Hal M. Ferrell

Hal M. Ferrell is founder and CEO of The Data Company, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee.  The Data Company is one of the nation's leading litigation support companies offering a full suite of services related to complex litigation preparedness.  Such services include website design and maintenance which allow attorneys at remote locations to teleconference while inspecting complex databases.  A typical trial preparation might involve the scanning of millions of documents and construction of multiple databases by date, subject and author to allow efficient attorney searching and mastery of chaotic document sets.  The Data Company also provides litigants with mock trial facilities, trial exhibit management and preparation, digital discovery and trial presentation assistance.  The Data Company's client list includes many multinational giants, including Philip Morris, IBM, Microsoft and Wal-Mart. 

Mr. Ferrell was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1947.  He presently resides in Batesville, Mississippi.  He has enjoyed success in a number of business and investment ventures, including real estate development.  Mr. Ferrell served in the Tennessee Air National Guard from 1966 to 1972.  His hobbies include hunting and aviation.  He has been a FAA Certified Flight Instructor since 1969.  He is a graduate of the University of Mississippi.  Hal Ferrell is co-founder and CEO of SARGETRUCK, LLC.

Michael T. Lewis

Michael T. Lewis is a retired attorney residing in Oxford, Mississippi.  He served in the US Air Force as an instructor pilot from 1969 to 1974.  Mr. Lewis graduated law school from the University of Mississippi in January 1977.  He practiced with his wife and law partner from 1986 to 2002.  Lewis & Lewis was a litigation firm which specialized in consumer protection, insurance and personal injury issues.  Mr. Lewis authored the Mississippi Medicaid Recovery Theory which casts the state as victim, entitling Mississippi to recover its tobacco related medical expenses.  Lewis & Lewis represented Mississippi in its pioneering case against Big Tobacco. This theory was eventually adopted by all the states and led to the historic tobacco settlements between the states and the tobacco industry, culminating in 1998 and 1999. 

Mr. Lewis' hobbies include history, hunting and aviation.  He holds a FAA commercial instrument rating and flies the firm's turboprop frequently.  Mr. Lewis co-founder and CFO, COO of SARGETRUCK, LLC.

Robert Q. Riley

An author, industrial designer and a mechanical engineer with successes in a wide range of product categories.
His automotive experience includes vehicle styling, packaging, and power train design. He has produced energy-efficient, high-performance three-wheel road vehicles, electric and hybrid cars, and conventionally powered automobiles of up to 128-mpg fuel economy. Early on, he pioneered the automotive application of FRP/foam composite, designed GM's Drive I electric car, and developed the urban car now on display at the American Museum of Science and Energy at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Today, he is considered one of the world's foremost pioneers in the design of low-energy-demand passenger cars. His most recent work is the 225-mpg XR3 Hybrid.

Mr. Riley is also a prolific designer outside the automotive field. His non-automotive designs range from high performance watercraft, submersibles, hovercraft and human powered vehicles to fitness and medical products like the Numo and the award-winning ARRIS medical imaging system. He has been referred to as the "father of the modern bent" for his early work in revitalizing the highly efficient but largely forgotten recumbent bicycle. At the beginning of the new millennium, he again advanced the state of the art in recumbent design with the release of his cutting-edge Ground Hugger XR2 carbon fiber machine. A solar-assist version of the XR2 won first place in category and third place overall in the 2001 Australian World Solar Cycle Challenge.

Mr. Riley consults on product design and new product strategies. He promotes environmentally friendly technologies and writes and speaks on the subject of alternative automobile design. He has led conference workshops and speaks at industry, scientific, and academic events. He consulted on the Different Roads automobile exhibit at New York's Museum of Modern Art and was the lead speaker at the museum's daylong symposium on the future of the automobile. He was one of two U.S. technical consultants selected by Delcan Corporation to contribute to Transport Canada's Sustainable Transportation Technology Forecast, a study on transportation solution options for Canada's Sustainable Development Strategy.

Robert L. (Bob) Kirkland

Currently the Business Development Officer and Manager of Technology Transfer and Commercialization at the Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems at Mississippi State University.

Bob has over 19 years of national and international, management experience in Industrial Operations, and Technology and Business Development prior to his positions at Mississippi State University. He has extensive knowledge in Thermal Plasma technology and its applications. He has previously supervised and assisted in the acquisition and/or startup of thirty-seven operations for entrepreneurs or corporations.

Bob obtained his MBA degree from Mississippi College in 1983, and a B.S. degree from Mississippi State University in  Business Administration in 1974. He attended Mississippi State University in Electrical Engineering and Math from 1963-1967, and was then drafted into the United State Marine Corps where he served from 1967-1970. He is a Vietnam Veteran with Honors. In 1977-1978, Bob completed finance courses at the Wharton School of Accounting and Finance at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Gang Guo

Education

• Ph.D., University of Rochester, Political Science, 2002-10-11

Dissertation: "Party Recruitment and Political Participation in Mainland China"

• M.A., University of Rochester, Political Science, 2001-03-01
• LL.B., Institute of International Relations, Beijing, China, International Politics, 1997-07-01

Thesis: "The Korean War's Impact on U.S. Policy toward the Far East"
Sole-Author Articles in Refereed Journals since 2005

• "Vertical Imbalance and Local Fiscal Discipline in China." Journal of East Asian Studies, Volume 8, Number 1, January-April 2008, pages 61-88.
• "Retrospective Economic Accountability Under Authoritarianism: Evidence from China." Political Research Quarterly, Volume 60, Number 3, September 2007, pages 378-390.
• "Persistent Inequalities in Funding for Rural Schooling in Contemporary China." Asian Survey, Volume 47, Issue 2 (March/April), 2007, pages 213-230.
• "Organizational Involvement and Political Participation in China." Comparative Political Studies, Volume 40, Number 4, April 2007, pages 457-482.
• "Decentralized Education Spending and Regional Disparities: Evidence from Chinese Counties 1997-2001." Journal of Chinese Political Science, Volume 11, Issue 2, Fall 2006, pages 45-60.
• "Party Recruitment of College Students in China." Journal of Contemporary China, Volume 14, Number 43, May 2005, pages 371-393.

Academic Experience

• Assistant Professor, the University of Mississippi, August 2002 to present.

Courses taught: Introduction to Comparative Politics, Asia in World Affairs, Political Economy of East Asia, Politics of China, Seminar in Comparative Parties and Elections, East Asian Studies, China through the Media

• Trainee, Harvard University

National Science Foundation summer institute on Empirical Implications of Theoretical Models (EITM), 2002.

• Thesis Supervisor, University of Rochester

Kharis Templeman's Senior Honors Project thesis, 2001 - 2002.

• Research Assistant for Professor Curtis Signorino

Lead programmer of STRAT, a program for analyzing statistical strategic models, 2000 - 2002.

• Research Assistant for Professor Melanie Manion Summers 1998 - 2000.