Chairman Bob Anthony

Bob Anthony is currently the longest serving utility commissioner in the United States and has served six times as chairman of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. He is a member of the board of directors for the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and past chairman of the National Regulatory Research Institute.

Anthony is a member of the National Petroleum Council, having been appointed twice by the United States Secretary of Energy. He is past president of the Mid-America Regulatory Conference, a member and past president of the Economic Club of Oklahoma, and a delegate to the worldwide General Conference of the United Methodist Church.

Anthony holds a BS from the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania; a Master of Science from the London School of Economics; a Master of Arts from Yale University; and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University. He rose to the rank of captain in the U.S. Army Reserve. In 1972 he served as staff economist for the U. S. House on Interior and Insular Affairs Committee (now called the Natural Resources Committee). From 1979 to 1980 Anthony served on the Oklahoma City Council as Ward 2 Councilman and as vice mayor. In 1980, at age thirty-two, Anthony became president of C.R. Anthony Company retail stores, then the largest privately-owned firm headquartered in Oklahoma. During his seven-year term as president, annual sales for the retail chain increased from $256 to $411 million, with payroll, employment, and dollar profits reaching all-time record levels. In 1988 he was chairman of the Trust Committee of Oklahoma’s largest bank trust department

In 1995 the Federal Bureau of Investigation honored Anthony with its highest award given to a citizen who “at great personal sacrifice, has unselfishly served his community and the nation.” Among other recognitions, the American Association of Retired Persons of Oklahoma presented Anthony with an award “in appreciation of his tireless efforts on behalf of Oklahoma consumers.”

Anthony has served as a statewide elected official longer than any other current Oklahoma office holder, winning his fifth consecutive six-year term on the Oklahoma Corporation Commission in 2012 and carrying all 77 counties. He initially ran for the Corporation Commission in 1988, becoming the first Republican elected to that body in sixty years and receiving more votes than any Republican since statehood. In 1994 Anthony became the first Republican incumbent in Oklahoma history to win statewide reelection to a state office. In 2000 he was reelected, receiving more votes at that time than any candidate for state office in Oklahoma history

All four of Anthony’s grandparents came to Oklahoma before statehood. His father was born in Cleveland, Oklahoma, and his mother grew up in Enid, Oklahoma. He and his wife Nancy were married in 1975. They are the parents of four daughters and have three grandchildren.