2018 DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD

Mike Collison (BS ’91)

Mike Collison credits his accounting degree from Central with launching him on a career he never imagined as a student.

Collison serves as the vice president and chief financial officer of The Oklahoma

Publishing Company – OPUBCO, which is a subsidiary of The Anschutz Group, based in Denver, Colorado. The Anschutz Group has businesses throughout the world and employs more than 50,000 people. OPUBCO was locally known for owning The Oklahoman, until late September when the paper was sold to Gatehouse

Media. OPUBCO, however, always has been a diversified holding company with varied interests. Current holdings include hotels, water rights, real estate, recreational railroads and breakfast food manufacturing. OPUBCO’s largest and most well-known asset is The Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs.

Collison began his career in 1989 as an auditor with the accounting firm Arthur Andersen. He became a Certified Public Accountant in 1993, joining OPUBCO in 1995.

Today, Collison serves on the board of trustees for the Oklahoma City Community Foundation and is an honorary trustee of the UCO Foundation Board of Trustees, both of which facilitate charitable funding and support to the Oklahoma City and UCO communities, respectively.

He and his wife, Stephanie, enjoy volunteering at Heritage Hall High School in Oklahoma City where their youngest daughter, Tori, is a senior. Sydney, their oldest daughter, is a UCO nursing student, and middle daughter, Macy, is a childhood education junior at Oklahoma State University.

Collison encourages UCO students and alumni alike to get involved with the university, however that may be.

“You never know when a five-minute phone call will provide you an opportunity to serve the university in ways you did not think possible!”