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IMS Museum Adds Director, Board Members
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The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Foundation, Inc./Hall of Fame Museum has announced three new directors in an expansion of its Board of Directors and a new executive director on its leadership team.
The newest additions to the Board of Directors are Robert Dyson, Kirk Hendrix, and Fred J. Nation.
Dyson is a retired American sports car racing driver and is a current team owner. An avid participant in the annual Brickyard Vintage Racing Invitational at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, he lives in Millbrook, New York. Dyson engages in a wide range of business interests and responsibilities as the chairman and CEO of The Dyson-Kissner-Moran Corp., a privately owned, diversified holding company founded in 1954. He also owns and manages a diverse array of private investments, and was the founder and owner of a regional radio broadcasting group of radio stations in the Hudson Valley of upstate New York. Dyson has carried on his family’s philanthropy through the work of the Dyson Foundation, of which he has served as president since 2000.
Kirk Hendrix is President and CEO of AAA Hoosier Motor Club, a position he has held since March 2013, overseeing operations of multiple entities which include AAA membership, insurance, and travel operations. Prior to AAA, Hendrix spent 10 years as President and Chief Executive Officer of the 500 Festival, which produces and promotes 50 annual events and programs in celebration of the Indianapolis 500. Building up to his work with the 500 Festival, he was CEO of several events-related organizations in Detroit, Las Vegas, and Southern California. Hendrix started his career in collegiate athletics, in which he held a variety of executive posts during his 15 year tenure.
Fred Nation is a retired executive and active community volunteer in Terre Haute, Indiana. He has an extensive background in public relations, communications, and journalism, and most recently served as Executive Vice President, Communications, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corp., where he had served for 15 years from 1997-2011. From 1989-97, Nation worked as press secretary and executive assistant to Indiana Governor Evan Bayh. Prior to that he was a partner in the Terre Haute firm of Graphic Edition (now Miller-White), building upon his experience in public relations for Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College and journalism as editor and general manager of the Terre Haute Spectator, a weekly magazine.
Current Board members round out the breadth and depth of expertise on the Foundation’s Board with their extensive backgrounds in motorsports management, team ownership, driving, nonprofit governance, energy, vintage passenger cars, law, insurance, for-profit management, finance, banking, auditing and accounting.
In addition to expanding its governing Board, the Foundation has added senior staff leadership by appointing Elizabeth (Betsy) Smith as its Executive Director. With a background of almost 15 years of business transactional, insurance, non-profit, and securities law as a partner at Ice Miller LLP in Indianapolis, and almost 13 years of fundraising experience as the Director of Philanthropy of the Indiana Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, she brings non-profit management, fundraising, and legal expertise to the Foundation.
Smith joins Ellen Bireley, Museum Director and a Museum employee for more than 20 years, in taking steps to capitalize on the Museum's extensive and valuable collections to educate the public about Indiana's motorsports and automotive histories.
The newest additions to the Board of Directors are Robert Dyson, Kirk Hendrix, and Fred J. Nation.
Dyson is a retired American sports car racing driver and is a current team owner. An avid participant in the annual Brickyard Vintage Racing Invitational at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, he lives in Millbrook, New York. Dyson engages in a wide range of business interests and responsibilities as the chairman and CEO of The Dyson-Kissner-Moran Corp., a privately owned, diversified holding company founded in 1954. He also owns and manages a diverse array of private investments, and was the founder and owner of a regional radio broadcasting group of radio stations in the Hudson Valley of upstate New York. Dyson has carried on his family’s philanthropy through the work of the Dyson Foundation, of which he has served as president since 2000.
Kirk Hendrix is President and CEO of AAA Hoosier Motor Club, a position he has held since March 2013, overseeing operations of multiple entities which include AAA membership, insurance, and travel operations. Prior to AAA, Hendrix spent 10 years as President and Chief Executive Officer of the 500 Festival, which produces and promotes 50 annual events and programs in celebration of the Indianapolis 500. Building up to his work with the 500 Festival, he was CEO of several events-related organizations in Detroit, Las Vegas, and Southern California. Hendrix started his career in collegiate athletics, in which he held a variety of executive posts during his 15 year tenure.
Fred Nation is a retired executive and active community volunteer in Terre Haute, Indiana. He has an extensive background in public relations, communications, and journalism, and most recently served as Executive Vice President, Communications, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corp., where he had served for 15 years from 1997-2011. From 1989-97, Nation worked as press secretary and executive assistant to Indiana Governor Evan Bayh. Prior to that he was a partner in the Terre Haute firm of Graphic Edition (now Miller-White), building upon his experience in public relations for Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College and journalism as editor and general manager of the Terre Haute Spectator, a weekly magazine.
Current Board members round out the breadth and depth of expertise on the Foundation’s Board with their extensive backgrounds in motorsports management, team ownership, driving, nonprofit governance, energy, vintage passenger cars, law, insurance, for-profit management, finance, banking, auditing and accounting.
In addition to expanding its governing Board, the Foundation has added senior staff leadership by appointing Elizabeth (Betsy) Smith as its Executive Director. With a background of almost 15 years of business transactional, insurance, non-profit, and securities law as a partner at Ice Miller LLP in Indianapolis, and almost 13 years of fundraising experience as the Director of Philanthropy of the Indiana Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, she brings non-profit management, fundraising, and legal expertise to the Foundation.
Smith joins Ellen Bireley, Museum Director and a Museum employee for more than 20 years, in taking steps to capitalize on the Museum's extensive and valuable collections to educate the public about Indiana's motorsports and automotive histories.
