Pat O'Keefe

Pat O'Keefe

Republican Party

Prior offices

Michigan State University Board of Trustees

Successor: Sandy Pierce

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Education

Bachelor's

Michigan State University, 1976

Graduate

Wayne State University, 1982

Personal

Birthplace

Detroit, Mich.

Religion

Catholic

Profession

Business executive

Contact

Campaign website

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Personal website

Personal LinkedIn

Pat O'Keefe (Republican Party) was an at-large member of the Michigan State University Board of Trustees. He assumed office on January 1, 2021. He left office on November 30, 2022.

O'Keefe (Republican Party) ran for election for an at-large seat of the Michigan State University Board of Trustees. He won in the general election on November 3, 2020.

O'Keefe completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Pat O'Keefe was born in Detroit, Michigan. O'Keefe earned a bachelor's degree from Michigan State University in 1976 and a master's degree from Wayne State University in 1982. His career experience includes working as the CEO of and founding O'Keefe & Associates Consulting, LLC, as a partner with Deloitte & Touche, as a CFO with a residential development company, and as a partner with a turnaround consulting firm.

O'Keefe has served with the First Independence Bank Board of Directors, with the M&A Advisor Advisory Council, as a member emeritus with Michigan State University's Department of Accounting and Information Systems, and as an advisory board member with the University of Detroit, Oakland University, and Cleary University. He has been affiliated with the Detroit Athletic Club Foundation, the Turnaround Management Association, the American Bankruptcy Institute, the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and the Michigan Association of Certified Public Accountants.

Elections

2020

See also: Michigan State Board of Regents election, 2020

General election

General election for Michigan State University Board of Trustees (2 seats)

The following candidates ran in the general election for Michigan State University Board of Trustees on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Pat O'Keefe (R)	24.2	2,377,241
✔		Rema Vassar (D)	24.1	2,364,939
		Brian Mosallam (D)	23.7	2,329,011
		Tonya Schuitmaker (R)	23.4	2,301,355
		Will Tyler White (L)	1.3	123,719
	Submit photo	Janet Sanger (U.S. Taxpayers Party of Michigan)	0.9	87,637
		Robin Laurain (G)	0.8	74,495
	Submit photo	Brandon Hu (G)	0.7	66,409
	Submit photo	John Sanger (U.S. Taxpayers Party of Michigan)	0.6	60,077
	Submit photo	Bridgette Abraham-Guzman (Natural Law Party)	0.5	46,193

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 9,831,076
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Democratic convention

Democratic convention for Michigan State University Board of Trustees (2 seats)

Incumbent Brian Mosallam and Rema Vassar advanced from the Democratic convention for Michigan State University Board of Trustees on August 29, 2020.

		Candidate
✔		Brian Mosallam (D)
✔		Rema Vassar (D)

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Republican convention

Republican convention for Michigan State University Board of Trustees (2 seats)

Pat O'Keefe and Tonya Schuitmaker defeated Ken Stanecki in the Republican convention for Michigan State University Board of Trustees on August 29, 2020.

		Candidate
✔		Pat O'Keefe (R)
✔		Tonya Schuitmaker (R)
	Submit photo	Ken Stanecki (R)

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Green convention

Green convention for Michigan State University Board of Trustees (2 seats)

Brandon Hu and Robin Laurain advanced from the Green convention for Michigan State University Board of Trustees on June 20, 2020.

		Candidate
✔	Submit photo	Brandon Hu (G)
✔		Robin Laurain (G)

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Libertarian convention

Libertarian convention for Michigan State University Board of Trustees (2 seats)

Will Tyler White advanced from the Libertarian convention for Michigan State University Board of Trustees on July 18, 2020.

		Candidate
✔		Will Tyler White (L)

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Natural Law Party convention

Natural Law Party convention for Michigan State University Board of Trustees (2 seats)

Bridgette Abraham-Guzman advanced from the Natural Law Party convention for Michigan State University Board of Trustees on July 30, 2020.

		Candidate
✔	Submit photo	Bridgette Abraham-Guzman (Natural Law Party)

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

U.S. Taxpayers Party of Michigan convention

U.S. Taxpayers Party of Michigan convention for Michigan State University Board of Trustees (2 seats)

Janet Sanger and John Sanger advanced from the U.S. Taxpayers Party of Michigan convention for Michigan State University Board of Trustees on July 25, 2020.

		Candidate
✔	Submit photo	Janet Sanger (U.S. Taxpayers Party of Michigan)
✔	Submit photo	John Sanger (U.S. Taxpayers Party of Michigan)

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Endorsements

To view O'Keefe's endorsements in the 2020 election, please click here.

Campaign themes

2020

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Pat O'Keefe completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by O'Keefe's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am the founder and CEO of O'Keefe. I am a recognized as an expert in the fields of strategic advisory services, corporate reorganization, debt restructuring, turnaround consulting, due diligence support, valuation and litigation support. For over 30 years, I have been active as a financial consultant and turnaround advisor to under-performing businesses in various industries including, retail, hospitality, restaurants, construction, automotive, manufacturing, and real estate, and have successfully completed assignments in out-of-court and Chapter 11 restructurings. I am an advisor to financial institutions and business owners in complex workouts and asset recovery strategies. I have served on the Board of First Independence Bank, one of the largest minority owned banks in the country. I am also the CEO of Grow Michigan, LLC, a junior lien lender supported by the State of Michigan Strategic Fund and sixteen financial institutions to lend money to growing businesses.

I have served on advisory boards at University of Detroit, Oakland University, Cleary University and Michigan State and I know that challenges that face higher education and I understand the requirements of good governance and oversight.

I have been married for 27 years to my wife Carol. Together we have raised three children, Bryan, Matthew, and Caitlin and we have nine grandchildren. I was born in Detroit and raised in St. Clair Shores. I have called Troy home for the past 35 years.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Safety on Campus. The Board failed the University time and again by not complying with the Clery Act. The Clery Act was designed to ensure university reporting on crimes on campus. MSU failed to provide the proper level of governance and oversight. MSU has not fixed the internal controls necessary to ensure a safe campus for students. This is a very basic requirement for parents who send their kids to MSU.
• Freedom of Speech on Campus. Critical thinking is a basic ingredient for educational learning. An educational institution needs to expose students to a variety of opinions without fear of reprisal by school administrators.
• College Affordability. Higher education is becoming financially unattainable for minorities and lower income students. MSU must focus on using their resources, including millions of taxpayer dollars, more efficiently and develop a larger outreach in the State of Michigan. I have specific financial plans and ideas to incentivize MSU to reach this objective.

   Featured local question

How do you feel about the university’s current tuition level? What strategy should the university pursue concerning tuition?

I would look at restructuring the Universities overhead. Most universities not unlike school districts have way too much administration. In order to get more dollars in the classroom, I would remove unnecessary overhead.

Most university presidents have no experience in either financial matters or big business which higher education has become. University administrators and board members need to have extensive financial experience to responsibly run a $2 billion dollar budget at MSU. I have spent most of my career working with numbers, devising strategies for organizations to be cost efficient, develop budgets to achieve maximum efficiency for corporate initiatives and developing creative ways to maximize their resources. College will not be affordable for students until administrators are forced to do more with less.

Income Sharing Agreements (ISA) would force Universities to control costs. Cleary University had the "Cleary Promise: which basically stated that credit hour cost freshman year would not go up for the student until graduation. Mitch Daniels at Purdue has successfully adopted an ISA hybrid of this model to give the University an incentive to keep costs down. These are just a few examples of unique approaches MSU can take to help students.

I bring a unique skill set of tools and a demonstrated track record of making organizations run more efficiently. MSU needs this assistance quickly.

I graduated from MSU over 40 years ago with no student debt. College was attainable for a student from a lower middle-class family like mine. Today kids leave school with student loan balances that look like home mortgages without a home. Students can't shed loan balances and therefore are saddled with a financial burden many decades after they graduate delaying family formation and pursuing the American dream.

   Featured local question

Why are you running for the university board? What qualities make you more qualified than the other candidates?

I am running for the MSU Board of Trustees because I believe higher education is in a significant national crisis. MSU in particular is a university that is in need of fiscally conservative leadership on its board.

I have spent the last 30 years of my career as a crisis manager. My firm is recognized around the globe for our problem solving capabilities. I am familiar with dealing with troubled situations and producing better than expected outcomes when the stakes are high. I have served on advisory boards at multiple universities across the state. I understand the requirements of good governance and oversight.

I also feel that the Board has not been held accountable for their lack of oversight on the Nassar scandal and their failure to comply with the Clery Act. The Clery Act was designed to ensure university reporting on crimes on campus. MSU has not fixed the internal controls necessary to ensure a safe campus for students. This is a very basic requirement for parents who send their kids to MSU. Further, there is an incumbent candidate who had recommended large salary increases and golden parachutes to administrators directly accountable for the reporting infractions in the Dr. Nassar matter.

As a Trustee, I will bring accountability to the MSU Board of Trustee.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I believe higher education is at a significant national and statewide crisis and MSU in particular is a university that needs fiscally conservative leadership on its board.

One example of the higher education crisis, is as you turn on your TV at night we all see a generation of youth that have lost hope after being burdened by huge student debt that has delayed marriage, impacted the ability for home ownership, raising a family, and becoming a productive member of society.

MSU has not done a good job with the over quarter billion dollars it receives annually from the Michigan taxpayer to educate Michigan students.

I have spent the last 30 years of my career as a crisis manager. I am familiar with dealing with troubled situations and producing better than expected outcomes when the stakes are high.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

I tell people what I am going to do and I do it and sometimes that surprises them. I bring an indefatigable spirit to make MSU an exemplary organization. I have a history of doing what is right, not what is always popular. In doing so, I bring independence and objectivity in making tough decisions. MSU needs a Trustee who can be creative and provide out of the box solutions. New leadership will bring a fresh set of eyes for a different perspective, that is outside of the political or academic bubble.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

My first job was selling The Detroit News as an 11-year old on my street growing up in St. Clair Shores. It was my first experience in handling money, providing a service, and collecting my weekly bills. I earned $10 a week and gained valuable life experiences in customer service and money management. Even now, I remember everyone on my block who bought a paper and tipped for the service.

What is your favorite book? Why?

I am an avid reader, but to this day my favorite book is "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. Tremendous philosopher who had great insight into America almost 65 years ago and is still relevant today. The book expresses the advocacy of reason, individualism, and capitalism and depicts the failures of governmental coercion.

What kind of skills or expertise do you believe would be the most helpful for the holders of this office to possess?

Higher education budgets are big business. There is relatively little to no experience on the MSU Board when it comes to business management. Additionally, only a few Trustees have extensive experience in boardrooms to understand the duties of governance and oversight.

I am a recognized as an expert in the fields of strategic advisory services, corporate reorganization, debt restructuring, turnaround consulting, due diligence support, valuation and litigation support. For over 30 years, I have been active as a financial consultant and turnaround advisor to under-performing businesses and I believe my experience and background will be an asset to Michigan State in both governance and oversight. My firm worked with the State of Michigan to analyze and identify under performing municipalities and school districts. Additionally, I have served on four University advisory boards. I have an understanding of both educational and financial issues impacting universities.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

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