Organization

Board of Directors

Dennis McLaughlin, Chairman
Kit Chambers
Tim Shell

 

Officers

Jeff Skillen, Chief Executive Officer
Gary Vincent, Chief Creative Officer

 

Corporate Offices

Big Star Media Group, Inc.
313 Issaquena
Clarksdale, MS 38614

Dennis G. McLaughlin, III Chairman of the Board of Directors
Mr. McLaughlin is a twenty-five year veteran of the energy industry, during which time he has served as CEO for several energy-related companies. He has served as Chairman of Evolution Fuels since September of 2005 and as CEO from February of 2006. He also serves as Chairman and CEO of Evolution Resources, Inc., a publicly traded company, since May 2009. Additionally, he has served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Big Star Media Group, Inc., a publicly-traded company, since September 2009. Mr. McLaughlin has served as CEO and Chairman of Apollo Resources International, Inc., a publicly traded company, beginning October of 2004. Apollo focused on the acquisition and development of upstream oil and natural gas production assets as well as the evaluation and development of existing and future alternative energy sources. Known as an entrepreneur and a biofuels energy industry leader, Mr. McLaughlin has guided a number of mergers and acquisitions while teaming with seasoned managers and investors to create value in a rapidly developing business arena. He successfully led the acquisition of a liquefied natural gas production and marketing business and its subsequent restructuring to a profitable entity. The business went from losing approximately $10 million annually to earning over $5 million per year on revenues of roughly $30 million. Mr. McLaughlin then led the spin-off of this entity into a public company, PNG Ventures, Inc. Further, he led a series of transactions that utilized a portion of the equity in the PNG Ventures to repay over $90 million of corporate debt. Having worked in the oil and gas industry since the age of 20, McLaughlin gained experience at all levels of energy production and distribution. In 1993, with an initial investment of $77,000, he founded Aurora Natural Gas which was later celebrated as one of the “Hottest New Small Businesses in America” by Entrepreneur magazine. McLaughlin was able to negotiate the sale of a portion of Aurora for $26 million based on the application of a proprietary data tracking technology. “Our No. 1 (1995) entrepreneur, Dennis G. McLaughlin III, (has) changed the way the natural gas industry thinks about start-ups and emerging technology. Aurora Natural Gas succeeded in part because of the founders’ commitment to innovation,” says author Laura Tiffany, in the article “Told YOU SO!” as found in Fastest Growing Entrepreneurial Businesses. She reports similarities in other successful entrepreneurs as characterized by McLaughlin. “The owners love their industries. Nonstop innovation. Staying one step ahead of both the competition and the times. Strong investments and gratitude for employees. And, of course, the refusal to never stop thinking about where the future might lead the company.” In 1994, McLaughlin founded Aurion Technologies, a technology company that researched and developed a low-cost telemetric meter. This technology helped revolutionize the natural gas field data collection industry by replacing manual field data charts with data collection over the internet. By 2001, the company had an outside independent valuation of approximately $55 million. McLaughlin resigned from Aurion in 2001. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Oklahoma in 1992. He was presented with the OU Regents Outstanding Alumni Award in 1999.

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Christopher “Kit” Chambers Director
Mr. Chambers has over fifteen years experience in the energy industry, having served in such capacities as vice president of software development and engineering, vice president of operations, vice president of sales engineering, and executive vice president. Prior to his involvement in the energy industry, Mr. Chambers worked for ten years in the entertainment and media industry. He was involved at various levels on the technical side of the film and television industry, and has had extensive experience in the music recording industry. His technical background combined with years of experience in business development, mergers and acquisitions, and public company management have afforded him a unique ability to develop and manage business startups from raw entrepreneurial concepts and business plans. Mr. Chambers has been Secretary and Executive Vice President of Evolution Fuels, Inc. since November 8, 2005. He has served as Director and Executive Vice President of Evolution Resources, Inc. since May 2009. He has been Director and Secretary of Apollo Resources International Inc. since October of 2004 and serves as its Vice President. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Big Star Media Group, Inc. and has done so since September 2009. Mr. Chambers served as interim CEO of Blue Wireless & Data Inc., from May 3, 2005 to September 27, 2005. From January 1999 to December 2001, he was employed by Aurion Technologies LLC, as Vice President of Operations, then as Vice President of Sales Engineering. From March 1994 to December 1998, he served as Vice President, Software Development of Aurora Natural Gas LP. From 1990 through 1994, he worked as an independent consultant in the film/video industry in Dallas, TX. Mr. Chambers received a Bachelor of Science in Communications from the University of Oklahoma in 1989.

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Tim Shell Director
Mr. Shell founded ExecuTrain of Texas in 1988 and has been President and CEO of ExecuTrain of Houston since he opened the company in 1990. In 1991, he opened ExecuTrain of Austin where he also continues to serve as President and CEO. Both ExecuTrain offices quickly became synonymous with learning and development in the cities of Houston and Austin. Seeing the need to expand to web-based e-learning and LMS solutions, Mr. Shell created and opened Solo Learning in 1999. In addition, Mr. Shell also serves as a director on multiple non-profit boards.