develop transformational leaders within every organization at every level.
From mom and pop to multimillion dollar businesses and mom and pop businesses that became multimillion dollar businesses, Ford has learned many lessons and tested just as many tools as he shares with every single person he meets. In his understanding that many have learned to manage people, he takes his trainings a number of steps further to show leaders how to lead people and how to manage the processes, systems, and procedures around them.
Ford Taylor is the founder of FSH Strategy Consultants and Transformational Leadership. He is the author of Relactional Leadership and directs a charitable international effort to provide Transformational Leadership to emerging countries worldwide.
Representative Brandon Williams, NY-22
Brandon was born in Dallas, Texas and attended Pepperdine University in California where he received a BA in Liberal Arts. In August of 1990, during the build up to the first Gulf War, Brandon volunteered to serve as a nuclear submarine officer for the Navy. He graduated from college in December 1990 and reported to Officer Candidate School in March 1991. Transitioning into the nuclear engineering training was a very steep learning curve, one which he successfully accomplished against significant odds. During his military service, he made six strategic-deterrent patrols in the Pacific aboard the USS Georgia, serving as the Strategic Missile Officer. Early in his military service he fell in love and married Stephanie McRee (Williams), daughter of a senior Army officer and Vietnam Veteran (Col. McRee was awarded three Bronze Stars with Valor). Stephanie grew up on Army bases and experienced first-hand the threat of Communism while her father was stationed in Germany on the front lines of the Cold War. Following his Navy service, Brandon attended the renowned Wharton School in Philadelphia, earning an MBA double majoring in in Operations & Information Management and Finance.
Brandon’s military career and entrepreneurial career have taken him and his family around this country, but they landed in Central New York in 2010. Together, Brandon and Stephanie started an agribusiness in the Finger Lakes region and participated in attracting tourist and economic development to our community.
Brandon is also a pioneer in innovation, founding a software company that now helps large industrial manufacturers modernize their production plants, secure their critical infrastructure from cyber-attacks, and paves the way for reduced emissions through advances in artificial intelligence.
Today, Brandon humbly represents the people of New York’s 22nd District in Congress. Brandon is an entrepreneur, a husband of thirty years, the father of two adult children, and a Veteran of the U.S. Navy.
John H. Dalton - Former United States 70th Secretary of the Navy
John H. Dalton served as the 70th Secretary of the Navy and was recognized by the National Security Caucus as their 1997 International Security Leadership Award recipient. After graduating from the US Naval Academy, he served on two submarines. In 1977, President Carter nominated him as president of the Government National Mortgage Association (“Ginnie Mae”) and later a member and then Chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board. In July 1993, President Clinton nominated him as Secretary of the Navy where he served for five and a half years.
In the private sector, Secretary Dalton began his career with Goldman Sachs. Between his two government tenures, he served in leadership positions of several financial firms. Secretary Dalton attended Louisiana State University one year before attending the US Naval Academy where, as Deputy Brigade Commander (the Brigade number two ranking position), he graduated with distinction in 1964. He was inducted into the LSU Alumni Hall of Distinction and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from Trinity College. In 2016, he received the Distinguished Graduate Award from the Naval Academy and was also named an honorary Canon of the Washington National Cathedral. He and his wife, Margaret, reside in Washington.
Representative Aaron Bean, FL-14
Representative Aaron Bean was elected to the House of Representatives in 2022 and proudly represents the people of the 4th District in Northeast Florida. He began his legislative service as City Commissioner and Mayor of his hometown of Fernandina Beach, Florida in 1996. In 2000, Bean was first elected to the Florida House of Representatives and served eight years.
In 2012, Bean was elected to the Florida Senate and served 10 years. In the Florida Senate, Aaron presided as Senate President Pro Tempore and Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services overseeing over one-third of the Florida budget.
Throughout his political career, Bean has received countless awards including “Best of the Best Elected Officials” by the Fernandina Beach News Leader, the Jacksonville University Distinguished Alumni Award of Excellence, which recognizes a graduate with “the highest level of character in their professional accomplishments, community and philanthropic efforts and continued support of JU. Last year, Representative Bean was also awarded with the prestigious Consortium of Florida Education Foundations (CFEF) Outstanding Partner Award for his tireless work to promote opportunities for students in Florida.
Aaron served as president of Compass Bank in Nassau County for 11 years, and he has successfully built four small businesses, including the High Energy Auction Company. He has been a professional Florida auctioneer for more than 12 years, and his quick wit and impressive results have made him a renowned auctioneer throughout the state of Florida.
Aaron received his Bachelor of Science in Finance from Jacksonville University. He has been a Rotarian for over 32 years and a volunteer for numerous organizations, including the National Alliance for Mental Illness, the YMCA, Crime Stoppers, and Nassau County Schools. Aaron and his wife, Abby, reside in Fernandina Beach.
The Reverend Dr. Margaret Grun Kibben, Chaplain, U.S. House of Representatives
In her final active-duty assignment in the Navy, Chaplain Margaret Grun Kibben was the U.S. Navy’s 26th Chief Chaplains, serving as the director of religious ministry for the Department of the Navy, advising the Secretary of the Navy, the Chief of Naval Operations, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, and the Commandant of the Coast Guard on all matters pertaining to religion in their respective services. She led a community of 2,500 active and reserve officers, and enlisted religious ministry professionals. Prior to this assignment, Chaplain Kibben served as the 18th Chaplain of the Marine Corps and Deputy Chief of Chaplains.
A native of Warrington, Pennsylvania, Chaplain Kibben entered active duty in 1986 through the Navy’s Theological Student Program. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Goucher College, Towson, Maryland and Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey, and a Master’s degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island. Kibben served as a senior fellow, United States Institute of Peace, Washington, D.C.
Her Navy assignments included the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland; the Chaplain Corps Resource Board, Norfolk, Virginia; command chaplain aboard USS San Diego (AFS 6); and Fleet Chaplain, U. S. 3rd Fleet. Kibben served as the command chaplain, responsible for religious ministry to Combined Forces Command Afghanistan.
With the U.S. Marine Corps, Chaplain Kibben served aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia; as chaplain to Headquarters and Service Battalion, Security Battalion, the Brig, Marine Corps Air Facility and HMX-1. She also served with the Marines of Second Force Service Support Group Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, deploying to Turkey and Norway. Later she was assigned to the Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Quantico as the doctrine writer for Religious Ministry.
Following her retirement, Margaret established Virtue In Practice, LLC, a business dedicated to moral, ethical, and spiritual executive leader advisement. She also served as a consultant to the Department of the Navy’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office.
Chaplain serves on both military and civilian-boards. The Princeton Theological Seminary Board of Trustees and the Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence, and the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation.
Her personal awards include the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit (two awards), the Bronze Star, the Meritorious Service Medal (three awards), and the Navy Commendation Medal (three awards).
On January 3, 2021, Chaplain Kibben was elected by the House and sworn in by Speaker Nancy Pelosi as the 61st Chaplain of the United States House of Representatives.
Representative Rudy Yakym, IN-2
Congressman Rudy Yakym is a fourth generation Hoosier who is proud to represent the people of Indiana’s Second District. A Christian, family man, and conservative, Rudy is working tirelessly to bring common sense, Hoosier values to Washington, D.C.
Born and raised in South Bend, Rudy received a bachelor’s degree in business finance and administration from Indiana University South Bend. He later went on to earn an Executive MBA from the University of Notre Dame.
Prior to his election to Congress, Rudy served as Director of Growth Initiatives at Kem Krest, a company that specializes in removing friction from supply chains. Throughout his career in business, Rudy has held senior positions at various companies, helping them to develop effective growth strategies.
Rudy and his wife Sallyann currently live in Granger, where they are raising their three wonderful children; Elle, Rudy IV, and Eliza. They worship at New Life Baptist Church, where Rudy serves the congregation as Head Usher.