John Suter
Executive Director
In October 2022, Gov. Kevin Stitt appointed John Suter as the state's chief operating officer and interim executive director of OMES. Additionally, he was appointed as Oklahoma’s cabinet secretary of operations and government efficiency in April 2023.
Prior to Suter’s appointment, he served as the COO and interim CEO of Sandridge energy for four years. Suter has a proven track record of executing extensive cost-cutting measures and efficiency improvements through continual rightsizing of personnel and necessary simplification of corporate infrastructure.
In addition to his four years of CEO and COO experience, Suter has 31 years of experience in management throughout his career. This includes serving a senior leadership role focused on all aspects of profitability, productivity and efficiency with Sandridge Energy, and his role as vice president of operations for American Energy.
Suter is an engaged member of the Oklahoma City community and enjoys participating in various charitable organizations. He serves as the chairman of the board of Jesus House, a non-profit focused on addiction recovery and feeding the homeless in Oklahoma City.
John Laws
State Chief Financial Officer
In October 2022, Gov. Kevin Stitt appointed John Laws to serve as the secretary of budget and statewide chief financial officer.
Laws has over 20 years of executive experience in the leadership and management of corporate finance, business development, mergers and acquisitions and strategic planning activities. Most recently, Laws served as executive vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer of Enable Midstream, LP. In this role, Laws served as a member of Enable Midstream’s executive leadership team and provided leadership to the areas of corporate finance, corporate risk, treasury, accounting and tax and investor relations.
Laws held other leadership positions at Enable Midstream and its predecessor entities where he led the teams focused on capital markets, economic evaluation of new projects, system optimization, capacity planning and commodity management. Laws was employed with OGE Energy Corporation where he served as director of Corporate Development.
Laws earned a BBA in Finance from the University of Oklahoma and an MBA from the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin.
He enjoys supporting the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Sooners and spending time with his family.
Brandy Manek
Director of Budget, Policy and Gaming Compliance
Brandy Manek has served under four governors and six directors during her 20-year tenure with the State of Oklahoma. As director of OMES Budget, Policy and Gaming Compliance, she leads a team with diverse duties, including the creation of the annual Executive Budget Book and the Gaming Compliance Annual Report. The division oversees the budget process for revenues and expenditures for the entirety of the state, from initial planning to execution. Manek’s team also oversees the provisions of gaming contracts between the state and the tribes.
Implementation of the Transparent Oklahoma Performance website is among the most recent major accomplishments of the OMES budget team. This website serves as a transparent and continual resource on state government performance at a level never seen before. Under Manek’s guidance, the Budget division works tirelessly assisting state entities, including the governor’s office, to establish their budgets every year.
Manek graduated from Oklahoma State University with a Bachelor of Business Administration. Fun facts are her favorite drink is a chai latte and she loves to go snow skiing. She also values creativity and new ideas.
Jerry Moore
Chief Information Officer
Jerry Moore was appointed Oklahoma’s chief information officer in January 2020. Moore brings over 20 years of experience managing IT service delivery in oil and gas, education and telecommunications sectors. As CIO for the State of Oklahoma, he is responsible for the state’s consolidated IT systems which serve 188 agencies, boards and commissions; 32,000+ employee customers; and citizen-facing services for all of Oklahoma.
An expert in the design, delivery and management of high-performance, cost-effective, rapid-growth technology solutions with budget responsibilities in excess of $178 million annually, Moore is skilled in all aspects of service design with a proven track record of award-winning results. He is a recognized leader and innovator by CIO Magazine (CIO 100 Award, CIO Ones to Watch Award) with a demonstrated ability to restructure and realign IT to best fit an organization’s strategic objectives.
As state CIO, Moore also leads OMES Information Services, the division that manages the statewide network, the state’s main datacenter and disaster recovery site encompassing 3,500+ servers, and 1000+ applications delivering citizen services. Moore and his team have played a vital role in implementing a state-of-the-art treasury platform and citizen-facing web presence as well as modern financial and human capital management systems and agency citizen services for the State of Oklahoma.
Moore has been an effective leader to change culture and is relied on for his knowledge in business process and strategy development skills. He coaches a customer-centric spirit with an innate ability to develop innovative and cost-effective solutions while building partnerships with vendors, customers, and key stakeholders alike.
In his downtime, Jerry enjoys, hunting, fishing, backpacking, golf and exploring the outdoors with his wife and three daughters.
Kathy Pendarvis
General Counsel
With 32 years of service to the State of Oklahoma, Kathy Pendarvis, J.D., has served as OMES general counsel since the agency’s inception in 2012. Most recently, Pendarvis’ leadership led to several efficiencies across OMES and the state, including the implementation of the first state agency federal purchasing guidelines for agencies to follow. Pendarvis also makes a point to continually train her lawyers to practice law in the public sector, particularly in areas that support OMES.
Prior to her OMES service, Pendarvis served as the Oklahoma State and Education Employees Insurance Board general counsel.
In her free time, Pendarvis is an outdoors person who loves to swim, snow ski and hike. She also enjoys outdoor dining and live music. Attending a concert at Red Rocks is on her bucket list! If you ever need a conversation starter, just ask about Austin, Texas.
Felicia Clark
Chief Financial Officer
After five years of dedicated service to the State of Oklahoma, Felicia Clark was named OMES chief financial officer on May 16, 2022. She has held various financial roles within OMES and has worked diligently to better the agency. Before joining OMES, she worked at a small tax firm in Fargo, Okla.
Clark earned her MBA from Cameron University and has been a CPA since 2017. In her free time, she enjoys running, hunting and spending time with her family.
