Sam Kephart is Executive Producer and CEO for Virtual Acumen Corp., an independent media production and marketing consulting firm, based in Spearfish, South Dakota.

More than 60,000 RN’s and MD's worldwide have taken a 45-hour, 64 CEU online course, entitled ECCO, that Sam created and built from scratch for the American Association of Critical Care Nurses.

Over the last thirty years, Sam has hosted and/or produced over two hundred and fifty TV projects, including a documentary, cable programs, commercials, corporate overviews, training videos, new technology introductions, and a music video which ran on VH-1.

In the fall of 1980, Sam shot a pilot, with his same DIrector Ed Keyes, for a weekly talk show series he hosted and produced called Inward Bound..., which covered self-esteem psychology, motivation, positive communications, and alternative healthcare approaches. The show ran in San Diego from 1981-1985 and was seen on Sunday nights at 9 PM;136 half hour episodes were produced in the series.

His other productions have covered a wide variety of subject matter, from the Cowboy Artists of America to San Diego: Technology’s Perfect Climate. He has also created a range of video programs for several noted platform speakers, including Dr. Anthony Alessandra, Anthony Robbins, Brian Tracy, Denis Waitley, Marshall Sylver, and author and alternative healing expert, Dr. Deepak Chopra.

Over the last 17 years, Sam has pursued strategic relationships within the internet technology industry. He’s been a former member of the San Diego Digital Multimedia Association and was a Board member, past President, and past Chairman.

In addition, Sam Co-Produced and Co-Hosted a weekly internet radio show entitled Science and Society (formerly BioTech Today) and conducted more than 400 interviews. His guests were C-Level executives, partners, lead researchers, and key academicians in the areas of biotech, pharma, biomedical devices, nanotechnology, physics, and space sciences.

Sam regularly coaches and mentors early stage companies.

From May 2007 through early June 2008, Sam ran in the Republican primary race in South Dakota for the United States Senate.

He didn’t win, however, he managed to garner 24.5% of the statewide vote on a roughly $60,000 dollar budget... an accomplishment for someone who had never run for anything previously. Sam got quite a “peek” behind the curtain of power.

For a six month period in 2013 - 2014, Sam acted as a contract VP-Marketing and then Interim President/CEO for the World Trade Center San Diego. The WTCSD was Southern California’s leading international trade association.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Sam spent his summers as a teenager working on his family’s Bar N Ranch in West Yellowstone, Montana, where he learned to ride, herd cattle, cut firewood, and fix lots of barb wire fence.

Person of the Year 2016: The Russian Hacker

In the past year, the world was introduced to a suspect for all seasons and purposes; an interloper so slippery he has yet to be positively identified. Yet, like Sasquatch, Loch Ness and UFOs, we know he is out there, lurking, and laughing at us all.