‘Star Trek’ actor to serve on Beshear’s WEG advisory council

FRANKFORT – “Captain Kirk” is going to advise Gov. Steve Beshear on the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.

Beshear named a 45-member advisory council Friday to assist with various aspects of the equestrian championships that are to run for two weeks in September and October 2010 at Lexington’s Kentucky Horse Park.

Serving on the council will be actor William Shatner of Beverly Hills, Calif., an accomplished horseman who immortalized the role of James T. Kirk, captain of the starship USS Enterprise, in the television series “Star Trek” from 1966 to 1969 and more recently played an attorney on “Boston Legal.”

Beshear also named Shatner’s wife, Elizabeth Anderson Martin, to the advisory council.

Other appointees include former Gov. Martha Layne Collins, Hall of Fame jockey and founder of the North American Racing Academy Chris McCarron, Keeneland President Nick Nicholson, Georgetown College President William “Bill” Crouch Jr. and state Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown.

Beshear appointed Margee Koffler of Lexington, chair of the U.S. Dressage Association, to chair the group.

In naming his council, Beshear abolished the 35-member World Equestrian Games advisory commission former Gov. Ernie Fletcher set up in December 2006.

Besides adding more members, Beshear replaced some of the members on Fletcher’s panel, such as Michael Gobb, former executive director of Lexington’s Blue Grass Airport. Gobb’s expenses and financial transactions at the airport are to be the subject of a report next week by state Auditor Crit Luallen.

In his order, Beshear said his council is to advise him on state projects “which will stimulate and assist in the promotion of tourism in and goodwill towards the Commonwealth of Kentucky.”

The members are to serve until the end of the games, which are expected to attract 500,000 spectators and pump $150 million into the local economy.

Other panel members are: Sam Barish, president of U.S. Dressage Federation, Rockville, Md.; Ned Bonnie, philanthropist and attorney, Prospect; Midway Mayor Tom Bozarth; Becky Broussard, Whitefish, Mont.; George Burgess of the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development; Rebecca Byers, Washington, D.C.; Joan Coleman, state president of AT&T; Jane Forbes Clark, chief executive officer of U.S. Equestrian Team; Laura Douglas, vice president of corporate responsibility and community affairs for E.ON U.S.; Jennie Garlington, farm owner and daughter of Ted Turner of AOL Time Warner, Paris; Jay Hickey, president of American Horse Council; S. Tucker Johnson, Hobe Sound, Fla.; Becky Jordan of Jordan Farm in Georgetown; Lexington-Fayette County Urban County Council member Ed Lane; Deirdre Lyons, director of corporate image for Alltech in Nicholasville; Marilyn MacFarlane, Simpsonville; Jacqueline Mars, The Plains, Va.; Urban County Council member Jay McChord; Judy Miller, Lexington; J. Ashton “Jeff” Moore, vice president of USET Discipline, San Juan Batista, Calif.; David O’Connor, president of USEF, Lexington; Michael O’Hagan, CEO of Curragh Co., Ballymany, Ireland; Stewart Perry, owner of Perry & Perry State Farm Insurance, Lexington; Michelle Primm, president of High Hope Steeplechase and equine appraiser, Lexington; Mrs. MK Pritzker, Evanston, Ill.; Carolyn Richardson, Lexington WEG Host Committee; Walt Robertson, president of Fasig-Tipton, Lexington; Kim Sloan, USEF board member, Polk City, Fla.; Billie Steffee, Novelty, Ohio; Chrystine Tauber, secretary of USEF, Wellington, Fla.; Dr. Peter Timoney, director and chair of Maxwell Gluck Equine Research Center, Lexington; Don Treadway, Amarillo, Texas; Lance Walters, president of Arabian Horse Association, Auburn, N.Y.; Betsy Watkins, Ocala, Fla.; Chester Craig Weber, Ocala, Fla.; James C. “Jimmy” Wofford, eventing coach and former Olympian, Upperville, Va.; and Misdee Wrigley-Miller of Hillcroft Farm in Paris.

–Jack Brammer

Filed Under: Featured • State Government • Steve Beshear