The Newman University Board of Trustees welcomed six new members in September 2013. They are Mike Bukaty, John Clevenger, Tad Druart, J.T. Klaus, Patricia Koehler, and Jeffrey O. Korsmo.
“We’re very pleased to welcome these new members to the board,” said Newman Board of Trustees Chair Linda Snook. “They bring a variety of strengths, expertise and interests to the board, which will be very valuable in our efforts to provide guidance for the university.”
Information about each new board member is as follows:
Mike Bukaty
Mike Bukaty works as a consultant for companies such as Great Plain Industries of Wichita, Ditmico of Kansas City, Mo., and NOVA Private Capital of London. He earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Kansas and a master’s degree in business from the University of Missouri. Bukaty currently serves on several boards, including Great Plains Ventures, Via Christi Hospitals-Wichita, YMCA of Sedgwick County, Senior Services of Wichita and Commerce Bank (Advisory Board).
John Clevenger
John Clevenger is president, chairman and CEO of Commerce Bank in Wichita. He attended Princeton University on a football scholarship, and earned an AB in English in 1990. He earned a master’s degree in management in 1995 from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management.
Clevenger began his career with Commerce Bank in the early 1990s in St. Louis, Mo. From 1994 to 1996 he worked for A.T. Kearney Management Consultants in Chicago, Ill., then returned to Commerce Bank, this time in Wichita, in July 1996. In 1999 he was named president and CEO of the Wichita Market Area, which includes Sedgwick, Cowley, Butler, and Reno counties. He was named chairman in 2001.
Clevenger has served on the board of the Via Christi Foundation and was president of the Wichita Art Museum. He also served on the board and was chairman of Exploration Place, and was a member and chair of the Catholic Charities of Wichita Board of Directors. He is currently past president of the Wichita Country Club Board of Directors, a member of the Wesley Medical Center, HCA Board of Directors, and a member of the Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors.
Tad Druart
Tad Druart is a 1987 graduate of Newman. He is director of corporate communications and marketing for Compass Learning in Austin, Texas, where he lives with his wife, Nancy, and their children Andrew, Rachel, and Ashley. Druart is the 2013-2014 president of the Newman University Alumni Association. He is also a color bearer for Civil War Trust, director of the Texas Military Forces Museum, and a eucharistic minister and volunteer youth coach.
J.T. Klaus
J.T. Klaus is a partner/member of Triplett Woolf & Garretson, LLC, a 22-lawyer firm in Wichita. He also serves on the firm’s Executive Committee. His specialty is providing for the issuance of governmental debt obligations, including municipal bonds, notes, warrants, lease financings and industrial revenue bonds. For the past five years, he has been selected for inclusion in U.S. News and World Reports “Best Lawyers in America®” in the area of Public Finance Law.
Klaus received his bachelor of arts degree (Summa Cum Laude) in communications with minors in history and English from Newman University in 1987, and his juris doctor from the University of Kansas School of Law in 1990. He is a former instructor of Business Law at Newman, and served eight years on the Newman University Alumni Association Board of Directors, including a term as president in 1996. He is a member of the Wichita, Kansas, and American Bar Associations, the National Association of Bond Lawyers, and the Kansas Government Finance Officers Association.
Klaus currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Center of Hope, Inc. in Wichita, and previously served on the Board of Directors of Villa Maria, Inc. in Mulvane, Kan., for 13 years, including eight years as chair. He has also served six years on the Board of Directors of ASC Health, Inc., which oversees the Adorers of the Blood of Christ sponsored health-care ministries in Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri and Pennsylvania. Klaus is a founder of the Mulvane Education Foundation, Inc., which provides direct financial assistance to the Mulvane Public Schools and sponsors a college scholarship program for its graduates.
Patricia Koehler
Patricia Koehler is president and CEO of JR Custom Metal Products, Inc. in Wichita. Born in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, she grew up in Wichita, graduated from South High School, and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a mini-MBA from Wichita State University.
For 33 years, she worked side-by-side with her father, Jesus Raul Martinez, in the family-owned business, and was named president and CEO in 1995. Under Koehler’s leadership, the company became ISO Certified, and has won several awards. In March 2013, she was inducted into the Junior Achievement 2013 Wichita Business Hall of Fame.
Koehler served a previous term on the Newman Board from 1998 to 2001. She is currently active in the Kansas Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors, and the Wichita Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, where she served as chairperson from 2011 to 2012. She is a board member of the Wichita Independent Business Association and Wichita Sister Cities, and previously served on the Boards of Directors for Via Christi Hospital, the Lord’s Diner, and Catholic Charities. Koehler and her husband, Edward (Ed) C. Koehler, have two children, Monica and Eddie, and three grandchildren.
Jeffrey O. Korsmo
Jeffrey Korsmo is president and CEO of Via Christi Health. He joined Via Christi in 2011 after 28 years at the Mayo Clinic, where he served as chief administrative officer in Rochester, Minn., chief financial officer of Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville and Rochester, and executive director of the Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center. He was also a member of the Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees.
Born in Rochester, Korsmo earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration at St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn., in 1980, and his master’s degree in management at Purdue University in 1983. Korsmo has served on a variety of civic and professional organizations and has participated in and given presentations around the world. He and his wife Jenny have two daughters, Erin and Gretchen.
