Press Release
Oklahoma City Business Leader Cliff Hudson Elected Chairman of the National Trust for Historic Preservation
Washington, D.C. (November 8, 2007) – Oklahoma native Cliff Hudson, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Sonic Corporation, has been elected by the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Board of Trustees to serve as its new Chairman. Hudson, who is also currently serving as the Chairman of the Oklahoma City School Board, will succeed Kansas City banker Jonathan Kemper, who is stepping down after his term ended in October.
National Trust for Historic Preservation president Richard Moe said he was looking forward to working with Hudson in the coming years. “I am delighted to announce that Cliff has been named chairman of the National Trust for Historic Preservation,” said Moe. “He’s been an active and valued member of our Board of Trustees, and his commitment to preservation and community improvement has been an inspiration. I am confident that the National Trust will continue to flourish under his leadership and am excited by the prospect of working closely with him in this new capacity.”
Hudson has spent the last 23 years of his career at Sonic Corp., an Oklahoma City-based, publicly-held company that owns, operates and franchises Sonic Drive-In restaurants (NASDAQ: SONC). Today, he is chairman of the board and chief executive officer of this public company with more than 3,200 franchised and company-operated drive-in restaurants. Sonic’s common stock is included in the S&P MidCap 600 Index.
During Hudson’s tenure as CEO of Sonic, average drive-in profit has grown from $78,000 to almost $160,000, average drive-in sales from $602,000 to $1.1 million, system-wide sales from $880 million to almost $4 billion and brand awareness has doubled. The company’s revenues are seven times greater and enterprise value (the public value of its common stock plus debt) has grown from approximately $200 million to more than $2.0 billion.
Hudson has been affiliated with many nonprofit and community activities. He served as chairman of the board of directors of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), a presidential appointment, from 1994 - 2001. He now serves as Chairman of the Oklahoma City School Board, a position created in 2000 as part of a $530 million turn around of a 40,000 student, inner-city Oklahoma City Public School system. He currently serves as trustee of the Ford Foundation (New York).
Hudson graduated from the University of Oklahoma, which he attended with Phi Beta Kappa and President’s Leadership scholarships. In 1998, Hudson was honored as a distinguished alumnus of the University of Oklahoma College of Arts and Sciences, where he serves as a member of the College of Arts and Sciences Board of Visitors. In 2001, he received the University’s Regents Award from its board of regents.
Hudson graduated from the Georgetown University Law Center, where he was a member of the legal honor society, Phi Delta Phi. In 1979, he served as an editor of the International Law Journal, a publication of the Association of Student International Law Societies. He is also a member of the board of visitors of Georgetown University Law Center and in 2006 was given the Paul Dean Award for service to the school.
He and his wife Leslie, an epidemiologist, live in Oklahoma City with their two sons.