Nixon appoints area businesspeople to state boards, commissions

Four businesspeople from the Springfield area were among 14 Missourians appointed to state boards and commissions by Gov. Jay Nixon yesterday.

Brian Fogle, president and CEO of Community Foundation of the Ozarks; Bradley Gregory, president and CEO of the Bank of Bolivar; Beverly Miller, former director of the Lebanon office of the American Red Cross; and John Cowherd, an attorney who operates a private practice in Mount Vernon, were appointed to state positions, according to a news release from the governor's office.

Fogle was appointed for a term ending June 27 to the Coordinating Board for Higher Education, a nine-member board which oversees the activities of the Missouri Department of Higher Education. Fogle previously served as director of community development for Great Southern Bank and had worked in the banking industry in southwest Missouri for more than 20 years.

Gregory, who helped to form the Bank of Bolivar in 1997 and has been working in the banking industry since 1978, has been appointed to the Missouri Development Finance Board. The board administers financing programs for Missouri businesses, local governments and state agencies. It also issues taxable or tax-exempt industrial revenue bonds, and writes market rate or low-interest loans and grants to political subdivisions for public infrastructure improvements. Gregory, who also serves on the boards of Citizens Memorial Hospital and its foundation, the Missouri Bankers Association and the Bolivar Parks and Recreation Committee, was appointed for a term on the Missouri Development Finance Board ending Sept. 14, 2015,  the release said.

Miller, a Missouri State University graduate and a former teacher at MSU, Drury University and secondary schools in Lebanon and Kansas City, was appointed to a three-year term on the MSU Board of Governors.

Cowherd, who also serves as a bar examiner for the Missouri Board of Law Examiners, was appointed to the Missouri Clean Water Commission, a seven-member commission that adopts regulations and policies for planning, monitoring, permitting, enforcement and grant assistance for the state's Clean Water Law and directs state construction grant and loan funds. Cowherd's term ends April 12, 2014, the release said.[[In-content Ad]]