Director of Defense Business Development
Brigadier General (Retired) Hopper Smith brings over 35 years of a tandem military and civilian career. On the military side, Hopper enlisted in 1981 as an infantryman in the Oklahoma National Guard and rose to the rank of Brigadier General. On the civilian side, Hopper has served in a variety of roles in the world of elected office, issue advocacy, and policy making.
In 1996, after 10 years of private sector experience in the energy sector, Hopper Smith was elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives from south Tulsa, serving on House Energy, Appropriations and Veterans Affairs committees, as well as House Minority Leadership. In 2003, he resigned from the House when his National Guard unit was mobilized for deployment to Afghanistan. Hopper returned to Oklahoma and for the next dozen years served in several capacities including: Director of Government Relations for Chesapeake Energy; President of OCPA - Oklahoma’s free-market think tank; as an interstate water policy consultant between Oklahoma and north Texas; a second combat deployment to Afghanistan; as the Director of Government and Public Affairs for Devon Energy. In 2018 he returned to public service as the Executive Director of Oklahoma’s Workers’ Compensation Commission; then in early 2022 as the Director of Aerospace and Defense for the Oklahoma Department of Commerce. Most recently he is the incoming Executive Director of Defense Business Development at OU’s Oklahoma Aerospace and Defense Innovation Institute.
Hopper has a B.S. in Geology from Oklahoma State University. He is a graduate of the National Defense Intelligence College and the Army War College, receiving master’s degrees from both. His military awards and decorations include the Bronze Star Medal, the Legion of Merit, and the Combat Infantryman Badge. He has several published works on national security, energy security and energy policy.
