Robert Funk
Robert A. Funk is founder, president and executive chairman of the board of Express Employment Professionals. Prior to co-founding Express, Funk gained experience with Acme Personnel Services, beginning as a personnel consultant and then climbing the ranks to first vice president.
Headquartered in Oklahoma City, Express has more than 770 franchises in the United States, Canada and South Africa. Under Funk’s leadership, Express has put more than 6.5 million people to work worldwide.
Since 2014, Express has given cash awards to winners of several awards each year at Oklahoma Summit: Teacher of the Year, Postsecondary Teacher of the Year, New Teacher of the Year and Support Staff Member of the Year. Express has also sponsored the Association for Career and Technical Education National Teacher of the Year award.
Funk graduated from Seattle Pacific University with a bachelor's degree in business administration and theology. He continued his graduate studies at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and received his master's degree in business administration and theology from SPU. He holds an honorary doctor of public service presented by SPU in 1995; an honorary doctor of law presented by Oklahoma Baptist University in 2000; and an honorary doctor of law presented by Southern Nazarene University in 2001.
Funk has been inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame, the Staffing 100 Hall of Fame, the Sales and Marketing Executives International Hall of Fame, the International Franchise Association Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Angus Foundation Hall of Fame and the National Stockman’s Hall of Fame
He was named the International Franchising Association Entrepreneur of the Year in 2000, Man of the Year by Impact OKC in 2015 and Business Leader of the Year by the Association for Career and Technical Education in 2017. He also received the Oklahoma State University Division of Agriculture Sciences and Natural Resources Champion Award in 2014.
He has served as chairman of the Conference of Chairmen, Federal Reserve Bank System; chairman of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank, serving the Tenth District; and chairman of the board of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber and the Oklahoma Youth Expo.
Robert Funk was inducted into the CareerTech Hall of Fame in 2022.
