Kevin Easley


Kevin Easley is an American oil and gas executive who was a leading legislator in the Oklahoma House of Representatives and the Oklahoma Senate for 18 years and the top executive at the Grand River Dam Authority for seven years in the U.S. State of Oklahoma. He is the President and Chief Executive Officer of New Dominion, LLC, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Early life and education

Easley was born in 1960, the son of Truman and Mary Easley. After graduating in 1978 from Tulsa's East Central High School, he attended the University of Tulsa where he earned a bachelor's degree in business administration in 1982. He earned a master's degree in business administration with honors from Oklahoma Christian University in 2009.

Professional career

Easley served Oklahomans as a member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 1985 to 1990 and as a member of the Oklahoma Senate from 1991 to 2003. While a legislator, Easley also held various management roles for Samson Energy, Home-Stake Oil and Gas Company, and BP Amoco. He was the Executive Director of the Grand River Dam Authority from March 2004 through April 2011, and Investments Director at the authority from 2010 through April 2011. He was named President and Chief Executive Officer of New Dominion, LLC, in August, 2011.

Political career

At just 24 years of age, Easley joined the Oklahoma House of Representatives in January 1985 as its youngest member. As a House member that year, he authored a law requiring drivers and passengers in moving motor vehicles to wear seatbelts.
In 1990, Easley won a seat in the Oklahoma Senate, and as a Senator, turned his attention to bettering the state's economy and environment. A joint resolution he authored in 1991 created a new state commission to study how to boost natural gas prices, and, in 1992, he authored a law recommended by the commission that required operators of hundreds of the state's largest natural gas wells to cut production during the warmest months of the year in an effort to boost prices for the commodity to spur more drilling activity within the state.
In 1993, as Chairman of the Oklahoma Senate Natural Resources Committee, Easley authored a law creating, funding and setting out duties for the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board, and also authored a law that consolidated Oklahoma's environmental regulatory efforts into a new agency, the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality.
In 1994, Easley authored a law setting up tax breaks for technologically challenging oil and gas well drilling and production techniques within Oklahoma to encourage more drilling within the state. Those tax breaks, periodically renewed by the Legislature, continue today.
In January 2004, Easley resigned his Senate seat to become the Executive Director of the Grand River Development Authority. The state-owned electric utility is fully funded by revenues from electric and water sales, serves nearly 500,000 homes in Oklahoma, and manages 70,000 surface acres of lakes in the state, including Grand Lake, Lake Hudson and the W.R. Holway Reservoir.
Under his leadership, the Authority:
Easley is married to DeaAnn Winkle. They have three children and reside in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.