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  Lunsford, W. Bruce
CANDIDATE DETAILS
AffiliationDemocratic  
 
NameW. Bruce Lunsford
Address4360 Brownsboro Rd
Louisville, Kentucky , United States
EmailNone
WebsiteNone
Born November 11, 1947 (76 years)
ContributorWishful Thinking
Last ModifedRBH
Jul 15, 2015 05:51pm
Tags Caucasian -
InfoBruce Lunsford is a successful entrepreneur, business leader and health care executive. While he’s not a professional politician, he’s a professional problem-solver who has earned a reputation for getting things done everywhere he’s been.

Bruce is a Kentucky Democrat who has the real-world experience and leadership skills to get the Commonwealth back on the right track. He’s a visionary who is ready to tackle the Commonwealth’s problems, from providing health care insurance to 500,000 uninsured Kentuckians to making college affordable.

Early Life and Education

Bruce learned the values of hard work growing up on a Kenton County farm. His dad, Amos, was a union shop steward for General Electric in Cincinnati. When Bruce was eight, his dad borrowed money to buy a small farm. It was there that Bruce learned not only farming skills, but a strong work ethic and a sense of dedication to his community.

Like many young Kentuckians, Bruce dreamed of playing basketball at the University of Kentucky. He became an all-conference basketball player at Simon Kenton High School, and was also a five-year starter on the baseball team. At 5’8”, however, he knew that success in college would not come in athletics.

When he enrolled at UK in 1965, he quickly became a campus leader, working as an intramural adviser on campus and joining the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He worked his way through college, earning a political science degree in 1969, with a minor in accounting.

Five Busy Years

After graduation, Bruce entered a period that would set the stage for his success in business. While working for a Cincinnati accounting firm, Bruce passed the CPA exam and became a Certified Public Accountant in 1970. That fall, he started taking evening classes at the Salmon P. Chase College of Law, and graduated in the top ten percent of his class in 1974.

Meanwhile, Bruce entered the National Guard. After training at Fort Bragg (N.C.) and Fort Lee (Va.), he became a member of the U.S. Army Reserves at Fort Thomas (Ky.), where he stayed for five and a half years.

As a CPA with a law degree, Bruce had many employment offers in 1974. He joined the firm of Keating, Muething and Klekamp, where he developed many long-term personal and professional friendships.

The Brown Administration

In the 1979 race for Governor, Bruce became interested in the campaign of John Y. Brown Jr., who was a successful entrepreneur and businessman. Bruce became the campaign’s Northern Kentucky representative, and when Brown won the primary Bruce became treasurer of the Kentucky Democratic Party.

When Brown won the fall election, he tapped Bruce first as Deputy Development Secretary, then as his Legislative Liaison. He became a rising star in the administration, and in 1980 was named head of Kentucky’s first Commerce Cabinet. In that post, Bruce marketed the state as a business destination, and helped land more than 55,000 new jobs and $4.6 billion in new manufacturing investment.

Some of the significant projects Bruce negotiated included setting up the United Parcel Service hub in Louisville, the Delta Air Lines hub in northern Kentucky and downtown redevelopment projects in Ashland, Lexington and Louisville. He led the effort to reach out to Japan by establishing a Kentucky office there, which still exists today and has been instrumental in attracting substantial Japanese investment to the state.

An Entrepreneur is Born

Bruce left state government and joined the Greenebaum, Doll & McDonald law firm in Lexington. In 1984, along with two partners, he formed Vencare Inc. in Louisville. The company started operations with a single hospital. Five years later, the company was a public entity known as Vencor, and had nine hospitals in six states and annual revenue of $54 million.

By 1996, Vencor was a Fortune 500 company, operating 36 hospitals in 16 states. It was so successful it spun off a company, Atria, which today operates more than 120 facilities in 27 states.

In 1997, Vencor employed more than 60,000 people, owned or operated more than 360 hospitals and nursing centers and provided services to nearly 2,900 facilities.

In 1998, when the federal government drastically changed reimbursement rates, Bruce made a tough decision to reorganize Vencor. At a time when those rules changes crippled many nursing home companies, Vencor's reorganization was a success. By splitting the organization into two companies, Vencor and Ventas, patients were protected, jobs were saved and shareholder value was preserved.

Ventas is now a thriving healthcare real estate company. Vencor later changed its name to Kindred Healthcare, which is today a Fortune 500 firm.

As chairman of Ventas, Bruce hired Debra A. Cafaro as CEO, who has since been recognized as one of the nation’s most prominent and successful female executives.

Investing in Kentucky

Bruce has invested in Kentucky in many different ways.

Bruce’s competitive nature has driven his investment in a time-honored Kentucky tradition – the horseracing industry. A former member of the Churchill Downs Inc. Board of Directors, Bruce has graced the winner’s circle many times as a thoroughbred owner and breeder. He has raced several stakes winners, including Vision and Verse, which finished second in the 1999 Belmont Stakes.

During the past three years, Bruce has become one of the more prominent thoroughbred owners in the country, having raced the brilliant Grade I filly, Madcap Escapade, in 2004 and 2005, as well as the outstanding Grade I two-year-old colt, First Samurai, in 2005. Additionally, he bred Golden Missile, one of America's premier handicap horses in 1999 and 2000, and Arravale, a multiple Grade I winner that was named Canadian Horse of the Year in 2006.

In the entertainment industry, Bruce has applied his business principles to help build financially successful projects. He has invested in several regional theme parks, including Louisville’s Kentucky Kingdom, which was sold to Six Flags, Inc. in 1997. In addition, he was an original investor in Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Ky.

More recently, Bruce’s venture into the motion picture industry produced unprecedented success. Two films co-produced by Hart-Lunsford Pictures -- "Grace is Gone" and “Dedication” -- were accepted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007 and are likely to be distributed in theaters this year. Hart-Lunsford Pictures is another opportunity for Bruce to invest in Kentucky by promoting local filmmakers, writers and actors.

With an eye toward mentoring and promoting entrepreneurs, and creating jobs, Bruce created Lunsford Capital LLC. Among the firms his company has supported are PetSuites, recently named “Emerging Business of the Year” by Business First; Xodiax, a high-tech launched in Kentucky; Halo Systems Inc., a specialty healthcare staffing company; Deyta Inc., a specialist in measuring customer and employee satisfaction levels; and MetroMojo, a social networking Web site.

Civic Involvement

As a business leader, Bruce has used his influence to promote a number of civic groups and projects, most notably in education. He has served on the Boards of Trustees at the University of Kentucky, Bellarmine College, Centre College and the Salmon P. Chase College of Law. He’s also served on the boards of the Greater Louisville Fund for the Arts and the Kentucky Economic Development Corporation.

Bruce has been honored many times for his success in business, including his 1994 induction into the Kentuckiana Business Hall of Fame.

Family

Bruce has three daughters, Amy, Cindy and Brandy, and three grandchildren, Isabella, Liam and Noah.

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