Commission Appoints Former State Representative as Executive Director

Thursday, April 12, 2018 | 0

The Oklahoma Workers’ Compensation Commission has hired a former state representative and retired National Guard general as executive director.

Hopper Smith

The commission announced Wednesday that it voted unanimously to appoint Brigadier Gen. Hopper Smith as executive director, starting May 1.

Smith replaces Patricia Sommer, who has served as interim executive director since December, when Executive Director Kim Bailey left to take a position with the state Health Department.

Smith will head up the commission’s operations and regulatory activities, answering to the three members of the commission. He also acts as a liaison between the commission with other state agencies.

Hopper served as a Republican state representative from Tulsa from 1996 to 2003, when he resigned as his Oklahoma National Guard unit was deployed to Afghanistan. 

Hopper is a former director of government relations for Chesapeake Energy, president of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, and public affairs director for Devon Energy. In 2012 Hopper was promoted to brigadier general and assigned as assistant adjutant general of the Oklahoma National Guard.

Hopper received his bachelor’s degree in geology from Oklahoma State University in 1986. He earned a master’s degree in strategic intelligence from National Defense Intelligence College at the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2007, and he earned his second master’s in strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College in 2010.