Kenneth Fikes, Managing Director

A native of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Mr. Fikes graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. His background includes Risk Management (City Bank N.A. - New York, NY; Options Trading (Susquehanna Investment Group - Philadelphia, PA); Portfolio Manager/Analyst (SmithBreeden Associates – Chapel Hill, NC); and Team Leader/Broker (Oklahoma City, OK).

Finding only commodity trading and no real high-finance positions, Mr. Fikes accepted a position as a Fiscal Analyst at the Oklahoma State Senate where he managed, analyzed, and advised Legislators on sixteen state agency budgets. He quickly moved on to CFO of the Oklahoma Supreme Court (oversight & management of $45M Supreme Court & $95M District Courts budgets) before being handed the responsibility of COO (daily operations, MIS, procurement, human resources, dispute mediation, finance, judicial educational, 100 onsite employees & indirectly nearly 1,600 statewide). Both the $25 Million Oklahoma State Court Network (OSCN) and the start of the $32+ Million Judicial Center were implemented under Mr. Fikes’ watch. He further satisfied curiosity about the legal field by attending Oklahoma City University Law School at night.

Content with a 6-yr stint in public service, Mr. Fikes accepted the position of Team Leader at Bank One Securities, NA (consultant to high net worth individuals; investment sales/broker; educating & training consumer bankers on financial markets & derivative products with goal of retaining bank deposits versus attrition to traditional investment firms).

Given market forces and an impending Chase buyout, Mr. Fikes turned his focus to entrepreneurial pursuits, and presently, enjoys working on a daily basis on ventures ranging from near urban, rural real estate development, to international financial consulting on projects like electric power infrastructure pricing in Mozambique. Regular participation via choir and other activities at Living Word Missionary Baptist Church, teaching business classes at OKC Metro tech to ESL students in Spanish, and managing www.Ubuntuliving.com are great passions.