2023 Speaker Bios
Robert J. Darling
Lt. Col USMC (Retired)
In October 2007, Lieutenant Colonel Darling retired from the United States Marine Corps with just over twenty years of active duty service. He flew attack helicopters in Desert Shield and Desert Storm during the first Gulf War and in Somalia, Africa, in support of Operation Restore Hope. In June 1998, he was selected to fly as a presidential pilot with Marine Helicopter Squadron One and in October 2000, he was handpicked to work for the White House Military Office, Airlift Operations Department. It was in that capacity that Lt. Col. Darling supported the President, Vice President and National Security Advisor in the President's Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) on September 11, 2001.
In May 2002, he attended the Naval Postgraduate School where he earned his MBA in Financial Management and subsequently served as a Program Manager for the Chief of Naval Operations supporting the Department of the Navy Flying Hour Program. As a public speaker on crisis leadership and decision making, Bob has addressed numerous academic, government, and military organizations to include Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and as a guest lecturer on the subject of Crisis Leadership and Counter-terrorism at the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia. Bob is the author of “24 Hours Inside the President’s Bunker, 9/11/01: The White House and the President and CEO of Turning Point Crisis Management-USA, a crisis leadership, decision making, and training company located in Stafford, Virginia.
Kevin Otto
Kevin OttoChairman, Electrified Vehicle Efficiency Task Force
Kevin Otto is the Chairman of the Electrified Vehicle Efficiency Task Force in the TMC S.11 Study Group and is participating in a number of the other task forces under both S.18 and S.11 Study Groups.
Kevin is the Electrification Technical Lead for the North American Council for Freight Efficiency where he provides consulting services and has authored a number of Confidence Reports and Guidance Reports. These reports include the use of solar panels on trucks and trailers, Idle reduction, electrified terminal tractors, hydrogen trucks and others. Before joining NACFE, Kevin spent 38-years at Cummins where he held a number of key positions in Technical Service, Engineering, Quality and Program Leadership in several of the Business Units. Kevin has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.
Kevin has been involved in the Technology & Maintenance Council for over 30 years and was awarded the Silver Spark Plug in 1999.
Dr. Roger Tutterow
Henssler Financial Endowed Chair, Director of the Econometric Center and Professor of Economics, Kennesaw State University
Roger Tutterow is Professor of Economics at Kennesaw State University. He also serves as Director of the Econometric Center, an applied research center housed in KSU’s Coles College of Business.
His analysis of the economic, business and political environments have been featured in a variety of media including The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, USA Today, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Arizona Republic, Florida Times-Union, Kansas City Star, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Orlando Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, Wichita Eagle and on CNN, CNBC, NBC, Bloomberg Television, NPR’s “Marketplace” and “All Things Considered,” CNN-Radio as well as by regional electronic and print media.
In addition to his work in academia, Dr. Tutterow has served as a consultant on financial economics and statistical modeling for corporate clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to closely held businesses. He also serves as Chief Economic Advisor for the Henssler Financial Group, an Atlanta-based investment advisory firm and as a strategic advisor to Georgia Oak Partners, a Georgia-focused private equity firm. He has provided expert testimony on economic, financial and statistical matters in state and federal court, before the Georgia General Assembly and before the Georgia Public Service Commission. Dr. Tutterow has given several hundred speeches to professional groups in over 30 states and Canada on topics in the economic, business and political arenas.
For the last four years, he has been selected by Georgia Trend magazine as a “notable Georgian." In 2003, Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue appointed Dr. Tutterow to serve on the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors, a capacity that he continues to serve in for current Georgia Governor Nathan Deal. In 2010, he was named to the Special Council on Tax Reform and Fairness for Georgians which conducted a comprehensive review of Georgia’s Tax Code. In addition, Dr. Tutterow has served on the Georgia Child Support Commission, on the Board of Trustees of Berry College, the Board of Directors of Vinings Bank, the Southern Region Board of Directors for the American Red Cross Blood Services and the Board of Directors for Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Atlanta.
A Georgia native, Dr. Tutterow holds a B.S. in Decision Science from Berry College and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from Georgia State University. Prior to rejoining Kennesaw State University, Dr. Tutterow held faculty and administrative appointments at West Virginia University, Georgia State University and Mercer University. He has also served as a visiting professor at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and at the Institute for Industrial Policy Studies in Seoul, South Korea.