Kathy Taylor

Taylor is a lifelong Oklahoma resident, born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Her mother, Lola Catherine McGarvey (Taylor) was raised in Ohio and California and distinguished herself as an award-winning orator, athlete and student.

Lola moved to Oklahoma after marrying a U.S. Navy man, Jim Taylor, a native of Roger Mills, County, Oklahoma. Jim was an entrepreneur owning multiple businesses during his life. They were small business owners, respectable and hardworking inspirations for the young Taylor. After graduating from John Marshall high school in Oklahoma city, she entered the University of Oklahoma in 1973. Within her first 12 months of college, Taylor suffered the untimely passing of both parents. Despite this devastating experience, she persevered, working her way through Journalism as an undergraduate before attending the University of Oklahoma's College of Law. She received her Juris Doctorate in 1981, and graduated at the top of her class, Order of the Coif, opening the door to a successful private law firm. Taylor's familiarity with personal and financial hardship engendered a sense of duty to those who found themselves in similar situations.

Taylor practiced corporate and securities law in Oklahoma City for eight years. In 1989, she moved to Tulsa to join Thrifty Car Rental, where she served as both Vice President and General Counsel. It was here she met her future husband, William Lobeck. They married in 1994. In 1995 they purchased National Car Rental from General Motors. After returning the company to profitability, they sold the Company in 1997 to Autonation, where it was combined with Alamo Car Rental.

In 1997, together with her husband, Taylor established the Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation to support entrepreneurial efforts across Oklahoma. The Foundation is responsible for creating multiple successful programs that identify entrepreneurs and buttress their efforts to enrich local communities.

Taylor entered public service in earnest in 2003. Governor Henry selected her to serve as Oklahoma's Secretary of Commerce, Tourism and Workforce Development and Executive Director of the Department of Commerce. Taylor co-chaired Governor Henry's EDGE (Economic Development Generating Excellence) initiative, a statewide effort to build a visionary economic development plan which included a significant research endowment to support job attraction. Taylor is largely credited as the driving force that convinced Dell to open its largest facility outside of their corporate headquarters, to Oklahoma City, a lucrative move that brought jobs and economic growth to the region.

Her leadership is also credited with helping to craft and execute the plan that retained American Airlines, Tulsa's largest employer at the time. Her innate leadership skills, broad knowledge of business and law, and ability to work with representatives across the political spectrum led Taylor to run for office in 2006.

Taylor has the dual distinction of serving as Tulsa's second female mayor in the city's history, and of receiving the most votes ever in the state's mayor election. She soundly defeated the incumbent Republican Mayor Bill LaFortune in April, 2006. Taylor's combined expertise in business and law allowed her to lead Tulsa through the worst recession in 70 years while negotiating a funding package to keep American Airlines maintenance base, the city's largest private employer, located in Tulsa.

The BOK Center, completed and opened under her guidance, draws headline names in music and the arts. The ONEOK Field became the new home to the Driller's baseball franchise. Using a unique to Tulsa public/private financing, she consolidated City operations into a state of the art building. Together, these operations injected hundreds of millions of dollars into the economy of Tulsa, cementing Taylor's effective, transformative legacy as a catalytic agent of progressive change for the city. In Tulsa's strong-mayor form of government, Taylor oversaw over 3,500 employees, 5 union contracts and annual operating and capital budgets of over $500 million.

Taylor's administration founded the Tulsa Entrepreneurial Spirit Award, now the Tulsa Startup Series, having an economic impact of $57.7 million and generating 2,300 jobs for residents of Tulsa. Under her stewardship, Tulsa experienced an economic and cultural shift into the 21st century, simultaneously broadening its appeal to small businesses and large corporations. Taylor is credited with opening and furthering bipartisan discussions on educational reform.

In 2006, as mayor, Kathy was invited to visit all branches of the United States Armed Forces as a member of the U.S. Department of Defense civilian task force traveling to Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Djibouti. She later partnered with Tulsa's 211 Service Helpline to consolidate information about services and benefits available to active duty military and veterans and ensure the information is available to the military and their families 24 hours a day.

In continuing a track record of supporting the military, Taylor instituted and hired the first-ever Veteran's Liaison in the mayor's office and worked alongside others to establish the first Veteran's Court in the nation. She also formed the Tulsa Veterans Advisory Council and established a Military Lounge at the Tulsa International Airport. She now serves as the Ship Sponsor the USS Tulsa, a U.S. Navy Littoral combat ship.

Upon leaving her post as mayor, Taylor returned to Governor Henry's team as Chief of Education Strategy and Innovation. In this role, she continued her bipartisan work for educational reform across the state. Taylor spearheaded a plan to re-envision the Race to the Top grant competition, with the goal of transforming public education through higher academic standards, finely tuned assessments, and systems for processing and disseminating data. The plan passed into law under the Oklahoma Teacher and Leader Effectiveness Act.

In 2012, she served as a resident fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics teaching “Pathways to Public Service”.

Taylor announced a second mayoral run for the fall 2013 election cycle, in advance of a new, non-partisan election system. Taylor finished first with 42.1% of the vote, ahead of her successor Dewey F. Bartlett, Jr., who had 34.2%. She and Bartlett met in a runoff[3] election on November 12, 2013 and Bartlett prevailed, receiving about 55% of the vote.

Undeterred, Taylor continued to prove her dedication to the city, founding the non-profit ImpactTulsa in 2014, which supplies our community with the data necessary to affect meaningful changes in the education system. She also successfully supported the launch of Reading Partners in Tulsa to engage more citizens with elementary children to dramatically improve reading achievement levels.

She currently sits on the board of the Tulsa Public Facilities Authority; 36 Degrees North, Tulsa's basecamp for entrepreneurs; on the Advisory Board of Stitchcrew, a business accelerator and on the Board of Directors for the Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation.

In addition, Taylor is the historical Ship Sponsor for the USS Tulsa, a new LCS-16 warship for the United States Navy and founding member of [VEST, a curated network of highly impactful women focused on supporting, connecting and elevating one another.

In 2016, Taylor was tapped by current mayor G.T. Bynum to serve as his inaugural Chief of Economic Development, drawing from her decades of experience as a corporate executive, corporate attorney, and Oklahoma's Secretary of Commerce and former mayor. After revitalizing the department and recruiting a successor, she completed her service to Mayor Bynum in 2018.

Mentorship, especially among women, remains at the forefront of Taylor's focus throughout her life and career. She believes mentoring others is both a privilege and an obligation, and will take the opportunity to encourage anyone who calls on her for support. Known for her passion for mentorship programs that empower women and girls in leadership roles, Taylor's mission is to bring transformational improvements to their future prosperity. In recognition of this work, Taylor served as a resident fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics, teaching “Pathways to Public Service.”

In 2018, Taylor founded a women's group, aptly named “Changing the Status Quo (CSQ)”.[4] The organization impacts community awareness and economic opportunity of women through peer to peer mentoring and mentoring workshops outside the workplace with a long-term goal of reducing the pay ratio gap between men and women salaries while increasing female representation at executive levels in Fortune 500 magazines.

In 2020, she became one of the founding members of VEST, a curated network of C-suite women working together to expedite the pipeline and pathways for more women in positions of influence and power.

The Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation (LTFF) curates targeted programs to act as Tulsa's leading convener for entrepreneurs and small businesses. LTFF designs these programs to build a diverse, innovative environment for Tulsa that both attracts and retains entrepreneurs. From educational opportunities, to networking prospects, to providing a vast array of resources – LTFF listens to and fills the needs of local entrepreneurs and innovators, with over two decades of success stories fortifying its place in Tulsa's landscape. Elizabeth Frame Ellison, Kathy's daughter, has served as the visionary and leader for the LTFF since 2009.

Tulsa's inherent potential is the driving force behind Taylor's commitment to molding the city into one of the country's most innovative and collaborative communities. She continues to broaden Tulsa's horizons by cultivating and leading programs in entrepreneurship and education, and in their dedication in the re-development of historical landmarks to bolster tourism.

Through the Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation, Taylor and her family work to stay at the forefront of being an innovator and collaborator in Tulsa's entrepreneurial ecosystem. Tulsa Startup Series, Cultivate918, Kitchen 66, 36 Degrees North and most recently Mother Road Market on Route 66 are just a few of the programs created by LTFF to break down the barriers that prevent entrepreneurs from succeeding.

• 2019 - Lifetime Member of the Naval Order of the United States
• 2018 - Anna C. Roth Legacy Award, YWCA
• 2016 - College of Law Hall of Fame Honoree, Tulsa University College of Law
• 2015 - Lifetime Member of Society of Sponsors of the US Navy, as Sponsor of USS Tulsa
• 2015 - Gaylord Distinguished Alumni Award from the JayMac Alumni Association of the University of Oklahoma's Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication
• 2013 - Inaugural recipient Order of the Owl from the University of Oklahoma College of Law (highest honor given by OU Law)

Honorary Doctoral Degree from University of Tulsa Honorary Doctoral Degree from Old Dominion University

• 2012 - William G. Paul Oklahoma Justice Award from Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma
• 2011 - Tulsa Business Journal Women of Distinction
• 2011 - Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame inductee
• 2011 - Oklahoma Center for Community & Justice Honoree
• 2010 - Tulsa Historical Society Inductee
• 2004 - Pinnacle Award from the Mayor's Commission on the Status of Women
• 2004 - Headliner Award, Tulsa Press Club
• 2003 - Mona Lambird Spotlight Award- Oklahoma Bar Association
• 1977 - Silver Letseizer Award, University of Oklahoma
• 1998 - Best Lawyer in America (Franchising)

Taylor married William Lobeck in 1994. She has one daughter and two stepdaughters and many beloved grandchildren She continues to supply her leadership support to local, state and nationwide initiatives. She hopes her own story of loss, recovery, and hard-won triumph will serve to inspire future generations. These days she can also be found surrounded by her family, where her grandchildren now learn from her personal philosophy of, “Never doubt a small group of committed citizens can change the world, indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”

• Kathy Taylor’s Future
• Oklahoma Teacher and Leader Effectiveness Act

• Personal facebook page
• 2013 Campaign website
• 2013 Campaign Facebook
• Kathy Taylor Twitter
• Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame Oral History Project -- OSU Library