HILLSBORO, Kan. – Koch Industries senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary Mark Holden will speak to Tabor College students, faculty and staff as part of the Nachtigall Lecture Series on Entrepreneurship at 7 p.m. in the Chapel on March 1. Hillsboro and surrounding community members are encouraged to attend.
Holden will be presenting “Making Communities Safer and Removing Barriers to Opportunity: The Moral, Constitutional and Economic Case for Criminal Justice Reform.”
“We have a two-tiered society,” he said. “And if you’re wealthy and connected, you get a much better deal than if you’re poor – particularly in our criminal justice system. If you want to help people improve their lives and remove obstacles to opportunity for the least advantaged, and if you believe in individual liberty and freedom and justice, and you care about your community, and you have a moral passion, there’s no other position you can take other than being for criminal justice reform.”
Holden grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts. His experiences there formed the foundation for his stance against overcriminalization.
“I’ve been immersed, in some way or another, with prison issues and criminal justice reform my whole life,” he said. “I once worked as a janitor alongside guys on a work release crew. When I was at the University of Massachusetts, I worked in a prison during summer and winter breaks. I saw a lot of the kids that I’d lost track of in junior high and high school who had ended up behind bars.”
Holden graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a bachelor’s degree in political science, then he earned his law degree from the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America.
Holden was an associate with Akin, Gump, Hauer & Feld in Washington, D.C., before he began his career with Koch Industries in 1995 as a litigation attorney.
Now, in addition to the three roles listed above, Holden is president and COO of the Legal Division of Koch Companies Public Sector, LLC. He is also involved in several other leadership roles, such as serving as the Chairman of the Board of Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, Inc., serving on the Board of Directors of Americans For Prosperity and serving on the boards of two Koch Industries subsidiaries.
Holden’s various roles at Koch Industries have allowed him to see firsthand the power held by the criminal justice system.
The objective of the series is to bring high profile, nationally-recognized, successful and inspiring entrepreneurs and educators to Tabor. Guest lecturers provide information about their business experiences and activities to explain to students how they can become successful after graduation.
“We are grateful to Dean and Carol Nachtigall and their family for providing support for the series,” Jules Glanzer president of Tabor College said. “Our hope is that through the lecture series students will be exposed to new ways of thinking and connections to careers after they graduate from Tabor.”
Tabor invites Hillsboro and the surrounding community to participate in the entrepreneurial series.
Throughout 2016-2017 Tabor has scheduled four talks from a variety of speakers. Jose Munoz, former president and CEO for Van Camp Seafood Company, is scheduled to speak on March 6 and Jeff Riggenbach will be on campus in April for the final session of the year.
For more information on speakers and schedules, visit tabor.edu/nachtigall.