The Business Prosperity Network has over 100 professionals worldwide who have been recruited to participate in the network.  These include leading experts on entrepreneurship, business expansion and retention, marketing and recruiting, small business development, minority/disadvantaged business development, community infrastructure, land development, master planning, community involvement, workforce development, education reform/improvement, downtown development, business-to-business networking/collaboration, municipal/territorial government effectiveness, cluster- based economic development, and community collaboration.

Senior Management Team

Bruce May, CEO

   Bruce May has over thirty years of business experience, both as an entrepreneur and as a business executive.  His broad background includes skills, experience and expertise in many disciplines that impact business management including business development, marketing and sales, training and development, partnership development and organizational development.  Bruce also has fifteen years of experience in interactive and new media.  He worked for five years in senior management, specializing in building strong working relationships with strategic partners creating value for all participants through enhanced products, improved market position, increased scalability, expanded markets and more dynamic channel sales.  Pioneering experience in broadband media and an aggressive leadership style resulted in the creation of improvements in product development, user experience, customer satisfaction, sales and accounting processes, strategic planning, and corporate development.  Bruce is CEO of The Expert Knowledge Network and Business Prosperity Network and is also the founder of Trelios Digital Media Group.  Bruce also produces seminars and workshops, including several of his own.

     Bruce graduated magna cum laude from the University of Houston with a BS in Biology which provided him with a sound foundation of analytical skills. He developed his creative skills over the years working in video and digital media.  Bruce is a passionate visionary helping to take business consulting to a new level through the development of business services offered through The Expert Knowledge Network and performance management consulting services offered through The Business Prosperity Network. 

Richard Laramy, President

     Richard Laramy spent his entire career, some 24 years, in higher education, publishing. and some K-12.  In that time he has worked with Fortune 500 companies including Pearson and McGraw-Hill.   In the last eight years he has been instrumental in helping various start-up companies in software development with strategic planning and implementation resulting in successful outcomes.  Richard is trained in the Baldrige Model and is a member of the Board of Examiners for Quality Texas ‘07 and ‘08 and is also on the Board of Advisors for University of Texas Austin Center for Performance Excellence.  During the last eight years Richard has assisted over 200 schools with strategic planning in the area of assessment and accreditation.

     Richard founded TTC Consulting in 2006, an academic consulting network consisting of approximately 50 academic consultants, from higher education institutions located all over the country.  Each consultant in the network is an evaluator/examiner for regional and/or specialized accreditation agencies.  This effort resulted in the creation of a vast network of academics and subject matter experts all over the United States and some internationally.  Richard remains passionate in his drive to affect systemic changes in the education system raising the bar on continuous improvement, helping to create and reinforce a culture of excellence throughout the academic world.   Richard is adept at connecting people and resources together to achieve goals that others little imagine.  

     Richard has personally served well over 200 clients and the TTC network of consultants have served over 1000 clients.  The TTC network is now a part of The Expert Knowledge Network.  Richard has experience in content, curriculum, technology, assessment and accreditation, process management, performance assessment based on SLO (student learner outcomes), data analysis and e-portfolios.  Richard has helped education professionals better understand the digital tool kit that has been widely adopted by the millennium generation.  In teaming up with The Expert Knowledge Network, Richard is taking this vision to the next level with best of breed digital media applications.

     Richard has a degree in economics from the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and is a certified TAPE (Texas Award Performance Excellence) Baldrige examiner.

David Dodd, CEcD, Chief Strategic Officer

          David A. Dodd, CEcD is President of DADCO Consulting Services, a leading international consulting firm specializing in creating economic opportunity for communities, states, and countries.  After a seven-year career in commercial banking, David joined the Shreveport, Louisiana Chamber of Commerce as Manager of Business Development and Financial Assistance in 1989.  In 1994, he joined consultant Ed Morrison to form Morrison/Dodd Group, and in 1999, he founded DADCO Consulting.

He has worked in 47 states in the U.S. and six foreign countries.  He has advised the Australian Parliament; the Development Bank of Japan, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) based in Paris, and was lead consultant for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and International Economic Development Council- sponsored Gulf Coast Reinvestment Forum, that helped shape the Gulf Opportunity Zone Legislation in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.  

David has been recognized as a leader in collaborative-based economic development.  He is a member of the board of the Competitiveness Institute, a select group of global leaders in the field.  He is also active in development finance, helping to found Alaska Growth Capital BIDCO, Gulf Coast BIDCO, and Red River Valley BIDCO, and serves on the board of the National New Markets Fund based in Los Angeles.  He has created economic development strategies and action plans for over 100 communities in the U.S., Mexico, Australia, and Japan over the past fourteen years of professional consulting.

He is a Certified Economic Developer, and has completed Economic Development Institute (EDI) at The University of Oklahoma, the only internationally-accredited economic development educational program.  David served as Dean of the institute from 2001 to 2003, and is one of the highest rated faculty members in its history.  He is a very popular speaker, delivering dozens of presentations on economic development every year to a wide variety of audiences.

From 2004-2007, he was the chief architect of the Mexico Economic Development Professional Education Initiative, which aims to build capacity for economic development throughout Mexico.  David holds degrees from Louisiana Tech University and Graduate School of Banking of the South at Louisiana State University.

David has been active in the field of digital media for the past four years, and worked with Bruce May to lead the NWLA Digital Media Initiative sponsored by the Consortium for Education, Research, and Technology of North Louisiana, designed to create a robust digital media cluster in the region.  He has also worked extensively with the film industry in the region and is a founding member of the Northwest Louisiana Film Alliance.

Jerald R. Harper, Senior Counsel

     Jerry is a Shreveport native with 25 years experience in representing businessmen and women, individually, and their businesses throughout Louisiana, East Texas and Southern Arkansas. Mr. Harper has obtained an “AV” rating from Martindale-Hubbell representing the highest possible rating among members of the legal community for both legal ability and professional ethics. Mr. Harper’s experience is unusually well rounded in that it includes service as general counsel to a publicly owned corporation, as a seasoned litigator and business counselor. The Louisiana Secretary of State appointed Mr. Harper Chairman of the Louisiana Commission on Corporations.

     Jerry is the lead attorney for The Harper Firm, a boutique law firm which focuses on business litigation, business transactions, corporate law, intellectual property, as well as individual’s legal rights. The Harper Firm lawyers represent clients in connection with fiduciary matters, including, but not limited to succession and trust matters, investments, and the like. The Firm engages in virtually all types of business services including advice and counsel to businesses with respect for formation, governance, mergers and acquisitions, raising capital, officer, director and shareholder relations and the preservation of intellectual property.

     Based in Shreveport, Louisiana, the Harper firm lawyers represent business clients in Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi. The Harper Firm has experience in representing businesses along the entire spectrum of growth, from the very smallest businesses to Fortune 500, companies in connection with numerous industries. Examples of the diversity of his representation include businesses providing services in the health care industry, retail sales, pharmaceutical sales, telecommunications, oil and gas, timber, paper products, general manufacturers, computers, gaming companies, construction heavy industrial, wholesaler’s, brokers, banking, office suppliers, distributors and manufacturers, automobile manufacturers and sub-contractors, attorneys, accountants, physicians, state and local government entities and agencies and public utilities.

     Mr. Harper graduated from Harvard University, with honors, in 1974. That year Harvard nominated him for recognition as a Rhodes Scholar, for which he was a finalist. Mr. Harper was the recipient of several scholarships from Harvard and was selected to the Board of Governors at the Harvard Institute of Politics while still an undergraduate at that school.